Welcome back everyone!
I love to read, but I don’t have time to read for pleasure as much as I would like to. Luckily, I’ve actually really enjoyed most of the books I’ve read in my English classes throughout high school so far. Since we’ve only read two books so far this year, I figured I would only rank the ones from ninth grade. I know it’s not a lot, but ninth grade is the only year without summer reading, and we also read a lot of short stories (my favorite was A Cask of Amontillado by Edgar Allen Poe).
5. The Odyssey by Homer – We didn’t read the full thing in class, we only read excerpts from our textbook. I think that’s why I didn’t really enjoy it; if I read the piece as a whole and in order, I could probably connect to it more and make more sense of it. I usually enjoy Greek mythology, but I’d never read a formal work like this. It was also the first thing we read at the beginning of freshman year, so I don’t particularly remember it.
4. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck – This book just made me sad. That’s pretty much it; I felt for the characters and I thought it was interesting insight into the harsh realities of a working man’s life during those times, but it was too short for me to get really invested. That being said, I can’t imagine writing a meaningful/classic story in so few pages, so I’m in awe of Steinbeck for that.
3. Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare – I know it’s a play, but we read it in book form. It’s obviously a classic that everyone knows and I personally enjoy Shakespeare, so this was pretty enjoyable for me. It just didn’t excite me that much since I already had the basic plot points outlined in my head. It was an easy read at the end of the year after we finished A Tale of Two Cities.
2. A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens – This was extremely difficult to understand (shoutout to the Spark Notes line by line translation that I would read alongside my book) but one of the most exciting books I’ve ever read. I wasn’t expecting to like it since it was the most challenging book of the year and there was a lot to keep track of, but I came to love every twist and turn. The ending saddened me a bit, but I think it tied the many plot lines up well.
1.To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee – I loved this book. It was the first “classic” I’d read that I actually understood (it was towards the beginning of the year too), and I think it’s important for everyone to read it. I grew close to the characters while reading, and I liked the emphasis on law and the court process since one of my (possible) dream jobs is being a lawyer.
I feel silly ranking these books since they’re all extremely famous classics that you guys probably know and have read as well, but I figured I would give my input in case any freshmen are curious as to what you might read this year, or any middle schoolers are looking ahead. I might make one of these ranking books I’ve read in middle school, as my middle school English teachers actually picked some great books for us to read.
-Brooke
adventures of a typical high school student 