If you could add one book to the required reading curriculum for people under 18, what would it be?
6d 13h ago by lemmy.world/u/BussyCat in asklemmy
"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]
I can see you re-read it after. Hope you had a chuckle.
Yeah, it was stupid and I immediately deleted it.
George Orwell - 1984
https://tinyurl.com/go-1984
Was offered this in high school. I read Brave New World and Island by Aldous Huxley instead. I'd say those.
Same here, Canada?
I love Brave New World, but couldn't get into Island at all. I still have it though, I should give it another go.
The way into Island is really buying into the paradise that it would be and being willing to learn the ways of the Palanese. Oh, and a healthy disdain for the world you'd leave behind.
I figure that's only gotten easier with time.
Ha, yes, certainly got plenty of disdain for the world. I'll give it another go 👍
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"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjXKvLEn89Y
Ah, I see. Unfortunately online one has come to expect people saying things like this seriously, especially when people discuss anti-authoritan ideas.
if only they can read that. they should be reading non-fiction works and doing an essay on that.
If I had read 1984 in school and had to write an essay on it, especially these days, I'd write the essay as a compare and contrast between the dystopian predictions in the book vs actual current events and mass surveillance as things are today. So in that sort of way, it would actually be covering real world events as well as the book at the same time.
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.
This is important. My first solution reading the comment was to just focus on number of books and let the kids pick their own to get the love of reading. However this would be very difficult for a teacher to maintain if they wanted to do any analysis.
So maybe have a short list of a variety of books, and the material could be prepared to discuss themes. Maybe also having students present/teach others what they learned?
There would have to be one or two books at least in a year that were an assigned read for the whole class to get deeper into the text.
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...
Reading might actually be bad for you. The psychic equivalent of footbinding. Leaves you deformed and incapable of seeing leprechauns.
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...
Have you tried reading the books from the list recommended by Adler? I am just starting to get (deeper) into classic literature, and have looked for recommendations regarding book chronology.
I mostly see 2 camps:
- read what you enjoy, which I find hard to determine beforehand; and
- read some specified list in some order, which seems doable - there’s just so many different lists one could start with…
Any insight is appreciated!
I read some Plato and philosophical works but my focus has been more on Indian and Buddhist philosophy.
Unless you are an avid reader, I don't think it's a good idea to try to read everything as listed. Figure out what your genuine questions about life are and read the works that attempt to provide answers. That's why having HTRB on the background is highly useful. Don't read just to say you did, seek to gain understanding, which is easier when you can make the books relevant to your life.
Thanks for the thoughtful response!
I am an avid but slow reader. I think the main appeal for me to read many of the classic (western) books is so that I can get a better understanding of each author’s inspirations, which would hopefully finally help explain how we got to where we are today. But I think your answer is pulling me in the direction of starting with the books I want, and moving backwards in time for each book I want to delve further into, and then moving forwards when questions can’t be answered by the past.
I read more about HTRB today and it seems totally fine to just skim a full book briefly, and decide it’s not for me. So I think I’ll use that as well.
Thanks for mentioning HTRB!
Welcome! Hope you enjoy.
If you steer close to questions about metaphysics and spirituality, I highly recommend stepping outside the western paradigm. A lot of our philosophy is saturated with Christianity-influenced background assumptions, way, way more than people realize. Reaching all the way to modern psychology. It was very fascinating to recognize (and discard) them in my own thinking - and I was a basic intellectual atheist with what I incredibly naively thought was 0 Christian influence in the way I viewed the world.
Yeah what you’re explaining is what I want to experience. If I want to know where to go, it would help to know where I came from.
Any books you recommend from the non-west?
These are more accessible modern works that point you to more classical works if you're interested:
Tantra Illuminated by Christopher Wallis
Roots of Yoga by Jim Mallinson
Three Pillars of Zen by Philip Kapleau
The World of Tibetan Buddhism by the Dalai Lama
People like to recommend the Heart Sutra and Pali Suttas, and Bhagavad Gita but I'd say it's better to get some intro first so you can at least become aware of any prior assumptions you have about the world and realize those works come from a wildly different experience of being.
Bonus: Dark Emu by Bruce Pascoe The Hermetic Tradition in African Philosophy by Theophilus Okere Spell of the Sensuous by David Abram
This is amazing! Thank you so much:) will look into these!
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.
I can speak to my experience in the Midwest during the 2010s. Had to read it in 8th grade.
Make sure to get the uncensored version where she goes into great detail about masturbation.
I don't know why a random nordic plumber should get to decide something like that. I'll pass. I don't feel qualified.
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
Catcher in the rye was a forced book for me and I didnt like it because I thought Holden was insufferable lol. Why do you think it’s a good book to read?
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.
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.
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.
Was going to go with Small Gods too. No needed context, and quite a bit of applicability to the real world.
The Demon Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark - Carl Sagan
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.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3272165-bad-science
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.
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
Surprised no-one said A People's History of the United States.
Animal farm
Personally one of my favorite books
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.
I read this in 2011, the same year I got my first iPhone and started teaching in a middle school.
Yeah, things have trended dystopian and proven this book prophetic in many, many ways
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.
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).
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.
Margeret Atwood - The Handmaid's Tale. Presuming that To Kill a Mockingbird is already part of the curriculum.
Oof, I don’t know about that one for under 18s, even though it’s a good book. I remember some pretty graphic rape scenes. But I also read it at 18 so 🤷♂️
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.)
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.
I was required to read both of those books for school. I'd say they're already required reading, or at least were.
They weren't in any English class I took. We had books like Thing Fall Apart by Chinuo Achebe alongside things like To Kill A Mockingbird, but not the ones I mentioned as required.
I ended up picking up Animal Farm as part of a thing where we had to pick a library book and do various things with the reading. And 1984 was a book I happened to pick up in my spare time.
Definitely books I should read again some time soon.
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?
It was recommended by my psychiatrist, and I'm glad I read it, but I hated Feeling Good.
It's got good advice, and the the techniques are sound, or supposedly clinically backed or whatever. But Burns' style of presenting a patient and then solving all their problems with one quirky treatment really rubbed me the wrong way.
Legally, I'm sure each patient in his book is probably a composite of patients with similar problems. And I'm sure that it's probably more narratively pleasing to show each trial as a success. But I don't know, it just felt so dismissive of the actual struggles of my life and I worry that it gives unrealistic expectations to people who need help.
I felt like I had to try a dozen techniques before I found one that seemed to help. And when I did, it wasn't the overnight cure to my anxiety that he presented, it's been a slow, gradual thing. It was hopeful to find something that helped, but overall I think the book was discouraging because it made me feel like there must be something wrong with me that I'm not having the immediate success that Burns seemed so confident of.
So I don't know. Overall I think it's a useful book, I just wish it was presented differently. I also worry that if it was required reading, you'd get this influx of well-meaning but dismissive people who think that any problem can be solved by whatever the thing their teacher vibed most with. For a lot of people, until they go through their own struggle with mental health it's like it doesn't exist for them. Perhaps doubly true for teenagers with an undeveloped sense of empathy.
Aside, I liked Dr Faith Harper's Unfuck Your Life series. It's got the same bones as Feeling Good, but it's more modern, her style is more grounded, and I think it's important that she sets expectations by telling the reader that not everything in psychiatry is a magic bullet solution.
I also think the Unfuck series is neat because each book is smaller but tailored to a specific focus. Unfuck your Anxiety has different exercises than Unfuck your Depression. I think that makes it more accessible for people who are going through it, although perhaps it does lessen the depth that a required reading list would need from a single book. Not that they'd ever teach Unfuck your Life in school because swear words are bad even though teenagers literally wouldn't care.
Anyway, long story long, I think they absolutely should teach this stuff in school but gosh I hate that specific book
1984
One of these?
Inventing Reality by Michael Parenti. It is about how News Media is used to control our world view. Especially in regards to its relationship to the economic base of society.
News media isn’t so much the issue - social media is.
Almost everything said in the book applies to modern social media. I recommend reading it. Mainstream news media such as the NYT, WaPo, Financial Times, The Economist, and Bloomberg very much are issues though.
Ishmael by Daniel Quinn
Ishmael by Daniel Quinn
CS Lewis, 'The Abolition of Man'.
Well maybe not for kids themselves to read but, since its all bout teaching kids, a required read for all of us the ‘adults’. For anyone one wanting to 'have' children, for any one pretending to teach them anything, for anyone pretending to vote laws concerning the education of those children. Well, for all of us adults. Allow me to explain.
It's a short book (a collection of a few conferences he gave to British bomber pilots, sometime in 1943) in which he reflects on the consequences of all the reforms and wishful thinking that was already going on in the educative system of back then, and how the moral relativism that was being promoted (one should read the book to understand how he defines it) was threatening to destroy... our humanity, our ability to feel and to stand for some ideas, as well as our… individuality/ies. One should keep in mind Lewis was talking ‘the danger of moral relativism’ to young men (fresh out of school, barely older than kids) that were about to go die en masse while bombing (and killing en masse) Nazi Germany.
Lewis reflects on how this moral relativism is turning kids (and therefore all of us) into mere sheep in the hands of a few powerful people that will know how to manipulate those ‘relativist’ values in their own exclusive interest, not in the kid's best interest, and that includes convincing those kids to do the most stupid and (self-)destructive shit. Any semblance with our days and age may not be a coincidence.
This book could and should still be read today as an almost perfect description of how our respective educative systems, at least here in the West, are failing everywhere at teaching kids anything of value. Not just any useful practical knowledge but more importantly any… compass, any firm ground. Lewis talks of this system creating ‘men without chess’ (once gain he says that to young people that are about to go kill and die in a war).
He says that not only that they are failing at teaching kids but he reflects (rightfully so, imho) that it may even become their very purpose to fail at teaching kids anything (and making sure they can't learn much anywhere else, I would add).
CS Lewis is probably most well know for being the author of the ‘Chronicles of Narnia’. More than a movie adaptation it’s a series of books that is also worth reading, this time by kids too ;)
Also, knowing a lot of people around here are hostile to that, I prefer mention Lewis was a Christian thinker. But, by any mean, don’t let that stop you from opening his book.
As an atheist myself, I think it is one book that we should all read closely and then (calmly) discuss it. Like I said, maybe kids themselves should not be reading it (don’t think many of them would get much out of it but some undoubtedly would and, with any luck, they would trigger the alarm and help other kids around them realize how badly they’re being screwed in the name of wishful thinking), but definitely all parents should read it and, in a perfect world, all teachers too and all our representatives. The ones that are responsible for this mess. The ones that are asking for always more reforms in our educative systems, the ones that are voting them and, doing so, the ones that are destroying any hope to raise children decently, and failing to give them any chance to stand on/for something. While allowing a few powerful people use that failure as an opportunity to treat those kids as mere sheep.
Not a bad book. By not a stupid man.
I'm also an atheist who loves C.S. Lewis. He has an incredible way with words. He packs so much into so small a space.
The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith.
I'm on board with the basic idea but this is kind of like recommending Hippocrates as an introduction to medicine - he got a lot right, but his work is also hopelessly outdated. I think readers would be better served by something like Economics in One Lesson, Basic Economics: A Citizen's Guide to the Economy, or Free to Choose.
Ishmael - Daniel Quinn
The Jakarta Method
How To Be Perfect by Michael Schur (of The Good Place). I'm kinda sad how little ethics we teach these days and this book is a very good approachable overview of contemporary ethics that would make a huge difference for our society as a whole.
Harrison Bergeron short story by Kurt Vonnegut is an interesting one. Especially interesting given the context of the time its written.
they can't do that because then my old school would need to stop copying it...
You mean you read it in school or they chained strong people down and buzzed smart people periodically?
"Martin Fierro" by Jose Hernandez. Me and all my classmates thought it would be the most boring book. We were surprised. And it was full of teachings for soon-to-be adults.
Catch-22.
Not For Packrats Only Don Aslett Reading this will save you money.
I think that is "Noon: 22nd Century"
"Me and White Supremacy" by Layla F. Saad.
I think this is especially relevant if you are white in north america.
No Longer Human by Osamu Dazai. One of the English translations. It's short, it's good, and it's kinda fucked up. Should fit right in. And maybe we should read books from other parts of the world.
Now dive into what all that book inspired.
(CW: Suicide, SA, Drug use, Depression/Mental Health, I forget what else. It's not a pleasant book. It is considered literature in Japan though.)
War and Peace.
When they successfully finish they can graduate.
Marmaduke: The Riverside Collection.
I dunno that adding a book would be helpful. I don't know that it is, but it feels like media literacy is at a bit of a low right now.
I don't really know how to teach someone to identify the themes in a book, not this specific book but any book. Do you just read a lot and contrast and compare until you're doing it subconsciously all the time with all books.
I think the main flaw is our actual way we teach literature in schools. I personally hated reading up until doing a “journal club” in college which was more like a book club that we would all read some assigned peer reviewed journals and then discuss them in an open environment. It made it where you couldn’t really participate unless you read the articles and the professor would facilitate the conversation so we would discuss certain things if no one else naturally brought it up. I don’t think that would really be possible in a 30 person class of high schoolers but if you took a smaller group of maybe 10 kids and instead of them just writing about the book had them talk in a group setting about a book like animal farm and which sections they found interesting or what sorts of parallels they see in modern times I think could engage students much more
Promethea by Alan Moore
"The name of the wind"
It will teach them to deal with frustration and disappointment.
Well, it's several books, but probably the main religious texts of the 5 religions with the most members. Would hopefully promote understanding and tolerance if done properly. Hopefully get people to examine their own beliefs.
The Corporation: the pathological pursuit of profit and power by Joel Bakan.
The kamasutra
Lohnarbeit und Kapital - Karl Marx
For a good fifth to quarter of the world it's already a reality, but certainly the Qur'an.