Ah, September! While in good ol' Georgia the only real indicators of the month are an influx of school buses and an appreciated drop in the humidity, as a New Yorker by birth, September still makes me think of fall (my very favorite season, btdubs): cool nights, light jackets, leaves just starting to change into a fiery ochre palette...and let's not forget, preparing for "back to school." Oh the everlovin' excitement of going to the Paper Cutter in Clifton Park and carefully choosing the perfect daily planner, coaxing my mom into a bigger set of crayola products (because of course I needed the classic and tropical palettes to truly reach my potential in the classroom), and angsting over the exact right Lisa Frank folders to start the year off with a bang.
Even just typing about it makes me wistful! That's why I thought I'd make today's Top Three List about back-to-school books. I know, I know, yet another rather vague topic, but what I mean by this is those books that practically everyone had assigned to them at one point or another while in school, those books that perennially popped up on the Read-Ten-Of-These-While-On-Summer-Vacation-Or-Else-Your-Brain-Might-Melt-And-You-Won't-Pass-Tenth-Grade-Lists, those books that some individuals still claim are their favorites, making you wonder whether it is true (because the books really are that good!) or if they hadn't read anything since 11th grade (sadly, a real possibility).
Personally, I had a ridiculously hard time getting the list down to three, because so many more books came to mind! I mean, I thought I could be Matilda except for the whole cruel and neglectful parents thing; we all remember being equal parts bemused and horrified by the tragic tenderness of Of Mice and Men; and let's not even get started on that crazy 1968 Romeo & Juliet film we all saw after reading the play. Eek! So how to decide? Well, I thought I'd break my list down by doing one book per class range, and just stick to the novels for simplicity's sake. Still, it was a total challenge and this list is by no means the rule. In fact, I would REALLY love it if you readers would contribute your own top three back to school favs in the comments section! But now without further ado, my top three:
1. The Giver, Lois Lowry (Elementary School)
Probably the very first challenging book I read in terms of content. Lowry presents us with a seemingly idyllic world that seduces us--that is until we start to see what is sacrificed at the altar of "sameness." Also, the very first book I read with an ambiguous ending: do Jonas and baby Gabriel actually make it to physical shelter, or are they simply remembering warmth, love, family? And could those be more powerful vehicles for survival? Would we even want to survive without such things?
2. To Kill A Mockingbird, Harper Lee (Junior High)
I mean, do I even need to say anything else? This is a perfect example of a book that if right now you were to say it's your favorite ever, I would totally not assume that means you haven't read anything worthwhile since the eighth grade. Oh Atticus Finch, oh Scout, and oh Boo Radley, too. Who could imagine a world without these characters and the lessons they teach?
3. The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald (High School)
This one was the hardest for me to choose, just because--thanks to a pretty awesome assortment of English classes at my high school--I got to read a great range of seminal works in grades 10-12, some expected and others less so: The Awakening, The Fountainhead, Of Human Bondage, A Prayer For Owen Meany, Pride and Prejudice, The Plague, Siddhartha, Their Eyes Were Watching God...the list goes on.
In the end though, I tried to stay true to the idea of a book practically all of us have been assigned to read and that made a profound impact. This was the novel that taught me superficiality in characters could be redeemed by substantive writing...in fact, I remember my teacher assigning us to read just the first page one night for homework, but to read it as many times as we could to really digest everything encapsulated in those powerful words. So good.
*Remember people, I'd love to see what books make your top three list!
how about top 3 (in a way) back-to-school-books-that-I-didn't-appreciate-until- much-later-when-I-did-a-reread-the-books-from-high-school-I-was-pretty-sure-I-didn't-fully-grasp-thing? Like it or not:
ReplyDelete1. Joseph Conrad: Heart of Darkness
I don't think I really need to explain. Even good old Mr McCann gave us the heads up we weren't ready for this book. Rereading it years later, it is clear that Conrad was the right guy in the right place at the right time to both criticize the horrors of colonialism and enslavement while acknowledging that even he (Conrad as narrator) can't really see beyond its horizon. An amazing subjective and human exploration of a moment of radical global changes. Everyone knows it's mind-blowing, but I know my 17-year-old mind wasn't even capable of being blown by it yet - I think it blew some other teenager fuse before it got to my brain and I probably misinterpreted it as just some normal pre-college confusion. Now I see what all the fuss is about and I am slowly reassembling my brain. Worth it.
2-5. JD Salinger's entire oeuvre
Right? The dude has 4 books, and 2 of them are compendiums of short stories. You can read all of them in a day if you are feeling it. Definitely high-school friendly….and yet…and it is almost always rewarding for me to re-reread any of these stories (especially Franny and Zooey, and probably not including Seymour: An Introduction, which, I have to admit, is straight up boring and not a little histrionic. Who wants to hear one fictional character (who is a WRITER!) reminisce that self-consciously about another for that long? blah). I got them then, but I get them a little differently every time I read them again.
6. Albert Camus: The Stranger
OK, I kind of got this one in high school too, but I am amazed how often this book comes back to haunt me in its stark portrayal of how the physiological, spiritual, and corporeal are inextricable intertwined, among many other things. So, yeah, maybe I didn't really get it. And there is a widely misunderstood Cure song about it!!! bonus!! In fact, I should read this one again soon.
How about three back to school books I-didn't-like-reading-in-high-school-but-I-did-because-my-grade-depended-on-it-and-I-was-an-overachiever.
ReplyDelete1)The Bible- Had a teacher preacher rather than a teacher teacher for this one, plus I read all the begats and begots and most likely could have skipped those parts.
2)James and the Giant Peach (okay this was 4th grade, but I still don't like that book and know I'm like the only one on the planet that doesn't)
3)Ceremony- Native American Literature. Maybe I'd like it more now, but at the time it was the bane of my existance.