My Relationship With Reading Lists!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                     One of the few things I loved during my school years was the Reading List, which was given out, before school ended, for the summer.  As I got older--junior high and up, the lists got interesting, especially for those like myself, who shifted from juvenile to adult fiction.

                                      I wonder if Reading Lists are still handed out today. Even in my day, they seemed to just stop, after ninth grade, especially as the English department shifted from traditional courses to phase electives.

                                     If reading lists still exist, I would love to see one.  Because I can tell you one thing right now--they have been considerably dumbed down.

                                    Each time I got a reading list, I would go through it carefully, checking off what I had read, putting a star behind a title that meant a MUST.  Like "The Fountainhead," in eighth grade.

                                     Yes, that's right, darlings.  I wonder what someone at that age would mark off now.

                                       I still remember the ninth grade reading assignments.  Here is how it went.

                                       Ninth Grade--"To Kill A Mockingbird," by Harper Lee
                                       Tenth Grade--"The Keepers Of The House," by Shirley Ann Grau (Huh?
                                           Who?  What?  Is this even read, anymore?)
                                        Eleventh Grade--"The Autobiography Of Malcom X"
                                        Twelfth Grade Honors--"The Horse's Mouth," by Joyce Cary, and
                                            "The Story Of Philosophy," by Will Durant
                                         Twelfth Grade CP--"The Razor's Edge," by W. Somerset Maugham
                                         Twelfth Grade Remedial--"1984," by George Orwell

                             Now, of these books, I have, by now, read five.  What I find most interesting is the high level of books on this list.  The idea of "1984" for the remedials--the future grease monkeys and beauticians of America--is laughable, and shows how more intelligent even the dumbest kids were back then.  Orwell's dystopian work would never make a high school list.  Today's students wouldn't even  be ready for it, till graduate school!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                              As for me, I still have reading lists.  Not the kind I assign--books to be read are just piled atop one another now.  Rather, since 1968, I have kept a list of every book I read during each year, and, and since 1970, the same, with movies attended.   With books, my goal is to reach 100, but that has not happened in awhile,  However the book I am currently reading will put me at 84, so this could be the year.

                             I have never lost the pleasure of the reading list.

                              I know tastes change, but why do they have to be dumbed down?????????????