Tuesday 19 July 2011

Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Books That Should Be Required Reading For Teens



Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created at The Broke and the Bookish which I am taking part in. 

This weeks question gave me a little bit of a problem as I have never really been a fan of required reading. I hated the fact that school forced certain books upon me and would never want to say something should have to read this or that. In all honesty I actually think the books that teenagers should read are the ones that will inspire them to go on and read more.

However, if I have to at least make some sort of response to the question that it would be the following;

At least one book from every genre that you can imagine.

I just think that this would open up the wider world of literature to a teenager and lets them experience much of what reading can be. I would have loved my Literature classes at school to have explored horror, fantasy, sci-fi, thrillers, romance, classic and so on.

7 comments:

  1. Totally agree. One genre I notice sadly lacking among the list that I included on mine was science fiction, but my list is heavy on classics, which cover a few of the other genres.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Not true Jan. I have a good many science fiction on mine. :) I think most of the lists are lacking books boys and girls will enjoy.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I agree that it can be tough to tell teens what to read, but as an English teacher I think that some guidance is necessary. I like the idea of encouraging the to read outside the curriculum of "required" reading independently while still keeping up with some of the meatier things they may not touch on their own.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Unfortunately many kids will not pick up a book unless we tell them that they "have to" which, of course, makes them not want to read it. Ha!

    ReplyDelete
  5. To be honest I actually started trying to write a list to highlight one book from 10 genres I thought a teenager would like (which included Sci-Fi) and would give them a taste of the genre. In the end though there are way more than 10 genre out there and didn't want to limit it so just put my one liner in.

    Christine, I may actually ask my sister her opinions as she is also an English teacher and may have the same view as you. Then again she was told by someone in her school not to teach the kids Shakespeare because it was a barrier to them getting good grades. I despair for the education system!

    ReplyDelete
  6. +JMJ+

    Trying to be tricky now . . .

    But what would you say the ten most important genres are? ;-)

    ReplyDelete
  7. @Enbrethiliel
    Haha, that is not a nice question, important normally means favourite when you ask people that :-)

    Some of these may not be genre exactly but I would have to say the following are what I would like to have experienced as a teen;

    1) Poetry
    2) Classic Literature (From Shakespeare to Jane Austin etc.)
    3) Science Fiction
    4) Fantasy (Urban, Epic or Paranormal etc.)
    5) Non-Fiction (Any Type)
    6) Crime & Mystery
    7) Thriller
    8) Romance
    9) Humour (Satire, Parody, etc.)
    10) Historical Fiction

    ReplyDelete