What did they make you read in school?

cautioner

So I was recently informed I'll be reading Frank O Connor's "My Oedipus Complex" for comparative study in English.

I'm disappointed; it's an anthology of short stories, and I was looking forward to getting my teeth into something a bit weightier. I dunno... I was really anticipating getting a chance to read something as brilliant as To Kill A Mockingbird, which I did for the Junior Cert, or Of Mice and Men, which my brother did for his Leaving and which is one of my favourite books of all time. It just doesn't seem like I can get that kind of kick out of lots of short stories.

Anyone have a book they studied that they still treasure? Or did you have to suffer through something that wasn't really your thing?

Red Hand

I did "How many miles to Babylon?" by Jennifer Johnston. I've read it a few times since, great book.

HalloweenJack

We were given a reading list in fourth year and I only read a few of them.
Some of them were very good like Cancer Ward, Ivan Denisovich, Virgin Suicides and Catch 22. Unfortunately, I also read a few bombs like Curious Incident of the Dog...

hatful

I read what my teacher wanted us to for the purpose of class discussion and then went ahead and studied, catcher in the rye, the pearl, of mice and men and lord of the flies for the leaving cert paper. If you dislike their choices so much pick something else on the department of education reading list.

turrant

"Lies of Silence" and "how many miles to Babylon"

~The silence in here could deafen a body~

Thats what i remeber of "how many miles to babylon" I also saw the film at school

KnifeWRENCH

For Junior Cert we did "To Kill A Mockingbird" and tbh I wasn't that mad about it. So many people regard it as one of the greatest novels ever, but I just wasn't blown away by it. We also did "The Field" - good enough play and easy to answer on!

For Leaving Cert we did "Macbeth" as a single text and "How Many Miles To Babylon?" and "Juno And The Paycock" for the comparitive (we also did the film "My Left Foot" for comparitive)
I have to say I did enjoy Macbeth, but I didn't particularly enjoy learning off the big long quotes or answering full essays.
"How Many Miles..." I thought was dull, but it does have a very good ending.
"Juno And The Paycock" - meh. It was what it was, I could take it or leave it tbh.

Of all the texts we did throughout English, "Macbeth" was my favourite (and the only one I still remember quotes from.) I haven't read any other Shakespeare, but I know there's an old copy of "The Merchant of Venice" lying around somewhere at home. I'll probably read it at some point.

megadodge

See my signature below and figure out what author/playwright I will never, ever, ever read again !!

The utter uselessness of all those wasted classes.

Diamond007

For LC I read Macbeth as my single text, Wuthering Heights and Death and Nightingales. For the film I watched The Witness.

IvyTheTerrible

We had "To Kill a Mockingbird" and "Romeo and Juliet" for the JC. I loved TKAM before we studied it to death...I read it again when I finished school and loved it again.

For the LC, we did Silas Marner (which i HATED - everything that happens in the novel is written in the blurb, the rest is just a lecture on morality), Othello (loved it) and The Glass menagerie (also loved it).

Eoin

How was it done again - modern novel & play, and classic novel & play?

I think we had Death of a Salesman, Hamlet as our plays and Lord of the Flies and a Portrait of the artist as our novels. Absolutely hated Portrait, but enjoyed the others.

rvd156

Compartive: How many miles to babylon & Of mice and Men

Text King Lear

Film Witness

Delirium

The books I did in secondary school were, To Kill a Mockingbird, Huck Finn, King Lear, Through the Barricades, Merchant of Venice and Tarry Flynn.

Really enjoyed To Kill a Mockingbird and King Lear. Actually got to go see King Lear performed with the school.

peanuthead

Single text was Jane Eyre, was grand.

Our comparative was Othello and the file The Third Man.

Poetry: Seamus Heaney, Eavan Boland, Emily Dickinson, Sylvia Plath.

I loved it all, and would read them all again. Mind you, I am an english teacher now!!:p

Eoin

koth wrote: »

Actually got to go see King Lear performed with the school.

That reminds me, we got to see Hamlet a few times as well, including a very odd interpretation on late night C4 that our teacher had recorded but not watched before showing us. He turned it off quick enough.

bigmouth

In answer to your question, absolutely hated the Grass is Singing by Doris Lessing. I enjoy reading but this so tedious in terms of description, completely overdone - was like pulling teeth. I just felt sorry for the guys in my class that would struggle to read the back of the cereal box.

It did have it's moments though, in particular a description of a snake in the grass which had the class in fits of laughter, not so much to do with the passage itself, but more to do with poor teacher who was so innocent she read it aloud completely unaware of the sniggering and laughing.

We covered December Bride, The Grass is Singing and A Room with a View for the comparative study. King Lear was our Shakespeare play which I really enjoyed. For the JC we covered To Kill a Mockingbird which I thoroughly enjoyed, must actually re-read it. Also read Goodnight Mr. Tom in first year, what a lovely, lovely story!

BTW, I envy anyone who got to do Of Mice and Men - brilliant!

BossArky

• Lord of the Flies
• To Kill A Mocking Bird
• Othello
• Silas Marner :eek: :mad:

When I was in 1st year of secondary school my maths teacher took the Hobbit from me as I was reading that down the back of class :pac:

BroomBurner

Also covered How Many Miles to Babylon, thought it was a great read. It was part of the comparitive study with a book set in a monastry, can anyone remember the name of it? The book had been banned from Ireland for years because of a line in it about the

main character catching her father in a loving embrace with a man.

HalloweenJack

There were actually a few other books we read that I didn't remember.

One book I really liked was Wuthering Heights. I didn't think I'd like books from that age but it was really fascinating.

Blisterman

Silas Marner - Not Bad, but nothing special
Wuthering Heights - Bored the hell out of me.
MacBeth - Never really liked Shakespear

And for the Film
Cinema Paradiso- Great film. Why we studied an Italian movie in English class, I don't really understand.

So, overall, I never really liked the books in my leaving cert. At least with Short stories, if you don't like one, you won't spend too much time on it.

tSubh Dearg

For the LC we had:
Hamlet (Shakespeare) - Not bad, but I would've prefered MacBeth
Death of a Salesman (Miller) - Excellent, really enjoyed this
Playboy of the Western World (Synge) - Not bad, must read it again
Handful of Dust (Waugh) - Really enjoyed this
Lord of the Flies (Golding) - Another one I really enjoyed
Emma (Austen) - Boring and tedious
Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (Joyce) - Couldn't get into it

For the Junior Cert we had; Romeo & Juliet and Pride and Prejudice. I really enjoyed both of them, which is why I was so disappointed by Emma.

We also read Dubliners by James Joyce in 4th year which I also really enjoyed.

IvyTheTerrible

BroomBurner wrote: »

Also covered How Many Miles to Babylon, thought it was a great read. It was part of the comparitive study with a book set in a monastry, can anyone remember the name of it? The book had been banned from Ireland for years because of a line in it about the

main character catching her father in a loving embrace with a man.

Was that the Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco?

Malari

We did To Kill A Mockingbird for Junior Cert, which I did love. Hard Times for Leaving Cert...and how!!

We also got a list of 100 or so classics to read in our own time or to pick for book reviews in 2nd year. I thought it was a good idea, I read some fantastic novels like Catcher in the Rye, Catch 22, 1984, Animal Farm, Lord of the Flies that I might not otherwise have picked up until years later. However it meant I also wasted my time on The Old Man and the Sea!!

BroomBurner

IvyTheTerrible wrote: »

Was that the Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco?

No, that doesn't sound familiar Thanks though. I may have to do an obscure Google search...

mentonaintamint

For the Leaving Cert:

Wuthering Heights
Othello
Philidelphia, Here I Come!

I loved them all, but I can see why people start to dread set texts, especially if you've a teacher who doesn't seem to understand them (I don't mean interpreted them differently, I mean literally didn't know the plot or recognise the words) yet insists that their view is the definitive one. Like so much in the Irish education system there's no room for individual opinions.

Leaving cert poetry was Derek Mahon, Adrienne Rich, Sylvia Plath, John Montague and Eavan Boland, who was the only one I didn't warm to at all.

Did The Field, Romeo and Julliet, Lord of the Flies and The Old Man and the Sea for the Junior cert. I think the fact that I still read them all for pleasure shows that the experience wasn't totally negative!

DesignLady

Summer of my German Soldier in first year - It made me cry

To Kill a Mocking Bird and Merchant of Venice, -JC -loved both of them, worked in Venice for a few months last year for an atelier that made the central Carnival costumes and was near the old jewish quarter and constantly thought about that play (I was living close to the university in Padua too so complete Merchant of Venice immersion)

Lord of the Flies, Hamlet, Playboy of the Western World and The Pearl -LC
Hated The Pearl- most depressing story ever.

I can still recite complete passages from Hamlet and the Merchant of Venice. It works best as a drunk party piece among those of the same age who studied the plays.

(That book wouldn't have been In the Name of the Rose btw. Just read it a couple of weeks ago - really enjoyed it- but no such scene)

ahaaha

my LC teacher didnt give us one sheet of recommended reading. loved Hamlet, hated Playboy. if i could burn every copy of emma i would - i read the whole book aloud for my class as i was a 'nice, fast, reader'. result?? i havent a clue what really happened as i was concentrating so much on gettin d bloody thing right. but that emma was some muppet of a woman!

my JC teacher was unreal, always encouraging us to read - the pearl, the quay, goodnight Mr Tom, to kill a mockingbird and merchant of venice - loved em all. thanks mrs mc!!

Bansheewails

Playboy of the wetern world - ok
Persuasion - absolutely awful, the worst ever, never read an austen book again.

Hrududu

my LC teacher didnt give us one sheet of recommended reading. loved Hamlet, hated Playboy. if i could burn every copy of emma i would - i read the whole book aloud for my class as i was a 'nice, fast, reader'. result?? i havent a clue what really happened as i was concentrating so much on gettin d bloody thing right. but that emma was some muppet of a woman!

I did Playboy and Emma too. I hated Playboy of the Western World with a passion. And Emma Woodhouse was a nosy b!tch. It put me off Austen for years.

ahaaha

Hrududu wrote: »

I did Playboy and Emma too. I hated Playboy of the Western World with a passion. And Emma Woodhouse was a nosy b!tch. It put me off Austen for years.

so true - she gave women a bad name!!

Monkey61

1st year - The Silver Sword - the kind of book teachers think kids should read
2nd year - Huck Finn - ties with Hard Times for my most hated book of all time!
3rd year - To Kill A Mockingbird - flawless I suppose, but I wouldn't read it again
4th year - The Pearl - of all the Steinbeck, a poor choice I thought
5th year - How many miles to Babylon - words can't describe how much I hate this
6th year - Philadelphia here I come - meh

We didn't get to do a novel in 6th year because my English teacher thought the majority of the class were too thick to read a whole book...although she was right, I'm quite shocked that she actually said that to me.

We also did Romeo and Juliet and Hamlet - both of which I adore.

Sad Professor

For JC I remember reading To Kill a Mocking Bird, Julius Caesar, Great Expectations and Death of a Salesman. At the time I loved them all except for Shakespeare and Dickens. Although I went back to Great Expectations a year after and really enjoyed it.

With the exception of Philadelphia Here I Come, all the texts we did for LC (Lies of Silence, My Left Foot, etc) seem pretty forgettable now and unworthy of study.