Tuesday, October 15, 2013

Top Ten Tuesday (Forced Reads)




This week’s Topic: Top Ten Books I Was Forced to Read

 
These are all books I had to read for school. I’ve listed these in order of how painful they were to read.


Top Ten Most Painful Forced Reads

1. Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad

2. The Red Badge of Courage, Stephen Crane

3. The Aeneid, Virgil

4. The Iliad, Homer

5. The Odyssey, Homer

6. The Stranger, Albert Camus

7. Macbeth, William Shakespeare

8. A Midsummer Night’s Dream, William Shakespeare

9. Hamlet, William Shakespeare

10. Leaves of Grass, Walt Whitman

 

Top Ten Not-So-Bad Forced Reads

1. To the Lighthouse, Virginia Woolf

2. Song of Solomon, Toni Morrison

3. Death of a Salesman, Arthur Miller

4. In Our Time, Ernest Hemingway

5. Dubliners, James Joyce

6. Great Expectations, Charles Dickens

7. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, James Joyce

8. To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee

9. As I Lay Dying, William Faulkner

10. The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck

4 comments:

  1. I forgot about The Iliad and The Odyssey. I was not a fan of either of these books at all. After I finished these books I had to go get the cliff notes just to understand the themes and what was happening.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I just couldn't get into mythology. At all! But recently my husband was recounting The Odyssey to our little grandson, and we was entralled. Maybe it's a guy thing. I wonder if they have a kids version?

      Delete
  2. You know, out of your 20 books I've only read 8! I did enjoy them for the most part, though Leaves Of Grass was an especial favorite of mine for some time. Interesting lists, I always forget the Greek classics (Odyssey, Iliad, Aeneid, etc.).

    My TTT:

    http://diamondinroughcoal.blogspot.com/2013/10/top-ten-tuesday-12-top-ten-books-i-was.html

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks, Anna. Greek Mythology will always stick with me as the greatest "forced" reads ever. I think I enjoyed Leaves of Grass, but it seemed interminable at the time. Wonder if I'd enjoy it more now?

      Delete