I managed to get a B- on the test , but I really don't know how. I retread it recently and found it multilayered and too profound for the teenaged male mind.

Two that I have tried to read as an adult and failed every time are; Moby Dick and Don Quixote de la Mancha. I would get through about a third and give it up.

It's only six books!

Her books are small slices of life, and though they take place in rural England in the early nineteenth century, the characters are people that we know today. That's only one of the reasons that her stories are filmed over and over - not just as originally written, but remade in different locations and time periods, like Clueless (a contemporary telling of Emma in 1990s southern California), and Bride and Prejudice (2006) and Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (2016) - both based on Pride and Prejudice but based in modern India and a alternative nineteenth century England with a zombie apocalypse respectively.

THE American novel!

I read it for the 1st time this year and really enjoyed it. Tolstoy isn't a difficult writer. His language is simple and direct. People get hung up on the Russian names, but it's just a story about three families in a time of war. Another all time favorite is Catch 22, which basically explains everything you need to know about modern life and if laugh out loud funny. Ulysses, by James Joyce is maybe the greatest novel ever written. Joyce is difficult at times, but he's also funny, witty and humane. How can you not admire a writer who was banned in the U.S, proscribed by the Catholic church and puns in 7 languages.

I read it some years back when Talk of the Nation had its book club of the air, and that was the book one month. It gave me a deadline to get it finished, so I thought What the heck and got a copy. I'd really thought it would be a total slog all the way, but it was only a bit slow the first fifty pages, and after that it was totally gripping and I could not put it down.

I reread it about once a year.

Though the above suggestion of Huck Finn can't go wrong.

Back in the early 16th century, when I was in junior high, it was required reading. I hated it. For reasons I can't begin to recall, I picked it up on my own much more recently. Actually in the very late 20th century, but who's keeping track? Anyway, when I read it on my own I found it completely enthralling.

I honestly think that almost all of us just have a strong reluctance to read, let alone appreciate, something we're required to read, especially in high school. But discover it on our own and it's magic!

book I was supposed to. cliff notes only.

Now, I love to read. Thanks for the Silas Marner suggestion

We're assigned a book to read, and the stubborn 8 year old inside REFUSES to like it.

One exception for me was a book I read for a sociology of the workplace class, back in about 1980: Men and Women of the Corporation by Rosabeth Moss Kantor. Totally engrossing.

Another sort of exception was when I read Uncle Tom's Cabin for the NPR bookclub of the air, some years ago. I read it because there was a deadline and there would be a discussion. As mentioned above, I thought it would be a slog but found myself unable to put it down. It's incredibly good.

the reading door was Soul On Ice - Eldridge Cleaver

Thanks Sheila for making me remember - want to get the book again.

Men and Women of the Corporation sounds interesting to me.

I often say, somewhat facetiously, So Many Books, So Little Time.

I happen to have a very wide range of interests, in both fiction and non fiction, and there is no way I can ever read all the books I want to. I often complain that they are publishing far too many books every year.

Worse yet, I constantly come across book recommendations, either here on DU or in very many other places. Sigh. I do what I can.

Actually, it's more a case of I read what I can.

so easy to publish a book. And, with computers, authors like Patterson can crank one out every month it seems.

I just wished bookstores could have two sections - Worth reading and not worth reading.

But, aren't you getting more picky? I am. Like I love first person fiction. Hate books that have 10,000 words a page all scrunched up. Love easy prose without endless description. Also, starting to get into foreign fiction - actually so much better than our authors, in my opinion.

Maybe you should just say, this month it's political non-fiction, for instance. *or anything you really care about. And find the best highly recommended books in that genre?