Many of you would have been introduced to reading at a young age, and most probably at school. The books on this list are some of the most popular books which are read in schools, as voted for by those who had to read them.
8 Best Books You Were Forced To Read In School
1. The Giver – Lois Lowry
(As featured in 8 Top Contenders For The Best Book You’ll Ever Read)
Jonas lives in a perfect world where war, disease, and suffering have all been eradicated. The people have no worries or cares. The Community strives for “sameness,” in which everyone and everything are the same and equal. To help the Community function as a cohesive unit, each member is assigned a position in society. When Jonas turns twelve, the Community selects him to be the new “Receiver of Memories.” Only the “Giver” knows the truth and memories of the past, and now he must pass these memories on to Jonas.
2. The Outsiders – S. E. Hinton
This book, which was written in the 1960’s, may have well been written today. It describes the many conflicts between gangs, social groups, family violence, and friends.
3. To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee
(As featured in15 Books Everyone Should Read At Least Once In Their Life)
From the opening line, “When he was nearly thirteen, my brother Jem got his arm badly broken at the elbow…” Lee hooks the reader with a deceptively simple story of a Southern family and a Southern town caught up in a cataclysmic moral crisis, and keeps us enthralled till the very last word.
4. Of Mice and Men – John Steinbeck
(As featured in 8 Outstanding Classic Books Which Are Easy To Read)
This is a controversial tale of friendship and tragedy during the Great Depression that many young adults were forced to read in school.
They are an unlikely pair: George is “small and quick and dark of face”; Lennie, a man of tremendous size, has the mind of a young child. Yet they have formed a “family,” clinging together in the face of loneliness and alienation.
5. Night – Elie Wiesel
(As featured in 12 Books That Will Make You Feel Extreme Emotions)
Elie Wiesel’s narrative of his own one-year experience spent in a concentration camp has appropriately become a classic in the field. Read it to find meaning in a seeming meaningless life.
6. Hatchet – Gary Paulsen
If you’re tired of reading boring books, then you should definitely read Hatchet by Gary Paulsen. This book is about a 13 year old boy named Brian Robeson who goes to visit his father after his parents get divorced. On the way there, the pilot suffers a major heart attack and the plane crashes. Brian makes it out alive and he has to survive alone by making fire, cooking fish, and hunting meat until a rescue plane finds him. But will Brian be rescued?
7. Animal Farm – George Orwell
(As featured in 8 Most Influential Books Under 100 Pages)
If like me you were forced to read this in high school and therefore hated it, I urge you to read it again. George Orwell found an incredible way to show how the power structures of the world work, how revolutions come about and how absolute power can corrupt, absolutely.
8. Lord of the Flies – William Golding
(As featured in Nobel Prize in Literature: 6 Classic Winners You Must Read)
Lord of the Flies is much more than an adventure story about good little boys. It is an exploration into the darker side of man and the true source of the “beast,” or the Devil.