Ask Lemmy

"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.

"The name of the wind"

It will teach them to deal with frustration and disappointment.

"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]

George Orwell - 1984

https://tinyurl.com/go-1984

Demon-Haunted World by Carl Sagan. If nothing else, it might help some people learn to recognize scams.

The Jungle - Upton Sinclaire

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.

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...

The golden compass trilogy.

Because it talks about how adults kill kids souls just like real life.

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.

The Parable series by Octavia Butler

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.

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.

I don't know why a random nordic plumber should get to decide something like that. I'll pass. I don't feel qualified.

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.

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

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/

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

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.

Surprised no-one said A People's History of the United States.

Animal farm

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.

1984

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.