Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, something about it made me feel a profound sadness that still sticks with me today. I red this all the way back in high school as part of class reading. The fact I still think about that book today means my teacher was cooking, I hope he knows he made an impression on me, I wish I could tell him.

I read The Giver in the sixth grade and it blew my mind a little bit. I think it was the first time I was exposed to the concept of a dystopian society and it was very interesting to me. Then later in 10th grade I read Catch-22 for a book report and that is definitely up there too.

Probably Fahrenheit 451.

The way that book predicted and depicted streaming as a vapid activity that will make you numb is what stuck with me most both then and now.

Of Mice and Men. Reading this very much shaped what I enjoy out of a book ever since.

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I liked Shakespeare - Hamlet, MacBeth, Julius Caesar, The Merchant of Venice, The Tempest. Probably year 10 or 11. Also Animal Farm.

I didn’t care much for Lord of the Flies, or My Family and Other Animals. Probably year 9.

Others I remember fondly were The Silver Sword and Stig of the Dump, from year 5.

I only read the Old Man and the Sea later as an adult, along with other Hemingway books which I enjoyed.

I quite liked the short stories with illustrations in the textbooks.

Specifically the spooky ones. Illustrated by the guy who did the covers for “scary stories to tell in the dark”. Stephen Gammell I remember reading them over and over.

The ones that look like runny black ink. Terrifying.

As for high school level. Honestly I remember a few required readings and not liking them.
Middlesex , thought it would be interesting but it was just like listening to someone’s mental train of thought and was super boring. And catcher n the rye. Super boring about an incel. I probably would have liked the Great Gatsby then, but I only read it after high school.

I was super into fantasy and horror in high school so I didn’t care much for anything else.

The Outsiders.

I read it twice in school, 5th and 7th grade. I loved that it was written by a teenager for teenagers. It taught me that everyone struggles, everyone is fighting something, and outside appearances are nearly always deceiving. Some of the toughest looking people out there are the most sensitive and kind.

I don’t think I would have been as open minded about different ‘cliques’ as a teen if I hadn’t read it, and that translated into being more accepting of people from all walks of life as I became an adult.

I also loved To Kill a Mockingbird, and I mention it because I took away a lot of the same lessons as well as a stronger sense of justice and integrity through the story.

The Great Gatsby. Its last page makes a killing, pun intended.

The Grapes of Wrath.

MAN, that book was NOT what I thought it would be.

Bradbury’s Martian Chronicles.

I was on the verge of ditching books altogether as we were only given books with stories or characters I didn’t care for at all or that I didnt engage with.

Then I picked the Martian Chronicles and that book elicited colours and images. I didn’t really understand the subtext at the time but the poetic impression it left in me was so powerful I started to read books with joy. Always chasing the poetry, rhythm, feelings I once felt.

The only book I loved reading for school was Das Versprechen by Dürrenmatt. At the time I didn’t go to school very often, so that might have helped. Schools have a tendency to kill all excitement one might have for a topic.

The book also has a pretty good movie with Jack Nicholson.

shakespeare’s measure for measure had a big impact on me as a high-schooler

Great Expectations. I actually developed a liking of Dickens from school, I don’t get the “sentimentality” arguments people make about his writing, a lot of his stories are rawand visceral critiques of Victorian Britain.

Lord of the Rings and The Magician’s Nephew