The recent death of "The Catcher in the Rye" author J.D. Salinger reminded me that I have not yet read the book. Though I hear mixed reviews from a lot of people, I feel like I should read it if I want to teach high school English with any sort of conviction.
Actually, now that I think about it, there are a lot of books I should read before I teach high school. Not that I didn't read any while at Holy Family (looking back on my yearly booklists reminds me that I did...and yes, I keep a list of all the books I read every year. I'm weird like that), it's just that there are so many. When I was in Joseph-Beth Booksellers the other day I came across a nice list of them. So I took that list and a list I made up while procrastinating during finals week and sort of combined them into the Ultimate High School Reading List. I plan to intersperse these novels with ones I read for the kiddies and for my own pleasure (though I haven't read for fun in a while, sadly).
- The Catcher in the Rye
- Beloved
- MacBeth
- something by Virginia Woolf
- A Tale of Two Cities
- Jane Eyre (finish)
- 1984
- Crime and Punishment
- The Scarlet Letter
- The Red Badge of Courage
- Heart of Darkness
- I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings
- Wuthering Heights
- Slaughterhouse Five
- Grapes of Wrath (finish)
- Catch-22 (finish)
- Walden
- East of Eden
- Moby Dick
- Frankenstien
- A Seperate Peace
- something by Hemingway
- All Quiet on the Western Front
Lists like this make me think that I'm a terrible English major and reading teacher. I swear though I have read good, important books.
Any others I should add to my list?
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