What books did you read while in school? Were there any that you particular liked, or even hated? Did any become lifelong favourites?
I was one of those girls who always had my nose in a book at school. Weirdly enough, though, my school didn't allow non-library books in the school premises, which I personally thought was unfair, but, there you have it. I've had a good number of books confiscated, and I had to plead to the teacher's better sense to have them back, because I wanted to know how the novels ended. What really did annoy me, though, was an English literature teacher confiscating my copy of The Poetry Of Robert Frost. I have always loved Frost, and I used to keep that in my bag at all times, just because Frost used to be my favourite poet. I never got that back, and that was the last time I ever took a non-library book to school. Being the stubborn teenager I was, I also stopped paying attention during English lessons (which was a pity, as I genuinely loved Eng Lit), and I started arguing with the teacher unnecessarily. However, in my defence, I still can't fathom why an English teacher would not be happy with a book of Frost poems!! At least I wasn't reading Mills & Boons or Danielle Steels or Sweet Valleys, or god knows what else!
Enough ranting, though.
We read a lot more short stories and poems than we did proper novels. We did read Little Women, but, it was the abridged version, and we didn't experience any of the tragedies the book had to offer. We also read a lot of Shakespeare, including A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Merchant Of Venice, and The Tempest. I tried to get my school do a play on Macbeth, but, to no avail. A pity, as Macbeth remains my favourite work by the great Bard of Stratford.
Outside school, my reading pattern continuously changed. While in junior school, I tried getting my hands on as many Enid Blytons and Roald Dahls as possible. I did read some of the children's classics (Tom Sawyer & Huck Finn, The Secret Garden, Uncle Tom's Cabin etc), but not as vociferously as I would have liked to. Middle school was mostly Nancy Drews, Hardy Boys, The Three Investigators, and the like, before slowly moving on to John Grisham, Jeffrey Archer, Arthur Hailey, Robin Cook and Ken Follet.
Only at the age of fourteen did I dive into better books, like, Catcher In The Rye, The Fountainhead, An Equal Music, Lust for Life, etc. I think this was my defining year in terms of books I read, and the shape my life as a reader was going to take. Yep, I did read my share of really bad books, including a couple of Sweet Valley Highs and Nancy Drew On Campus, but neither of them were for me. A pity as I was hooked on to the Nancy Drew Casefiles.
I can't really remember much of what I read after that, and I don't think I actually read in my final two years of school, as I was struggling to get a good grade to get into University, while simultaneously keeping on top of all the extracurricular activities I had so enthusiastically dived into. So, yeah - that's my school reading, in a nutshell.