Books a high school student should read?

Wuthering Heights definitely!

If you are going to read The Scarlet Letter be aware that the opening chapter 'The Custom House' is long and not that similar in style to the rest of the novel - so if that starts bogging you down a little, keep going.

I would suggest anything and everything by Jane Austen. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte. I'm the King of the Castle by Susan Hill. I always enjoyed Robert Cormier. You could do a lot worse than work your way through a lot of the Penguin Classics - Conan Doyle, H Rider Haggard, Robert Louis Stevenson etc.

I would also suggest reading a little Shakespeare - it is fab.

The Scarlet Letter is on your level but you might not get into the story because of the language. I tried to read Frankenstein but had to put it down, I did later get it as a book on tape and enjoyed that.

What are your interests? Follow what you like, there is so much good literature out there, there's something for every subject.

When I was your age three important books to me were Brave New World, 1984 and Fahrenheit 451. My two sons (ages 16 and 12) didn't care for 1984 but liked Fahrenheit 451. Right now the oldest one would rather read East of Eden instead of Brave New World which I'm totally cool with.

Don't read a book because someone said its good for you, read it because you like it. I rather have my boys read comic books they like instead of classics they hate.

Beloved, Their Eyes Were Watching God, Midnight's Children, One Hundred Years of Solitude, Les Miserables, A Tale of Two Cities, The Invisible Man, The Metamorphosis, Catcher in the Rye...

Sorry, not a classic but it's a great romance/action book and mentions several times books by Jane Austen and Wuthering Heights.

Try the Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer - I LOVE it!

Here is the first book in the series; Twilight

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twilight_(n...

The next books are New Moon and then Eclipse.

Check them out! =)

i also remember Huck Finn and Catch-22 being on the AP test. by now they've probably put 100 years of solitude by gabriel garcia marquez.

as for college, you choose your own classes and your professors probably post their syllabus online prior to the start of the class so if you do some digging, you can find out what the class will stress on and what to prepare for.

if you're going to major in english, there's a lot of different ways you can go with it and a lot of different disciplines within english, from women's studies, to marxist to psychoanalytical. you could concentrate on composition, creative writing, literary theory, film (as text), it goes on.

if you're just talking about general college studies, there's usually intro classes you'll take first year to acclimate you towards deep reading and the formulation of arguments so don't worry about it now.

Classics

Geroge Orwell "1984"

Ayn Rand "Atlas Shrugged"

"Pride & Prejudice"

A newer book that is a great read is "The Red Tent"

Crime and punnishment Fyodor D

history of western philosophy Bertrand Russell

A brief history of nearly everything Bill Bryson

The little prince

The oxford encyclopedia of quations

idlewild nick sagan

Brideshead Revisited by Waugh has been my favourite book since I was 14. (40yrs) I reread it every year or so.

It is available in paperback, and a television series (excellent) was made, probably available at your local library or a large rental company. - but don't look at it until after you have read it.

enjoy maybe you'll let me know if you read it and what you think of it.

Well, it isn't a classic, but I'd suggest Twilight by Stephenie Meyer, and its sequels, New Moon and Eclipse, just because they're good.