The English Teacher’s Top Five

This article is directed at the thirty-something crowd or anyone who was in high school once. (That’s most of us.) Many of us read some great books when we were in high school. Many others spent more time necking in the back seat of a Thunderbird when we should have been reading.

Whether you did your reading or not, it’s time to go back and read again. In this day and age, we get caught up in fast reads like The DaVinci Code or the seemingly endless collection of Rachael Ray cook books, but don’t forget that there are some great and also easy books out there that you can enjoy. Books are on high school reading lists for a reason—because high school students have the intellect, reading skills, and background knowledge to read them.

With that in mind, I’ve created a list and descriptions of the five books you need to read again. I must say that, being a high school English teacher, I may be a bit biased, but I’m also an expert.

The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald. I am biased here. This is my favorite book, but I’m not the only one. I personally heard Nobel and Pulitzer Prize winning novelist Saul Bellow say this was his favorite book, too. This is the Great American Novel. A story of a man’s obsession for a love he can never have. Daisy Buchanan symbolizes the promise of everything America can be. Unfortunately, the promise of America is obscured by our constant quest for money. The sentences are long, but the language shows a mastery unlike any other American writer.

The Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger. One of the saddest and most beautiful books I have read. Salinger was not a happy guy and that translates into his character, Holden Caulfield. This is the story of a couple of days in Holden’s life when he skips out on school and runs to New York. What it turns into is the story of a boy desperately trying to hold onto his innocence and protect all little children from knowing the bad things in the world.

Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck. Another American tragedy, this is Steinbeck’s best and most forgotten work. It is the story of a George and his mentally handicapped friend, Lenny, working in Depression Era California. This book shows how the simple, innocent, and beautiful things in life can be destroyed by a society that can’t handle innocence. (I don’t necessarily recommend reading The Grapes of Wrath, but it wouldn’t hurt.)

A Farewell to Arms, Ernest Hemingway. Set in World War I Italy, this book examines the life of an American soldier injured on the front lines and put in a hospital where he falls in love with a British nurse. The novel deals with war and the ways that it corrupts and destroys the nicest and most wonderful things we have. Hemingway’s style is simple, but don’t let it fool you. If you’re not paying attention, you’ll miss something.

Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad. So I don’t sound too Americanized, I’ve added this British novel. This is set at the height of the British Empire in the Belgian Congo. Marlow, the company man, must track the company’s best collector of expensive things into the heart of the African continent. Along the way, Conrad delves into the hypocrisy of modern English society and criticizes the Imperialists for exploiting their fellow man. The prose in this novel, while not difficult, is the toughest of the bunch.

This list is only partial. But, if you can read these, you’ll learn a lot about life. Yes, I know they are read by high school students, but when was the last time you were in high school? Go back and read them. You might see something you missed or discover a whole new way of looking at the world.