Greatest Book You've Ever Read

I was in AP English 3 years of high school. I'm amazing at writing papers over shit I havent read lmao

Pete wrote:

I wrote an eight page paper on Hamlet but never read the book. I got an A on the paper too

Greatest Books that I have ever read is a hard question to ask but there are a few that I can think of:

All 7 Harry Potter books
The Dark Is Rising Sequence (5 Books, my favorite book series) by Susan Cooper
Don't Die My Love by Lurlene McDaniel (basically any of her books are amazing)
The Shining by Steven King
A Child Called It (and all three sequels) by Dave Pelzer

Do tell, what is The Dark Is Rising Sequence???

Jessie wrote:

I was in AP English 3 years of high school. I'm amazing at writing papers over shit I havent read lmao

NICE! I can respect that. It's a talent not everyone has.

There are 5 books in The Dark Is Rising Sequence (A movie called The Seeker: The Dark Is Rising came out that was supposed to be based on this series, it was horrible sadly)

First Book: OVER SEA, UNDER STONE

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This story is about three children trying to figure out the mystery of a map they find. It is not easy because there are also other people (working for 'The Dark') who want to steal the map for themselves. Great Uncle Merry, Simon, Jane, and Barney try to solve the riddle and keep the map safe. Eventually they work out what it means and find a mythical treasure.

Second Book: THE DARK IS RISING

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In this book, Will Stanton begins to have strange experiences on his eleventh birthday, just before Christmas. He soon learns he is one of the Old Ones, a guardian and warrior for The Light. He learns that he must help find the four Things of Power for The Light in order to battle the forces of The Dark. The first of these Things of Power is the Circle of Six Signs.

This book is the key book for the main character, Will Stanton. It is in this book that he collects the six signs which become the Circle of Signs, one of the Things of Power, by finding the additional five mandala (he has been given one earlier) and uses the completed Circle to ward off the forces of The Dark.

Third Book: GREENWITCH

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This story returns to the characters introduced in Over Sea, Under Stone, uniting them with Will Stanton, and involves a quest for magic from beneath the sea.

Jane Drew witnesses the creation of a ritualistic offering known as the 'Greenwitch', and senses both great power and great sadness in it. She wishes that the Greenwitch could be happy, and that wish has important consequences later when it turns out that the Greenwitch possesses something that will unlock the secrets of the Grail.

Fourth Book: THE GREY KING

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In this book, Will is sent to Wales to recuperate after an illness. Here he meets Bran, the Pendragon son of King Arthur and befriends him. He must also awaken the Sleepers to fight the Dark.

Fifth Book: SILVER ON THE TREE

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All of the main characters from the other books in the sequence come together in this book, some meeting each other for the first time, and the current struggle between the Light and the Dark is resolved. All immortal characters except Will Stanton leave the Earth forever. All the mortal characters lose all memory of any dealings with magic and the Old Ones, though the Drews and Bran have snatches of something come back to them in dreams.

It is a great series, I need to buy the box set of them, haven't been able to get them yet but they are my favorite books, like them more than Harry Potter personally

Hmmm....considering school made me hate reading and I just started reading again for pleasure...idk

OOOOH, those are those Seeker books, that movie looked interesting but I never saw it. I might check these books out if you think they're so good. I actually just started the Artemis Fowl series...even though you find it in the children's section, HAHA, but I like it a lot...I feel like it isn't for kids...at least I've never seen someone describing/using garroting wire in a kid's book before.

My favourite books EVER aaaaare:

1) The Giver by Lois Lowry

I adore utopian themes. Hardcore love them. I had to read this in grade 6, but I've read it dozens of times since then. If you haven't read it, then it's about a boy named Jonas, who lives in this controlled community. Your husband/wife is chosen for you, your job is chosen, your children are chosen (one boy, one girl), etc. etc. But there are no actual emotions, I guess you could say. There's no love, no hate, no pain. When you're 12, you go to a ceremony where they tell you your job, and Jonas got The Receiver, which is a huge honour. They only have one Receiver at a time, so they can go decades without naming a new one. But he learns that his job is to hold all the emotions, to make sure the community doesn't get them. He has to experience memories of war and pain and betrayal and sadness, but also those of love and family and Christmas and theme parks. It's a hard job, but he makes due. However, since he's allowed to know EVERYTHING about the community, he chooses to see what happens when someone is "released". This happens when people reach a certain age, if someone requests it, if there's a baby unfit to give to a family, or if there's twins (the smallest is "released"). Ends up, being "released" is being euthanized. Jonas is upset, but he deals. His father works with the babies, before they're given to families, and there's one baby, Gabe, who is really fussy. They're talking about releasing him, but his dad convinced them to give Gabe another year to settle down, at their house. But when they find out he's going to be released, Jonas decides to run away with Gabe, for two reasons. First, he wants to save the baby, and second, by leaving the community, all of the memories that The Giver passed onto him will be released into the community, and they'll be forced to learn to live with them, since The Giver is in on the plan and won't "save" them by taking all the memories back.

2) Anthem by Ayn Rand

Again, it's a utopia theme. The newest book I'm writing is actually a utopia theme. Anyways, this book is incredible. The first (and so far only) thing I've ever had professionally published was an essay I wrote when I was 17, called Anthem: The Ace Apologue. It fits well in this topic, since I was told to write an essay on the greatest book ever, lol. I have the book it's published in on my bookshelf. So proud. Anyways, it's about this community where they have NO independence. They don't even know the word "I". They can only say "we". They have no technology either, since the world got so advanced that it basically broke down. That's when this type of living started. They rebuilt the world the way they wanted to, so they'd have complete control. Equality (the main character) is assigned the job of Street Sweeper, even though he dreamed of being a Scholar. One day, while working, he discovers a light bulb, and studies it. He tries showing the council, but they try to punish him for it. Instead, he runs away, and brings along the girl who he fell in love with (which, of course, was illegal).

3) Catcher in the Rye by JD Saligner

I cried so much when he died Anyways, my fingers are getting tired of typing all these summaries, so if you haven't read it, just rest assured it's fantastic. It taught me so much about life.

4) Lord of the Flies by William Golding

NONE of my friends seemed to like this book, but I LOVED it. I'm so glad I was forced to read it in grade 10.

This is gonna sound weird but I'm SO excited that Salinger's dead, just because of the plan he worked out with his daughter to release all of his unpublished works. The man never stopped writing, just stopped publishing. Can you imagine reading a new book by Salinger???

hahaha, I'm excited to read them too! He HATED being famous. He didn't publish anything since the 60s, and his last interview was in the 80s. My mom immediately assumed that was why he didn't publish anything else- he didn't want his works published until he was gone and no longer needed to deal with being famous. He never read any of his fanmail or anything.

But I adore him <3

I just bought The Dark Is Rising Sequence (all 5 books) for $30 and cannot wait to receive them. Will finally own them :D

Jess wrote:

My favourite books EVER aaaaare:

4) Lord of the Flies by William Golding

NONE of my friends seemed to like this book, but I LOVED it. I'm so glad I was forced to read it in grade 10.

I LOVED Lord of the Flies. I remember we had to do a creative assignment at the end of the novel and I chose to rewrite the last chapter (not because I didn't like the actual ending, just thought it would be fun) and it was just an overall great experience. Grade 10 English <3

RYAN! wrote:

Jess wrote:

My favourite books EVER aaaaare:

4) Lord of the Flies by William Golding

NONE of my friends seemed to like this book, but I LOVED it. I'm so glad I was forced to read it in grade 10.

I LOVED Lord of the Flies. I remember we had to do a creative assignment at the end of the novel and I chose to rewrite the last chapter (not because I didn't like the actual ending, just thought it would be fun) and it was just an overall great experience. Grade 10 English <3

I know. We had the same assignment, remember? hahahaha, we even edited each others!! I looooved grade 10 English... Mr. Schouten <3

I remember in my rewrite, I had Ralph get the dead guy from the cliff and roll him down the hill and be all "SEE, IT'S NOT A MONSTER!" but Jack didn't care, and tried to kill him anyway, and Ralph smacked his head during this fight, and suddenly woke back up on the plane and was all "WTF, JACK, WHAT HAPPENED!?" And Jack was all "Uhhh, I don't know you. We're two random boys on a plane." Or something like that.

I vaaaagually remember yours, Ryan... I remember it ended in like... a room...

Oh, I really liked Lord of the Flies, and I'm actually VERY glad we didn't read it in high school. I tend to hate everything I read for school, which is ironic since I'm getting a degree in English (life-choice fail).

Because we never read LotF for class, I decided to read it later for shits and giggles, and damn, it was good. I'm actually surprised at the stuff I didn't have to read for classes:

Lord of the Flies
This Side of Paradise
Tom Sawyer
The Great Gatsby
Moby Dick

...what else is considered staple high school reading in the US (I assume it's different in Canada)?

Something by John Steinbeck or Shakespeare.r


The Giver. That's one of those books I was forced to read in school and just hated every moment of it (as well as any other assigned reading in school).

Dude. We were forced to read The Giver in my MATH CLASS. Apparently my teacher decided that because we weren't forced to read it in English, he would teach it to us. My school was ridiculous.

Yep. Just the reason I cant stand that book.

WTF!? THE GIVER IS MY FAVOURITE BOOK SO I NOW HATE YOU ALLLLLLLLLL!!!!!! RAWR!!!!

Anyways, books I had to read in high school were:

Grade Nine:
A Midsummer Night's Dream
To Kill a Mockingbird

Grade Ten:
Romeo and Juliet
Lord of the Flies
Two novels of our choice (I chose two Harlequin romances, because I'm lame.)

Grade Eleven:
MacBeth
Anthem <33333
Lives of the Saints
A novel of our choice (I chose The Pearl by John Steinbeck, since I heart him)

[b]Grade Twelve:[/i]
Hamlet
A Streetcar Named Desire
Oedipus Rex
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Two novels of our choice (I chose The Red Pony by Steinbeck, and a book called Stone Garden)


In grade 11 and 12, I believe our teachers got to chose what we read, so I didn't read 1984 or Animal Farm, which I believe most classes did... I dunno. Ryan? Confirm?

I had to read The Pearl by John Steinbeck, but nothing else. No Graped of Wrath (that's him, yeah?), Of Mice and Men, etc.

And we definitely read Shakespeare.

Since Jess is gonna open that door, here's what I had to read in high school (or what I can remember of it):


9th Grade (Freshman English):
- Lots of short stories (The Interlopers, The Most Dangerous Game, The Pit and the Pendulum, among many others)
- Romeo & Juliet
- The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier
- The Odyssey
...it's been a long time, I don't remember much more than this *shrug*

10th Grade (Sophomore English):
- To Kill A Mockingbird
- 1984
- Animal Farm
- War of the Worlds
- Fahrenheit 451
- Julius Caesar
- The Catcher in the Rye
- The Pearl
- The Jungle (American History)
- Night (American History)

11th Grade (American Literature):
- My Antonia
- The Adventures of Hucklberry Finn
- The Scarlet Letter
- A Farewell To Arms
- Death of a Salesman
- The Crucible
- random Poe stuff
- random Dickinson stuff
NOTE the complete lack of anything written by black authors or Native Americans...

12th Grade (British Literature):
- Beowulf
- Grendel
- The Canterbury Tales
- Macbeth
- various Shakespearean sonnets
- Morte d'Authur & Sir Gawain

PS - I like The Giver. Have you read the sequels? I haven't, but I really want to...

THEY AREN'T SEQUELS!

You have no idea how mad I was.

I was TOLD they were sequels so I went out and got them, but they WEREN'T. They were "sister books" with similar themes. I was too disappointed to even read them.

But you reminded me that Ryan and I mosdef read Night in Religion and Literature. It's a good book. Really sad though

And yes, Grapes of Wrath is Steinbeck

The Red Pony is soooo sad. Saddest Steinbeck book I've read. It's all about a little boy whose pony dies. It's depressing.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, they're not really sequels, but you knew what I meant!

I had to read The Scarlet Letter once but I organized my class to boycott it. YES, I was THAT student. And we did, and the teacher let us read whatever we wanted after that. These are the books I can remember having to read in High/Middle School

Macbeth - 3 times.
Romeo & Juliette - 3 times.
A Midsummer Night's Dream
Much Ado About Nothing
Dracula - 2 times.
Great Expectations
The Bluest Eye (I loved this book SO much)
Fahrenheit 451 (One of my favorite books)
Jane Eyre (I ripped this book in half and left it on my teacher's desk)
A Streetcar Named Desire
The Crucible - Fucking 4 times, but it's okay because I love it.
To Kill A Mockingbird
The Haunting Of Hill House

...most of the classes I took were hippy writing classes so I read a lot of beat poets and Frost and shit. Also playwrights that I can't remember. Or I just didn't read what was assigned for some reason or another and read something else instead. Teachers didn't give a shit what I did.

This is a truly impossible question, guys. But here's something I thought of........... I can't say what is the best book I ever read, however a book I read when I was in my early 20's and was completely blown away by, was The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak. This book will make you laugh, make you cry, it's indescribably excellent. Any teacher in like middle school, or high school or whatever ought to add it to their syllabus if they haven't already decided this book is amazing. Over and above it being a great read, the way it's written, it's narrator, all of it is unique and awesome. At first I thought given the subject matter, I may not enjoy it, but it surprised me in every way and is an outstanding piece of literature.

I guess, without giving too much away, what makes it so unique and what is it about??? You've piqued my interest!

That is a hard question, but it's about the Nazi occupation of Germany. This is told much more from the point of view of the non-Jewish Germans, who didn't side with Hitler, but it broaches the whole thing. The narrator is someone you'd never expect, I can't say any more than that. The way it's written, the descriptions and all are incredible. Excellent book!

That sounds pretty interesting, I'm going to put it on my to-read list!