High School Book List

Bill Bennett has a list of books that high school kids should have read before graduating. Let's review with snarky comments. As I have admitted before, I ain't no reader...

-Shakespeare's plays, especially "Macbeth" and "Hamlet." What exactly is the point of reading a play? Rent a DVD.
-"Huckleberry Finn," Good, fun, and worth reading. Hope the loony left doesn't ban it.
- Homer's "Odyssey" and "Iliad." The Odyssey would make a good Ray Harryhausen movie.
- Dickens's "Great Expectations" and "Tale of Two Cities." Yawnfests.
- Plato's "Republic." Selected parts ok.
- John Steinbeck's "Grapes of Wrath." Ok, but over the top. The nursing scene at the end? Puh-lease.
- Nathaniel Hawthorne's "Scarlet Letter." I rather liked it. The book doesn't have Meg Foster's eyes though.
- Sophocles' "Oedipus." Nope.
- Melville's "Moby Dick." Good. I especially liked the cytology chapters.
- Orwell's "Nineteen Eighty-Four." We read Brave New World. Was ok, don't remember much.
- Thoreau's "Walden." Didn't make it through the whole thing. Nice pond though. I've been there a few times.
- The poems of Robert Frost. A favorite.
- Whitman's "Leaves of Grass." Didn't like it.
- F. Scott Fitzgerald's "Great Gatsby." Liked it. Short. Modern.
- Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales." Hard to read. Wasn't worth the effort.
- Marx's "Communist Manifesto." Very interesting. Striking how much of his game plan has come to pass here in the USA.
- Aristotle's "Politics." No idea.
- The poems of Emily Dickinson. Very good.
- Dostoyevsky's "Crime and Punishment." Life is too short.
- The novels of William Faulkner. I've read a short story or two. Pretty good.
- J. D. Salinger's "Catcher in the Rye." Two words: Cliff's notes.
- De Tocqueville's "Democracy in America." Excerpts. Good.
- Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice." If the bookw are so good, why do we need several Austen movies every year?
- The essays and poems of Ralph Waldo Emerson. Boring.
- Machiavelli's "Prince." Excerpts. Why read it? You can sum it up in a sentence or two.
- Milton's "Paradise Lost." Nope.
- Tolstoy's "War and Peace." See Crime and Punishment.
- Virgil's "Aeneid." Mr Bennett loves his classics, huh?

I think Bill Bennett's critics have a point. This selection is stale and dry. Most of this might have been a nice selection for students at Roxbury Latin 100+ years ago, but today it is horribly limited and dated. What's more, the chances of many high school kids reading through this selection is slim to none. Any high school teacher who has this as his reading list is seriously out of touch and doomed to fail!

Ann say: my bro and I went to an excellent high school, so, which one of these books did I actually have to read in high school? Very, very few:
NO Shakespeare's plays, especially "Macbeth" and "Hamlet."
NO "Huckleberry Finn,"
NO Homer's "Odyssey" and "Iliad."
NO "Great Expectations" and YES "Tale of Two Cities."
NO John Steinbeck's "Grapes of Wrath."
YES Nathaniel Hawthorne's "Scarlet Letter."
NO Sophocles' "Oedipus."
YES Melville's "Moby Dick."
NO Orwell's "Nineteen Eighty-Four."
NO Thoreau's "Walden."
Probably one The poems of Robert Frost.
NO Whitman's "Leaves of Grass."
NO F. Scott Fitzgerald's "Great Gatsby."
Yes, a little Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales."
Yes, in Poli Sci Marx's "Communist Manifesto."
NO Aristotle's "Politics."
A few The poems of Emily Dickinson.
NO Dostoyevsky's "Crime and Punishment."
NO The novels of William Faulkner.
NO J. D. Salinger's "Catcher in the Rye."
NO De Tocqueville's "Democracy in America."
NO! Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice."
NO The essays and poems of Ralph Waldo Emerson.
Yes, in Poli Sci Machiavelli's "Prince."
NO Milton's "Paradise Lost."
a an optional assignment in sophmore history Tolstoy's "War and Peace."
NO Virgil's "Aeneid."

Since then, I've read others--Huck Finn while waiting for a computer to spit out my graduate research results, Great Gatsby about a year ago. Jane Austen, of course (and went on to found the Derbyshire Writers' Guild and run Austen.com.)