Books Assigned in School

Books assigned in school evoke strong feelings. You either love em’ or you hate em.’ In this episode, Marlon and Jake discuss the books they wished they were assigned in school and the ones they suffered through. Accompanying the books taught in school, there are, of course, the teachers who taught them. A teacher can make or break a book read in school. As a literature teacher (as well as Booker prize winning author), Marlon acknowledges there are some novels assigned in school that you have to work to understand that are really good, but sometimes those novels are not good and if it weren’t for being assigned in school, we wouldn’t still be reading it.

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Pride and Prejudice by Jane AustenThe Republic by PlatoJude the Obscure by Thomas HardyTess of the D’Urbervilles by Thomas HardyThe Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey ChaucerInfinite Jest by David Foster WallaceTom Jones by Henry FieldingMiddlemarch by George EliotCall of the Wild by Jack LondonBleak House by Charles DickensGreat Expectations by Charles DickensThe Pickwick Papers by Charles DickensDavid Copperfield by Charles DickensThe Warden by Anthony TrollopeWashington Square by Henry JamesThe Turn of the Screw by Henry JamesThe Aspern Papers byHenry JamesThe Ambassadors by Henry JamesDaisy Miller by Henry JamesEthan Frome by Edith WhartonThe Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark TwainThe Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark TwainThe Bondsman’s Narrative by Hannah CraftsGuerillas by VS NaipaulMiguel Street by VS NaipaulA Bend in the River by VS NaipaulA House for Mr. Biswas by VS NaipaulDog Soldiers by Robert StoneThe Godfather by Mario PuzoShogun by James ClavellTia-pan by James ClavellKing Rat by James ClavellWhirlwind by James ClavellJulius Caesar by William ShakespeareKing Lear by William ShakespeareThe Tempest by William ShakespeareKing Solomon’s Mines by H. Rider HaggardThe Radiance of the King by Camara LayeHeart of Darkness by Joseph ConradTarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice BurroughsThe Lady, or the Tiger? by Frank R. StocktonThe Discourager of Hesitancy by Frank R. Stockton