2026-11-04 06:27 UTC
Replies (12)
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@yxc999@lemmy.ml 2026-11-04 06:40
In Germany not a single thing. We call ourselves “land of poets and thinkers” yet the books I had to read during my time in school only made most people despise books in general. What a joke.
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@DamienGramatacus@lemmy.world 2026-11-04 06:40
Earthsea is just great, totally worth revisiting. The first three are wonderful and self contained. I read 1984 for school. If you haven’t read it, it’s definitely worth it at least once.
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@LeapSecond@lemmy.zip 2026-11-04 08:38
We had classes where we analyzed parts of the Odyssey, Iliad and other ancient books/plays. I didn’t like most of them but at least the Odyssey deserves a full read at some point.
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@marcela@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2026-11-04 09:21
At this point you can use the banned books in the Krause list. Some of the best books ever are in there.
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@Jobe@feddit.org 2026-11-04 09:37
I never had to read Pride and Prejudice in school but it’s really good.
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@iamericandre@lemmy.world 2026-11-04 09:38
Top three: the crucible, things fall apart and to kill a mockingbird
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@TheLeadenSea@sh.itjust.works 2026-11-04 09:52
I also hated earthssea btw, didn’t even read it at school, just at recommendation from the internet. The style just didn’t vibe with me, I fear, it didn’t feel immersive or intricate in its worldbuilding because nothing was unsaid - at least, as far as I got to reading it before I put it down, it was just like a legend or something, and not s particularly interesting one.
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@dbtng@sh.itjust.works 2026-11-04 10:13
I got into reviewing a few classics. Charles Darwin, On the Origin of Species. Origin is a fascinating read. People give Galileo and Newton credit for founding true science and its methods, but Darwin earned credit too. He forced us all to understand that we are just animals, despite whatever the holy books say. That was a rough fight, and Darwin won. In so doing, he helped lay down the blueprint for how to do science. www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1228 Niccolò Machiavelli, The Prince. This is one of the most maligned pieces of literature ever written. It as coldly logical and sensible as could be imagined. Niccolò had some things to say, and whether or not you agree with his conclusions about how we should act, he is demonstrably correct about how we do act. This is a slim volume, written in direct language, doesn’t take too long to absorb. www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/57037 Johnathan Swift, A Modest Proposal One of the most famous essays ever written. Satire that skewers the causes of the famines in Ireland in the 1700s. Only a few pages long, it’s a master class in effective writing. www.gutenberg.org/files/1080/1080-h/1080-h.htm Dante Alighieri, The Inferno Officially known as The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, this is a trilogy about someone losing his way and going to hell. And back. The Inferno is the first book, and unsurprisingly, the Hell bit is the only part really worth reading. To be honest, even just The Inferno is hard slog. It’s supposed to be a poem, or at least be in verse of some sort. It was published in 1321. That’s a lot of language gap, they simply talked a lot different. Anyway this work is where an awful lot of our conceptions of heaven and hell came from. It’s worth the time, if you can stand the very, very old text. www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/41537
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@ladicius@lemmy.world 2026-11-04 11:43
Jane Eyre has very long sentences containing very entertaining dialogue. I like that. And there’s more or less subtle critique on the rich assholes of that era. If you want a modern and fun take on Jane Eyre: “The Eyre affair” by Jasper Fforde is a very funny and action rich read and the start of a series of very entertaining bikes about “book world”. Fforde really is in love with his topics and tropes and personnel, and it shows.
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@sylver_dragon@lemmy.world 2026-11-04 22:22
I hated pretty much every book I had to read for school. I realize that some of the classic literature is consider classic for very good reasons, but all it did to teenage me was turn me off classic literature. And seriously, fuck everything about Dickens. The only Great Expectations in that book were the expectations of the teachers that the students could stay awake and alert while slogging through it. That said, there are two common books in US high schools which I do think are worth a read: 1984 and A Brave New World. Neither should be particularly surprising, but both provide a good view into how a modern dystopian society might work. References also show up all over the place in modern society.
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@AstroLightz@lemmy.world 2026-11-05 05:46
I really enjoyed Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom in school and when I became an adult. It’s a very nice story about how you should value the time you have with others.
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@GalacticGrapefruit@lemmy.world 2026-11-05 13:56
Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli.