by Yummy Men and Kick Ass Chicks
This is an interesting yet difficult question for me to answer seeing how I went to a French school. Most of the books that I read you’ve probably never even heard of unless you’re francophone. My English classes were a joke. I remember writing my language entrance exam for college and some of the questions went a little like this:
1. A blind man can not:
a) Talk
b) Hear
c) See
2. What colour is an orange?
a) Red
b) Orange
c) Blue
Ridiculous, right? Needless to say, I made it into the advanced French class…
Anyway, I only read a handful of English books in high school and most of them were grade school level. My English teacher used to ask me to translate words for him. I could have taught the class, seriously. This week’s question is asking me to really dig into my memory archives (a side effect of being 30) and the only two books that I’ve managed to come up with are Lord of the Flies by William Golding and The Tale of the Body Thief by Anne Rice. I remember the latter vividly because when “thief” is pronounced with a French accent it comes out as “teeth”. It took me several classes to figure out what the heck my teacher was talking about. Heuh, someone is stealing teeth? What kind of story is this!?
What about you?
| What Books Do You Remember Reading In High School? |
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I review Urban Fantasy and Paranormal Romance books with a focus all things werewolf. Based out of Ottawa, Canada
Owner, designer and main blogger behind Rabid Reads. Avid book reader, snowboard bunny, video gamer and Supernatural fan. I love all things paranormal, werewolves especially. Oh, and I’m Canadian, eh!
“Heuh, someone is stealing teeth? What kind of story is this!?” LMAO!!!
Our French and Spanish lessons weren’t very good because we are always taught it too late over here in the UK. I can understand some German words, but that is because they sound or are spelt similar to the English words and because I come from Derbyshire, we have some dialects and ways of pronouncing words that are strange to outsiders which have Danish or Scandinavian origin. Because of that, I can read Norse Mythology and be able to pronounce some of the words. When it comes to French, but I’m far worse with Spanish, most of the time I can’t pronounce the words. I think it’s a problem that a lot of people have because we aren’t taught other languages at an age when we are able to pick them up easily. As for reading a book in French or Spanish or any other language other than English, that is something I can’t do.
I remember reading The Midnight Fox by Betsy Byers, The Outsiders by S E Hinton, Gowie Corby Plays Chicken by Gene Kemp, Badger on the Barge by Janni Howker and Friend or Foe by Michael Morpurgo. There is another book I remember reading about a boy who breaks into his school with some older lads and steals a TV, but I can’t remember what it is called.
I remember reading Macbeth and Romeo and Juliet. Lord of the Flies, To Kill a Mockingbird, A Boy’s Life by Robert McCammon, and Huck Finn. I’m sure there were others (including a textbook every year), but my school didn’t read many of the books that you’d think you should read during high school.
Lord Of The Flies, To Kill A Mockingbird, Romeo and Juliet, Huck Finn, The Hobbit trilogy by Tolkein and since it has been 32 years since graduation that is all my memory can recall right now.
@Julie Hehe I’m here all day. Please tip if you enjoy the show. 😉
@carnivoran Ha! Sounds like your languages in school are even more screwed up than mine were! How confusing!
@Randi Sadly, I haven’t read any of those other than Lord of the Flies. It’s sad because they’re all classics.
@Jackie Burris I’m not a fan of Tolkien’s books. I would have hated if they’d made me read them in school. Luckily the writing is far too advanced for the French school system. 😛
I read Virginia Andrews, stealing copies of Flowers in the Attic and Dark Angel from my mom and sister.
I haven’t read Anne Rice in a long time.
I remember reading East of Eden and Shakespeare works in high school.
That’s so cool that you went to school in France! And those questions really are ridiculous. That’s nice that you could come up with a few books though. I’ve never heard of The Tale of the Book Theif (or Teeth, haha), but I read The Lord of the Flies a few years ago. It was actually one of the only school books that I really enjoyed, probably my favorite school book in fact. It was exciting and really scary to think that our society could revert to such gruesome, primitive behavior like that. And poor Piggy. 🙁 You probably don’t remember much of it though, so I’ll stop ranting haha.
The Hobbit, The Great Gatsby, Les Miserables, Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, The Taming of the Shrew, Julius Caeser, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Tom Sawyer, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, War of the Worlds, Of Nightingales That Weep, The Last Unicorn, And Miles to Go, Have Spacesuit Will Travel, The Number of the Beast, And the Gods Themselves, The Ship that Sang,
and whole whole bunch more I don’t feel like typing out.
@emmameade.com It’s been ages since I read an Anne Rice book too but I’m really tempted by her latest werewolf book!
@Julie@My5monkeys I don’t even think I’ve read one Shakespeare story. How sad…
@Linny @ Linnys Literature Actually, I live in Québec Canada and it’s very French. No trip to France required. However, that doesn’t mean that I wouldn’t turn down the chance to go!
@Kalex Wow, you either recently graduated from high school or have an awesome memory. 😛