We have to read 4 books from the College Board AP reading list each semester, but I am not a huge fan of the classics so picking a book has been hard. My first two picks were Catch-22 and Slaughterhouse Five. I would prefer something from the 1950s and on but I’m not opposed to going outside of that time period either. I need something that’s fast paced and interesting too because I have ADHD and if nothing is happening in the book, I won’t keep reading lol. The list given by my teacher is below, I removed the two I already picked and a few that I absolutely will not read (Shakespeare, Canterbury Tales). Thanks for any recs!
Beowolf
Things Fall Apart
A Death in the Family
Pride and Prejudice
Go Tell It on the Mountain
Waiting for Godot
The Adventures of Augie March
Jane Eyre
Wuthering Heights
The Stranger
Death Comes for the Archbishop
The Cherry Orchard
The Awakening
Heart of Darkness
The Last of the Mohicans
Inferno
Don Quixote
Robinson Crusoe
A Tale of Two Cities
Crime and Punishment
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
An American Tragedy
The Three Musketeers
The Mill on the Floss
Invisible Man
As I Lay Dying
The Sound and the Fury
Tom Jones
The Great Gatsby
Madame Bovary
The Good Soldier
Faust
Tess of the d’Ubervilles
The Scarlet Letter
A Farewell to Arms
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Their Eyes Were Watching God
Brave New World
A Doll’s House
The Portrait of a Lady
The Turn of the Screw
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
The Metamorphosis
The Woman Warrior
Babbitt
The Magic Mountain
One Hundred Years of Solitude
Moby Dick
The Crucible
A Good Man Is Hard to Find
Long Day’s Journey into Night
Doctor Zhivago
The Bell Jar
Swann’s Way
The Crying of Lot 49
All Quiet on the Western Front
Cyrano de Bergerac
Call It Sleep
The Catcher in the Rye
Ceremony
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
The Grapes of Wrath
Uncle Tom’s Cabin
Gulliver’s Travels
Vanity Fair
Thoreau, Henry David Walden
War and Peace
Fathers and Sons
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Candide
The House of Mirth
Leaves of Grass
The Picture of Dorian Grey
The Glass Menagerie
To the Lighthouse
Native Son
by Cable_Minimum
6 Comments
Maybe try a play? The Crucible? Or Glass Menagerie? Really, any of them—Cherry Orchard is great.
Perhaps The Bell Jar? Great Gatsby?
A Farewell to Arms, The Great Gatsby, Catcher in the Rye, and The Bell Jar are all shorter with more modern and minimalist writing that fits with what you’ve already read.
Who can even read that list? Can’t even tell what some of the titles are without commas in between them.
That’s quite the list. Lots of fantastic books in there, some of which you might not have the patience for. Here’s what I’d pick:
Grapes of Wrath – one of my all-time favorites. About a family’s hardships during the dust bowl and migration to California. Doesn’t require that much concentration, and the story was excellent, to me at least.
Things Fall Apart – another relatively easy read about a man’s life in Africa just before and during enslavement. You might appreciate the exotic setting.
All Quiet on the Western Front – a classic anti-war novel. Lots of graphic imagery though, so not for everyone.
Brave New World – Among the all-time greatest dystopian novels. Not as good as 1984 imho but a staple for a reason.
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich – like the title suggests, a day in the life of a guy living in a Russian labor camp. Short, thought-provoking, great read.
*The Metamorphosis* by Franz Kafka is short and interesting. About a man who wakes up to find himself a huge insect. I enjoyed it for what it was.
*The Picture of Dorian Grey* – Oscar Wilde is witty with really delicious prose, i.e. the way its written has a great flow/voice to it. It is one of my favorite works of fiction, and I’ll probably re-read it soon!
*The Catcher in the Rye* – a lot of fun. Flighty but well-composed. Left an impression on me. Both highly personal and highly abstract in a way.
Anti-recommendations: *As I Lay Dying* is some depressing ass shit, like somebody novelized a bad playthrough of Oregon Trail. *Your party has died of dysentery.* Camus’ *The Stranger* is a grey diary of some guy’s shitty week–I don’t get it. But it’s short, so it has that going for it.
Cautionary: *Moby Dick* has a lot going for it, but it is dense and reads like a whale encyclopedia at times, tedious and meticulous with certain details about whales and whaling. The effect is immersive, if you can get into it. *The Grapes of Wrath* is one of the most depressing books I’ve read, but Steinbeck is great and shines a light on social issues. *GoW* might have you shedding a tear for the characters!