If you were a high school English teacher, which books would you require reading? - Teachers IRL should chime in

[Meat Target]

Let's say you, an undercover operative of the Read Another Book Foundation, have been hired to teach literature. I'd keep Orwell included, just as a baby's-first-redpill.

Once that's out of the way, here would be my curriculum:

• Blood Meridian (I'd allow the students to listen to this one on audio, since McCarthy's autistic punctuation allergy makes hard copies virtually unreadable).
• Catch-22
• A Confederacy of Dunces
• Excerpts from The Gulag Archpelago
• The Hobbit

 

[LolRaccoon]

Ulysses just to screw with them.

 

[Fetish Roulette]

• Finnegan's Wake, for similar reasons as the poster above me.
• Some kind of Ayn Rand to inspire class discussion. Probably Anthem, because it's shortest.
• Elie Wiesel's Night, in the hopes that it inspires them to reflect on how the problems we have today really aren't that bad.
• To Kill A Mockingbird, because everyone should read it before they graduate high school and I don't know how much longer I'm going to be able to get away with it.
• The Shakespeare nobody knows about or reads, like Timon of Athens or 12th Night.
• Johnny Got His Gun, for obvious reasons.
• Something fun to cap it all off. Maybe Brave New World or Dubliners?

 

[Lord of the Large Pants]

Lord of the Flies is really the only one you need.

 

[Not Really Here]

Starship Troopers-Robert A. Heinlein
The Weapon-Michael Williamson
The Merchants' War-Frederik Pohl
Atlas Shrugged-Ayn Rand(because fuck you read it child)
Second Variety-Philip K. Dick
Propaganda-Edward Bernays

 

[Gar For Archer]

• Finnegan's Wake, for similar reasons as the poster above me.
• Some kind of Ayn Rand to inspire class discussion. Probably Anthem, because it's shortest.
• Elie Wiesel's Night, in the hopes that it inspires them to reflect on how the problems we have today really aren't that bad.
• To Kill A Mockingbird, because everyone should read it before they graduate high school and I don't know how much longer I'm going to be able to get away with it.
• The Shakespeare nobody knows about or reads, like Timon of Athens or 12th Night.
• Johnny Got His Gun, for obvious reasons.
• Something fun to cap it all off. Maybe Brave New World or Dubliners?

Looking back, I do appreciate my high school reading list a lot more, because we had to read about half of those, plus some other classics that were pretty good.

 

[DumbDude42]

tarrants manifesto

 

[Dyn]

- Rules for Radicals
- Communist Manifesto
- Practical Explosives and Homemade Bombs

That's all.

 

[Madre Muerte]

Now save the flag! Newspaper

 

[verissimus]

Animal Farm
Nineteen Eighty-Four

 

[SeniorFuckFace]

The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy

 

[(not) y2k compliant]

 

[BingBong]

the captain underpants series

 

[Coelacanth]

1984 because redpill.
I'd keep one of the 2spooky Victorian classics - most likely Dracula - and then follow that up with a more modern horror writer such as Stephen King to show how requirements for stories (such as what counts as "scary") have changed over the years.
The Lord of the Rings Trilogy to teach about how books are adapted for the big screen - maybe even show them the script for the movies to teach them about scriptwriting.
And for those who have a keen interest in writing I'd give How Not to Write a Novel.

The only author that I will never ever subject a student to is Thomas Hardy - the best example of a soyboy Victorian incel. Fuck him and everything he's ever written.

 

[mr.moon1488]

Mein Kampf

 

[A Fucking Leafeon]

The complete works of H.P. Lovecaft.

 

[Tism the Return]

Elliot Rodger's manifesto.

 

[Techpriest]

The autobiography of Timothy Dexter, one of the first “viral” novels in American history.

Its probably the worst attempt at writing to ever be published. It’s called “A Pickle for the Knowing Ones” and is without a doubt, one of the strangest thing I have ever read. It’s available online for free.

 

[Mnutu]

Lolita

 

[Car Won't Crank]

The Count of Monte Cristo and the entire One Piece manga series however long that is