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"There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old’s life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged.
"One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world.
"The other, of course, involves orcs."
[John Rogers, Kung Fu Monkey -- Ephemera, blog post, March 19, 2009]
George Orwell - 1984
Was offered this in high school. I read Brave New World and Island by Aldous Huxley instead. I'd say those.
The novel that never stops being relevant.
It's a great book. It really awakened me in high school. I think kids should be forced to read it.
There's something deeply ironic about saying people should be forced to read Orwell...
That's the joke. From the sitcom Community S3E13 "Digital Exploration of Interior Design"
Demon-Haunted World by Carl Sagan. If nothing else, it might help some people learn to recognize scams.
I found this in a bookstore end-cap near the fantasy/sci-fi section. Thought it was going to be a novel when I picked it up. Can’t remember if I read the jacket before I left with it.
Destroyed my faith in religion. I highly recommend.
The Jungle - Upton Sinclaire
Book changed my life in college, but for reasons lemmy will hate.
Never had a shred of work ethic. Reading that book stunned me. "If this man can persevere through that, why am I such a wuss?"
Worked hard at every job since, moved up if there was the opportunity to do so. I soon realized that if you kick ass at your job, you can write your own ticket. Even if it's not much more money, or a fat promotion, the least you get is a better schedule, acceptance of fuck ups, or whatever it is you want out of the place.
Gain skills and experience, quit, acquire new job, rinse and repeat.
When we moved to Florida 20-years ago, my two friends and I had no family, no jobs, no other friends. One guy started at an oil change place, way below his skill set. He'd work at a place for 6-months or a year, quit when they quit giving him more money, got a better job, rinse and repeat. He finally chilled after 10-years or so and settled into a job as a service manager for a major car dealership, $100K+, probably $150K today.
Going against the grain here a little, I don't like required reading in schools.
I really loved reading growing up, always had a book (sometimes more than one) that I was reading, read well above my grade level, chose books that challenged myself, etc.
My high school really pushed reading, lots of classes assigned books for us to read, I think even some of the math classes had novels they were supposed to read. For our homeroom period once a week we had to do mandatory SSR (Sustained Silent Reading) where we had to be reading something, we couldn't do homework or go see our teachers for help, or anything of the sort, we had to be seated at our desks reading silently. I often was juggling 2 or 3 assigned books along with my other school work, activities, and hobbies, which didn't really leave me much time for the books that I chose to read for myself.
And the pacing was terrible, we'd often spend weeks on a book, analyzing it to death, doing packets of worksheets, writing reports, doing that accursed "popcorn reading" in class, etc. for books that I could have read in a matter of days if not hours.
I think we spent nearly a month on Of Mice and Men, it's only around 100 pages, it can be read in an afternoon.
The whole experience really killed my love of reading. I resented a lot of the books I was made to read, and now almost 2 decades later I've never quite been able to get back into the same kind of reading habit I used to have.
I've made an effort since then to go back and reread some of those assigned books I hated back in school, and the wild thing is that, overall, they were really good books, strong stories, well-written, solid lessons to teach, different points of view to consider, etc. I totally understand why they were assigned reading.
But when I first read them I was just going through the motions, I just wanted to get the damn books out of the way so that I could read what I wanted to read.
And I think the key is to make kids want to seek out those books. Don't assign them 1984 (for example,) make them want to go out and read 1984 for themselves.
I don't know what the best way to do that is, but it's not just telling them to read those books. If anything, it might be telling them not to read them. I can only speak for myself, but I know that personally seeing a display on "banned books" at a book store or library always made me way more interested in those books than any amount of recommendations from friends or reviews online or any other form of marketing.
So how do you study literature without having the class all read the same book? Can't really have a discussion on the themes of a work if the class isn't all reading the same thing.
I happened to enjoy most of the assigned books. I'd have the same issue in class with the amount of time given on each book, but I'd use it to my advantage. I'd usually just read each book twice on my own, chill out and more or less slack off while in class, and still answer any questions or do the work better than anyone else because I knew the subject matter better than any other students. I'd ready something like the oddesey a couple times over a weekend and then have a month where I didn't have to use any effort at all in that class.
I give my grandma props to my reading. I went over to Grandma and Grandpa's a lot and from the age of like 1 she would read me childrens picture books. Many times I'd ask for the same one again and again and shed lovingly read it to me. I could follow along looking at the words (she'd point with her finger at each word as she read) long before I learned sounds each letter would make. I could just recognize a word by what the word looked like in the book. I could read at a 5th grade level in first grade, and by 5th grade I tested out to its max of 12+.
Thanks, Grandma. Miss you.
Totally fair experience. I was also a voracious reader growing up and hated assigned reading. But I certainly wasn't required to read as much as you! In fact, one of the things I hated about the classroom reading is I would have to stop reading the book (if I enjoyed it) and wait to discuss or do worksheets on it when all I wanted is to just continue reading it!
But what we have to remember is there's kids out there from families that don't encourage reading. Or even ones that actively discourage reading! If not for assigned reading, they might never read a single book from their adolescence onward! At least this way, they actually get the knowledge from a few books in them. But really, I don't know what the answer is either...
The golden compass trilogy.
Because it talks about how adults kill kids souls just like real life.
Mary Malone is my favorite from memory.
How to Read a Book https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_to_Read_a_Book
Because people severely lack media literacy. People say read Orwell... and alt-right was saying it for years too.
There's someone in this thread saying kids should be forced to read Orwell. Which I think illustrates the issue perfectly...
The Parable series by Octavia Butler
Anne Frank's diary. There is the historic relevance, but apart from that it is the inner world of a teen girl. I read it as a teen as well, and I remember it greatly resonated with me. She was of course in a unique and threatening situation, bit she also was just a teen, struggeling with typical teen issues. You know how it ends, but over the book you learn so much about her, her family and how they are trying to make tge mkst of it. You start rooting for her. And despite you knowing how it ends I felt quite empty when it did.
Also, a well written sex ed book. I have no specific one in mind, but a medicly accurate book explaining the female and male hormone cycles, menstruation, pregnancy (control including abortion) and menopause! And yeah, goes into how to actually have sex, that it's important to talk about boundaries etc.
Diary of a Young Girl, Anne Frank, was required reading where I lived in the US, in the mid-90s. I was in Arkansas. My daughter went to school in Missouri and California (2010s) and I don’t remember her having to read it. Not sure if it’s regional or if the decade made the difference.
Just because someone reads a book, doesn't mean that they understand it, and if they're forced to read something they probably won't enjoy it.
I think catcher in the rye is a good book for boys of that age to read. The main character is insufferable because he holds views similar to incel culture. Problem is some people identify with Holden.
I was forced to read Animal Farm in early high school and didn't like it or really try to understand it. I re-read it as an adult just because I wanted to and I loved it. Any time there was a reading project with a list of books to choose from rather than a single forced choice, I enjoyed it way more. The choice really does make a difference
well, the effect of required reading seems to be killing kids' enjoyment of reading, so, if we wanna double down on that, i reccomend the Silmarrillion, by JRR Tolkein. or maybe a phone book.
I don't know why a random nordic plumber should get to decide something like that. I'll pass. I don't feel qualified.
Dungeon Crawler Carl. Young people need to learn that all books don't have to be boring and peachy. Sometimes a book can be fun and bat shit insane and that's an ok use of your time. Learn to love reading first, then discover philosophy.
Terry Pratchett's books come to mind. If I'd have to pick a single one it would probably be Men at Arms, but it's a very tight race.
The books are easily digestible, but offer timeless social commentary and provide relatable characters that still do good despite being flawed.
GNU PTerry
I'm with you, but was going to go with Small Gods. Maybe Jingo.
Small Gods was my second choice, and has the advantage of being self-contained. After that, I'd pick a book appropriate for the target demographic. The witches' stories have lots of girl power, Monstrous Regiment does too (plus a heavy dash of LGBTQ acceptance), the Moist von Lipwig stories frequently touch the differences between what's legal and what's right, several books take a jab at racism and populism, etc.
The Demon Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark - Carl Sagan
I gonna add one that I actually read in school and actually Am very grateful I read it.
Its "Der gute Mensch von Sezuan" (The good human from Sezuan) by Berthold Brecht.
The story is, that the gods try to fund a good human in the town Sezuan and disguise themselves as humans seeking shelter. No one wants to give them shelter except a prostitute name Shen-Te. As a reward for being a good person they give her gold in return, which she uses to open her own shop. However, her buisness is not very succesfull, since she wants to help as many people as possible which means a big financial burden. To help her out of this she invents her cousin (?) Shui-Ta who is cold and regularly saves the buisness by not helping people and demanding things. This way the buisness stays open and Shen-Te can continue to help her community.
Basically the book is an analogism for why capitalism can not work, since the force to make a profit forces you to fuck over other people and it is not possible to not take part in this system on an individual level. I hated all other books we had to read in school, but I Am quite great I read that one. It also definitely played a role in my path towards becoming a communist.
Another upside of it is, that its rather short and can be easily read in about 2-3h.
Perfectly Legal
The Covert Campaign to Rig Our Tax System to Benefit the Super Rich–and Cheat Everybody Else
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/291700/perfectly-legal-by-david-cay-johnston/
Can non-fiction be a trilogy? 🤔
Free Lunch
How the Wealthiest Americans Enrich Themselves at Government Expense (and Stick You with the Bill)
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/300246/free-lunch-by-david-cay-johnston/
The Fine Print
How Big Companies Use "Plain English" to Rob You Blind
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/305192/the-fine-print-by-david-cay-johnston/
Adding to this, I really thought Bad Science was a great book that more people should read. It explores alternative medicine, where it comes from and its efficacy (or lack thereof). It helps that Ben Goldacre is equally critical of the medical industry and their practices.
I'd actually add the bible. A lot of people would be more atheist if they actually read through it. It would also be hilarious to see teenagers struggle with that long ass boring shit
Lmao, are you gonna be tested on the genealogy in Genesis 5
There are already a bunch of good, high profile books here so I'll throw one in that's a little less known. Feed by M.T. Anderson is a great cyberpunk dystopia. It shows the perils of ab America completely bought out by corporate interests, with government basically surrendering its functions to them. Schools are sponsored by companies, the oceans are so polluted hardly anything lives in them anymore, and everyone has a VR brain implant that basically acts as a more addictive form of TikTok.
This book was written well before smartphones and social media propaganda was a thing and it's rather striking how accurately it portrays modern day society in a lot of ways. Considering we're not quite at the dystopian level described in the story yet it's more of a cautionary tale of what can come.
Passion and Reason, by Richard and Bernice Lazarus. It’s a very accessible book about the connections between thoughts and emotions. Understanding what’s covered in it would save a lot of people a ton of confusion and social hardship in life.
I wouldn't want to make it required so people don't resent it, but I strongly recommend Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality (https://hpmor.com/). Aside from having an entertaining story, it also teaches important critical thinking, epistemological, and scientific skills in the course of the story.
Philip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (the book which Blade Runner is an adaptation of) would be a good one.
The Lord of the Rings book trilogy would be optional due to just how long those books are, but they're super detailed if you're into high fantasy, while The Hobbit would be easier for younger readers to ingest (The Hobbit was aimed at kids, after all).
1984
Margeret Atwood - The Handmaid's Tale. Presuming that To Kill a Mockingbird is already part of the curriculum.
Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy by Dr. David Burns. Look, if we can teach the kids chemical formulas, surely we can teach them the basics of emotional regulation? No?
Black Pill bible by Wheat Waffles
The obvious choice would be something like Orwell's 1984, but I also think Animal Farm would also be a good enough choice.
One about the dangers of full-on government control and allowing them to censor everything while also turning you aggressively nationalist against everyone else. The other about how one person in a revolution will try to elevate their group to being in full control and taking advantage of the people after said revolution, thus making everyone else's lives worse than before. At least that's what I got out of those books.
Also, side note, I really enjoy the original animated Animal Farm movie and the trailer for the new version looks like if you tried to turn WWII into a cringey kids film. That level of stupidity and unawareness of everything the source material stands for. It looks absolutely atrocious. Disgusting. I refuse to acknowledge it as anything other than something that would cause Orwell to come back to life just to weep at how they're massacring his book with their horrific adaptation. Apparently it was so bad that Netflix dropped the rights to it.
Oh boy! Can't wait for an Animal Farm adaptation where the pigs are super nice to everyone and instead of fighting for freedom, they have a nice afternoon tea session with the farmer and he agrees to give them the farm. Also for the parts where Boxer gets injured and eventually sent to the glue factory to be replaced with nothing because death surely won't be in an adaptation of a book where death and sacrifice isn't a close to being a central point in the very beginning of the book.
The Bhagavad Gita– not because it's a religious text, but because it's a very different philosophy than what most Westerners are exposed to. (The translation by Ranchor Prime is especially accessible to beginners.)
One of these?
