I would've loved to read most books from your list at school. I never understood why school curriculums were so dry, though I did have an amazing school librarian who recommended To Kill a Mockingbird to me and I remember it hitting me so hard as a teen.
I hear your message loud and clear! Such well-articulated thoughts and summaries of these books. I actually own most of them (the last one I’d never heard of before). I haven’t read them yet but are on my top of TBR list ❤ correction: The Metamorphosis is one of my all-time favourite books and I have read it last year!! I’m British and a book that blew my mind which was on the curriculum (French A Level) is L’Etranger (The Outsider) by Albert Camus. I haven’t re-read it in many years, however, it has influenced and shaped a lot of my thinking from a young age!
Thank you! I've had Albert Camus on my radar for so long but I'm so nervous to read his stuff. And the reason why I'm nervous is so silly haha. I just know I'm going to love his work and I think it's going to open Pandora's Box to a whole 'nother world of emotion. I have The Outsider, The Myth of Sisyphus and The Fall. You're making me want to pick him up asap. I'll see if I can get to him this year.
Gosh, if only you had actually been in charge of my school reading list... would've saved me a lot of pain and frustration hahaha. Love the arguments for your choices, and I honestly couldn't agree more with everything you said for all the books that I have already read. Now to make my way through the ones that I have regrettably not read yet, with Algernon and To Kill a Mockingbird being highest on my priority list! Some books that come to mind for me would be The Dandelion Dynasty by Ken Liu, Allegedly by Tiffany D. Jackson, The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo and My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell. As for non-fiction, definitely Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson and Know My Name by Chanel Miller!
Hahaha :0 Just Mercy and Know My Name are both amazing and completely agree they should be on the list. I'd also add a few memoirs, such as Malcolm X. Btw, 2025 is going to the year I read Dandelion Dynasty!
Only books i remember having to read for secondary school was an anti-bully book when I was 13 that i can't remember the name of, To Kill A Mockingbird when I was 15/16 and How Many Miles to Babylon? by Jennifer Johnston when I was 18 and loved the latter two. So i was lucky in that regard. It was mostly poetry we covered, especially towards the end as we were building up to the then upcoming centenary of the 1916 Easter Rising.
I was a lower middle class argentinian, and went to schools of that social class for a while and this is what I kinda remember they gave us to read. 70% of the kids didn't read them, though. They would ask the kids who read them to pass the answers of the tests, but that's another issue. Chronicle of a Death Foretold and Memories of My Melancholy Whores by García Márquez. Animal Farm Some Edgar Poe Some Julio Cortázar Some Borges El Lazarillo de Tormes The Hobbit (I don't remember if this was in the curriculum or if I just read it on my own) Kafka's Metamorphosis (The same as The Hobbit 🤔) Detectives en Palermo viejo by María Brandán Aráoz Fahrenheit 451 Operación Masacre by Rodolfo Walsh Malinche by Laura Esquivel El Juguete Rabioso by Roberto Arlt That's all I remember. I wouldn't give comics to read because they're really expensive, unless you don't have to bring the thing to school so kids can pirate it and read it on the computer or print them. My mom would get really annoyed when we had to buy a book that wasn't in the public library, d'you know what I mean?
Yeah I think part of the problem is how it's 'mandated' but then also how it's taught. It's taught with an exam in mind, so to get marks, not to have a free-thinking discussion about it. I'm sure libraries can get rights to e-comics, wouldn't necessarily go with physical editions for the reason you gave. Don't think it's fair to put that on the student tbh. Book that are required by the school should be provided to the students.
Going on the back of Guards Guards I gotta recommend The Wee Free Men and the rest of the Tiffany Aching books by Terry Pratchett. Such good books for both girls and boys.
The Wee Free Men has been on my kindle for a while but tbh I've never had anyone recommend it to me so I'm now intrigued. I've not heard of the Tiffany Aching books but I'll definitely check them out. Thanks!
To Kill a Mockingbird, Hunger Games, Flowers for Algernon were on my school curriculum back in middle school. V for Vendetta is a great pick though. The only graphic novels I read for school were Maus and Persepolis. Didn't have East of Eden, but we had Of Mice and Men
Brilliant video and I would definitely read books from this list! I'm so sorry that you had shitty experiences based on the color of your skin, faith or whatever because you are wonderful, honest and intelligent woman with some mature and precious insights about life, politics etc! Even if you were green and from another planet you would be awesome! 😁🥰
In my high school in the Caribbean, we didn't do East of Eden but we did have to do The Pearl. For the ones I've read on this list, I get it, I think a lot of kids would find them very impactful reads. Maybe if more kids read V for Vendetta, we'd have better politicians . . .
Oh, this is actually quite an intriguing video, tbh! I loved your choice of Kindred and Algernon for the same reasons you mentioned; what I like of Algernon is also how a "trope" that is often quite negative is used to enable such an incredible discussion (though, I know, it wasn't a negative trope when it was written). Gosh, I spent quite a few tissues reading Algernon. I actually read Metamorphosis in school, but I hated it... curiously, I don't remember it at all, but something tells me adult-me would actually like it. V!! Definitely! V and 1984, since they have so many complementary themes. Fire Keeper's Daughter I haven't heard of it, but it sounds *very* interesting. Thanks for sharing, Zara!
Thanks :) yeah, he used the negative 'trope' to such amazing effect. I really hope you'll read Metamorphosis as an adult. If you do, let me know how it goes! I really need to read 1984 (I know, crazy I haven't read it yet). Thanks Livia!
@@fraterahava thanks 🙏🏽 no, not yet. It’s on my list but this series won’t be one I get to for a long while. I did read Mercy of the Gods (their newest book) and I quite liked it!
Good choices. I enjoy ‘the classics’ (anything more than 60-100 years old) as much as anyone but I also find that they’re ’of their time’ regarding social behaviours. Often such that it’s more you thinking ‘wasn’t it strange they had to behave like that’!? More of a history lessons on social behaviour. Hence I think literature at school should be dominated by contemporary books. Kids would identify more with the main characters. And not literary fiction but more readable books, to encourage the habit. So definitely Pratchett and The Hunger Games! Yes, an interesting post, but little chance of any of us becoming Minister for Education…
@@BobbyHall-eu1xv Ok? Didn’t say anywhere in this video that they weren’t. I picked books regardless of whether they are/were already on the school curriculum.
I kind believe most kids are put off reading because of school. It's not so much the books we are made to read are schitt but that we are mandated to read them. It's just another chore, more homework, just another quiz. Were, and this would be impossible to do as things stand with the way grading is done, kids given a wider choice of what to read or even perhaps bring in their own material, I think more they would get more out of it then just a pass or fail mentality. This would require smaller class sizes because in order for the kid to be graded on their personal choices it would make the teacher to also read the same books. Or if they had to read say four books in a year, and given a selection to read from, the teacher would have to be well read on the selections, because it would divide the class up into book groups for those parts of the year. You can throw all the good literature at a student and it'll go over their heads. Even you admitted that something similar happened to you. I hated "Catcher in the Rye" and still do, along with "The Old Man and the Sea" Just depressing stuff. Loved "Count of Monte Cristo", "Of Mice and Men", "Hunchback of Notre Dame", "Cyrano de Bergerac"...even if decades later I barely remember them. Wish I had Discworld books as a choice of mine to read as a High Schooler. They are fun, easy reads but are packed with so much more than that. Granted I would have been working with less of a catalog in the mid 90's but "Guards! Guards!" would have been one of them. but IF I could I would put the first four "Watch series" books. They deal with a lot of themes but the over arcing one is, what does it look like to have a good police corp. run by a good cop. What does that involve? Once someone has that power, what does it to do them? Also I like how the character of Vimes grows. Something that is hard to do in one book is personal growth. Especially one that a kid would see. Having it spread over four books, or more, is better because each book is like a new chapter in the character's life. Did they really learn from their mistakes in the first book? How did they apply such learned lessons? It's sorta like, do my teachers learn any thing year to year?
Yeah I think it's a combination of the mandating and then the way they're actually taught. For me, it was the latter. As I read a ton of books in my own time at home. You're not taught to think about them freely, you're taught to think about them in the context of an exam and getting marks. Your last sentence is so interesting. 'Do my teachers learn anything year to year?'. I think if you asked a lot of teachers this question, they'd probably look at you blankly. Not a criticism of the teachers, per se, but a criticism of the education system, whose only goal is to churn out mindless drones that are fit for working. Not for questioning (which imo, is what education should be about).
I would've loved to read most books from your list at school. I never understood why school curriculums were so dry, though I did have an amazing school librarian who recommended To Kill a Mockingbird to me and I remember it hitting me so hard as a teen.
@@BookishVicky what an amazing librarian! Definitely a book that sticks with you, regardless of the age.
I hear your message loud and clear! Such well-articulated thoughts and summaries of these books. I actually own most of them (the last one I’d never heard of before). I haven’t read them yet but are on my top of TBR list ❤ correction: The Metamorphosis is one of my all-time favourite books and I have read it last year!!
I’m British and a book that blew my mind which was on the curriculum (French A Level) is L’Etranger (The Outsider) by Albert Camus. I haven’t re-read it in many years, however, it has influenced and shaped a lot of my thinking from a young age!
Thank you! I've had Albert Camus on my radar for so long but I'm so nervous to read his stuff. And the reason why I'm nervous is so silly haha. I just know I'm going to love his work and I think it's going to open Pandora's Box to a whole 'nother world of emotion. I have The Outsider, The Myth of Sisyphus and The Fall. You're making me want to pick him up asap. I'll see if I can get to him this year.
Gosh, if only you had actually been in charge of my school reading list... would've saved me a lot of pain and frustration hahaha. Love the arguments for your choices, and I honestly couldn't agree more with everything you said for all the books that I have already read. Now to make my way through the ones that I have regrettably not read yet, with Algernon and To Kill a Mockingbird being highest on my priority list!
Some books that come to mind for me would be The Dandelion Dynasty by Ken Liu, Allegedly by Tiffany D. Jackson, The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo and My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell. As for non-fiction, definitely Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson and Know My Name by Chanel Miller!
Hahaha :0
Just Mercy and Know My Name are both amazing and completely agree they should be on the list. I'd also add a few memoirs, such as Malcolm X. Btw, 2025 is going to the year I read Dandelion Dynasty!
Only books i remember having to read for secondary school was an anti-bully book when I was 13 that i can't remember the name of, To Kill A Mockingbird when I was 15/16 and How Many Miles to Babylon? by Jennifer Johnston when I was 18 and loved the latter two. So i was lucky in that regard.
It was mostly poetry we covered, especially towards the end as we were building up to the then upcoming centenary of the 1916 Easter Rising.
I'm so jealous of folks who go to read TKaM at school. That's cool you did poetry, we did some Keats and Armitage, but aside from that, not much else.
I was a lower middle class argentinian, and went to schools of that social class for a while and this is what I kinda remember they gave us to read. 70% of the kids didn't read them, though. They would ask the kids who read them to pass the answers of the tests, but that's another issue.
Chronicle of a Death Foretold and Memories of My Melancholy Whores by García Márquez.
Animal Farm
Some Edgar Poe
Some Julio Cortázar
Some Borges
El Lazarillo de Tormes
The Hobbit (I don't remember if this was in the curriculum or if I just read it on my own)
Kafka's Metamorphosis (The same as The Hobbit 🤔)
Detectives en Palermo viejo by María Brandán Aráoz
Fahrenheit 451
Operación Masacre by Rodolfo Walsh
Malinche by Laura Esquivel
El Juguete Rabioso by Roberto Arlt
That's all I remember. I wouldn't give comics to read because they're really expensive, unless you don't have to bring the thing to school so kids can pirate it and read it on the computer or print them. My mom would get really annoyed when we had to buy a book that wasn't in the public library, d'you know what I mean?
Yeah I think part of the problem is how it's 'mandated' but then also how it's taught. It's taught with an exam in mind, so to get marks, not to have a free-thinking discussion about it.
I'm sure libraries can get rights to e-comics, wouldn't necessarily go with physical editions for the reason you gave. Don't think it's fair to put that on the student tbh. Book that are required by the school should be provided to the students.
Going on the back of Guards Guards I gotta recommend The Wee Free Men and the rest of the Tiffany Aching books by Terry Pratchett. Such good books for both girls and boys.
The Wee Free Men has been on my kindle for a while but tbh I've never had anyone recommend it to me so I'm now intrigued. I've not heard of the Tiffany Aching books but I'll definitely check them out. Thanks!
To Kill a Mockingbird, Hunger Games, Flowers for Algernon were on my school curriculum back in middle school. V for Vendetta is a great pick though. The only graphic novels I read for school were Maus and Persepolis. Didn't have East of Eden, but we had Of Mice and Men
@@SarahJ70 wow you’re so lucky!
Brilliant video and I would definitely read books from this list! I'm so sorry that you had shitty experiences based on the color of your skin, faith or whatever because you are wonderful, honest and intelligent woman with some mature and precious insights about life, politics etc! Even if you were green and from another planet you would be awesome! 😁🥰
@@sasapejcin3568 hahaha your last sentence made me smile. Thanks Sasa!
In my high school in the Caribbean, we didn't do East of Eden but we did have to do The Pearl. For the ones I've read on this list, I get it, I think a lot of kids would find them very impactful reads. Maybe if more kids read V for Vendetta, we'd have better politicians . . .
@@OnlyTheBestFantasyNovels I still haven’t read The Pearl! How does it stack up to his others?
@@bookswithzara The only other thing I've read from him so far is Of Mice and Men, and in that regard it's just as good.
Even before watching this, what a fantastic topic to put forth. Can't wait to see what you recommend!
Thanks Adam!
Oh, this is actually quite an intriguing video, tbh! I loved your choice of Kindred and Algernon for the same reasons you mentioned; what I like of Algernon is also how a "trope" that is often quite negative is used to enable such an incredible discussion (though, I know, it wasn't a negative trope when it was written). Gosh, I spent quite a few tissues reading Algernon. I actually read Metamorphosis in school, but I hated it... curiously, I don't remember it at all, but something tells me adult-me would actually like it. V!! Definitely! V and 1984, since they have so many complementary themes. Fire Keeper's Daughter I haven't heard of it, but it sounds *very* interesting. Thanks for sharing, Zara!
Thanks :) yeah, he used the negative 'trope' to such amazing effect. I really hope you'll read Metamorphosis as an adult. If you do, let me know how it goes! I really need to read 1984 (I know, crazy I haven't read it yet). Thanks Livia!
@@bookswithzara Looking forward to hearing your thoughts on 1984! I think that alongside Fahrenheit 451 is my most re-read book.
Absolutely love this!! Great books and great reasoning!
Thank you so much, Maeve!
That's a nice list!
@@shanembailey 🙏🏽
Another great video, Zara!
@@samcostello2861 thanks Sam! Hope you’re doing good!
Your channel is very underrated.. have you read leviathan Wake? Im reading it right now and im underwhelmed
@@fraterahava thanks 🙏🏽 no, not yet. It’s on my list but this series won’t be one I get to for a long while. I did read Mercy of the Gods (their newest book) and I quite liked it!
Good choices. I enjoy ‘the classics’ (anything more than 60-100 years old) as much as anyone but I also find that they’re ’of their time’ regarding social behaviours. Often such that it’s more you thinking ‘wasn’t it strange they had to behave like that’!? More of a history lessons on social behaviour.
Hence I think literature at school should be dominated by contemporary books. Kids would identify more with the main characters. And not literary fiction but more readable books, to encourage the habit. So definitely Pratchett and The Hunger Games! Yes, an interesting post, but little chance of any of us becoming Minister for Education…
Well it may have been a while, but I'm from the UK and To Kill A Mocking Bird was on the school curriculum, that and Of Mice And Men.
@@BobbyHall-eu1xv Ok? Didn’t say anywhere in this video that they weren’t. I picked books regardless of whether they are/were already on the school curriculum.
@@bookswithzara Yeah, just saying - I wouldn't know if To Kill A Mocking Bird is still on the curriculum but I'd agree it should be.
I kind believe most kids are put off reading because of school. It's not so much the books we are made to read are schitt but that we are mandated to read them. It's just another chore, more homework, just another quiz. Were, and this would be impossible to do as things stand with the way grading is done, kids given a wider choice of what to read or even perhaps bring in their own material, I think more they would get more out of it then just a pass or fail mentality. This would require smaller class sizes because in order for the kid to be graded on their personal choices it would make the teacher to also read the same books. Or if they had to read say four books in a year, and given a selection to read from, the teacher would have to be well read on the selections, because it would divide the class up into book groups for those parts of the year.
You can throw all the good literature at a student and it'll go over their heads. Even you admitted that something similar happened to you. I hated "Catcher in the Rye" and still do, along with "The Old Man and the Sea" Just depressing stuff. Loved "Count of Monte Cristo", "Of Mice and Men", "Hunchback of Notre Dame", "Cyrano de Bergerac"...even if decades later I barely remember them.
Wish I had Discworld books as a choice of mine to read as a High Schooler. They are fun, easy reads but are packed with so much more than that. Granted I would have been working with less of a catalog in the mid 90's but "Guards! Guards!" would have been one of them. but IF I could I would put the first four "Watch series" books. They deal with a lot of themes but the over arcing one is, what does it look like to have a good police corp. run by a good cop. What does that involve? Once someone has that power, what does it to do them? Also I like how the character of Vimes grows. Something that is hard to do in one book is personal growth. Especially one that a kid would see. Having it spread over four books, or more, is better because each book is like a new chapter in the character's life. Did they really learn from their mistakes in the first book? How did they apply such learned lessons? It's sorta like, do my teachers learn any thing year to year?
Yeah I think it's a combination of the mandating and then the way they're actually taught. For me, it was the latter. As I read a ton of books in my own time at home. You're not taught to think about them freely, you're taught to think about them in the context of an exam and getting marks.
Your last sentence is so interesting. 'Do my teachers learn anything year to year?'. I think if you asked a lot of teachers this question, they'd probably look at you blankly. Not a criticism of the teachers, per se, but a criticism of the education system, whose only goal is to churn out mindless drones that are fit for working. Not for questioning (which imo, is what education should be about).