Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke & the Bookish. It’s awesome. Every Tuesday, the lovely ladies over there give us book bloggers wonderful and fun topics to create our lists! Check out what others have posted by going over there! http://brokeandbookish.blogspot.com
This week’s topic is-
Top ten books I was “FORCED” to read-
“(either by teachers, friends, other bloggers, book club) — doesn’t necessarily have to be a BAD thing. Could be required reading, yes, but also book club, or just super enthusiastic friends “making” you read something!”
I decided to have some fun with is- I picked a few different views-
The Ugly-
1- Mine are Spectacular
My old book club thought this would be a fun read. All it was was BAD-and embarrassing. What were they thinking? Look at the cover!
She Reads!
I was so excited when I found this awesome site- and even more so when I realized they had an online book club (as you can see from above, I was not having the best of luck with the old book club-but the wine was good). Two of my favorite from their selections-
2. The Silence Of Bonaventure Arrow
3. The Orphan Train
Totally recommend these if you haven’t read them!
High School
Mrs. Chapman was my 11th grade English teacher. Most hated her, but I loved her because she introduced me to-
4. Frankenstein
5. The Scarlet Letter
on the other hand, my AP Spanish class made us read-
6. Don Quixote
IN SPANISH!! I still have nightmares.
College
I was SO lucky to have majored in History with some really wonderful professors (I am talking about you Profs Johnson and Muccigrosso!!) I got to read-
7. The Great Gatsby
8. Things Fall Apart
VACAY
Like most of you, I enjoy reading on vacation. Once, while I was visiting the in-laws, I ran out of books that I brought (gasp-this was before kindle entered my life) My lovely mother in law lent me-
9. Loving Frank – LOVED IT!
Last year, I was in the airport heading home with nothing to read, when I dashed into the bookstore and quickly grabbed the first book that looked attractive (don’t judge)
10. The Last Letter Form Your Letter– Introduced me to an amazing author- Jojo Moyes!
What were you forced to read?
Turn the Page Reviews 
I have Don Quixote on my classics list, and I want to take it off, because I’ve heard not-so-good things about it 😉
I would actually have someone tell me about the story, rather than read it myself. It was pretty tough!
Don Quixote in Spanish?? Wow, that’d be so difficult I imagine!
Painful actually. Long and painful!
Read Frankenstein in 12th grade and I hated it. I loved like almost every adaption I see of it though in film or play. So I have been thinking about giving it another shot.
Here’s my Top Ten.
I was forced to read Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. It could be renamed to Heart of oh-my-gosh-how-is-such-a-short-book-so-terrible-to-get-through????
That is a tough read!
Don Quixote in Spanish — what were our high school language teachers thinking? I had to read The Little Prince (fun!) and Candide (not so fun!) in French… and I don’t think I’ve read anything in French since then. On the other hand, a terrific high school English teacher can make all the difference in the world — sounds like we were both lucky in that regard!
Lisa
My TTT
I loved Loving Frank too and am excited the author has a new book out!
Oh-I didn’t know-I will have to look for it!
I’m sorry you had such a bad experience with Don Quixote. It’s actually a fun book. Of course, reading it in Spanish was one of the worst idea your teacher could have had. It’s an outdated and hard form of Spanish even for us, native speakers, so I can’t imagine the horror it must have been.
By the way, I have nominated you to the Liebster Award. Be sure to check it out here.
I had to read Things Fall Apart for my 10th grade English class, and I HATED it. I was nowhere near mature enough for that book. I’m beginning to be curious about it now, though.
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