My “To Read” List

First off, can I just say that there is an endless amount of amazing reading out there. There really is. No matter what your interests might be there is something for you. As some of you may know, I’m a high school teacher. Which means I’m surrounded by teenagers most minutes of my life. The one thing I hear more often than not–“I hate to read.” Gah! That’s impossible. How could anyone hate to read? So, my response to that teenager–“You just haven’t found the right book yet.” As some or most of you know, all it takes is one. One book and it’s over. You might fall in love, experience all sorts of recklessness, save a life, take a walk through history, slay a dragon, become a witch, kiss a vampire… the list is endless. My love of reading spawned a love of writing, but that is a whole separate story. In my attempts to become a more well-read person, I have attempted to expand my reading choices. First, I made a list of all the books currently on my list (they are in no particular order). Like I said though, that list was severely limited. My second step was to talk to those high school students that actually do like to read and get their choices. Then, of course, I went to Pinterest. The lists I found on there ranged from Romeo and Juliet to Fifty Shades of Grey and everything in between. I’m sure there are some amazing books out there and I missed all of them, so this is just my starting point. Here’s what I came up with so far:

1. Anything by Maggie Steifvater (personal addiction)

2. *The Infinite Sea, Rick Yancey (this is the second book to The 5th Wave)

3. *City of Heavenly Fire, Cassandra Clare

4. The Selection, Kiera Cass (and if I like it, the rest of the series)

5. Cinder, Marissa Meyer

6. Eleanor and Park, Rainbow Rowell

7. Anna and the French Kiss, Stephanie Perkins

8. Anything by Susanna Kiersley (I am currently working my way through all of her books)

9. *Dreams of Gods and Monsters, Laini Taylor

10. Blind Assassins, Margaret Atwood

11. The Goon Squad, Jennifer Egan

12. Perfume, Patrick Suskind

13. The Fault in Our Stars, John Green (this one makes almost every list!)

14. Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen

15. No Exit (this is a short play)

16. A Long Way Gone, Ishmael Beah

17. Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret, Judy Blume

18. In Cold Blood, Truman Capote

19. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Hunter S. Thompson

20. Great Expectations, Charles Dickens

21. A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens

22. On the Road, Jack Kerouac

23. Slaughterhouse Five, Kurt Vonnegut

24. The Giver, Lois Lowry

25. The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood

26. Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy

27. Brave New World, Aldous, Huxley

28. Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte

*The book hasn’t been released yet.

This list is in no way complete. So, my next task–what do you think should be on this list? Please remember I didn’t include a number of amazing books because I may have already read them. That’s a whole other list.