Swissbookworm: Top Ten Tuesday #4: Ten Books I Read In Class

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish.

This week is Back To School Freebie week and although I'm not returning to school right away (I'll be starting Uni mid September) I wanted to reflect on some great books I read in Class. Now to be honest, although I adore reading I hated reading assignments. I did not at all enjoy reading books as homework because they never were the ones I would have picked in a bookstore for myself. There are a lot of books that I didn't actually read for school and just kept along in class thanks to Sparknotes and my friends. But there were a few books I quite enjoyed so let's have a look at those.

# 10 Holes by Louis Sachar

I think I read this in 10th Grade. We could decide between Matilda by Roald Dahl, another book I forgot and Holes. The blurb of this one was the most convincing for me so I decided to join the group who read this book and I quite enjoyed it. Also: we got to watch the movie afterwards and I just love seeing young Shia LaBeouf!

# 9 Au revoir, les enfants by Louis Malle

I also read this book in 10th Grade in French class. It's a movie script about a boarding school that hid jew children in 1944. Very emotional! I read lots and lots of books about that time (which almost always left me crying because of the horrible happenings) and this is definitely my favourite one I read in French.

# 8 Woyzeck by Georg Büchner

I think the reason this was one of my favourite German books to read was that it only has 20 pages. The author died before finishing it so the ending of the book leaves a lot open to interpret.

# 7 Die Physiker by Friedrich Dürrenmatt

Another German Classic and one of my favourites. I read this book about three times and I made a class presentation about it and I even chose it as my Finals book. So there's the proove that I really enjoyed reading it. I think the fact that it plays in a mental hospital and the ending leaves you so confused as to who actually is 'crazy' now made me like it even more. A lot of plot twists and a definitely fun read!

# 6 La petite fille de monsieur Linh by Philippe Claudel

I liked this book so much because I basically read it in one sitting the first time through. It's a very cute story and easy to read although the significance of the content is a little darker than it seems at first.

# 5 Como agua para chocolate by Laura Esquivel

Looking back at my review I'm not at all surprised I only gave this one two stars the first time I read it. I've always had a complicated relationship with Spanish books during school. Mostly because they were just weird. Spanish authors had this habit of making up the weirdest of all stories and I just didn't like them. But now I actually quite like this story and I've also seen the movie multiple times (which is even weirder than the book... but oh well).

# 4 Nichts by Janne Teller

Nichts, which means Nothing, was a book I got to read by my own decision in 12th Grade for my German Finals. A friend recommended it to me and I really enjoyed this one. It's actually a pretty new novel released only in 2012.

# 3 Contes by Charles Perrault

I've always been fascinated by fairytales and sagas which made reading this book really fun. Charles Perrault was the first person to write down fairytales known today all around the world. Some of these were quite brutal and very different to the versions we know and hear about nowadays. If you ever want to find out what actually happened to Sleeping Beauty or Tom Thumb or other well known characters I recommend you check out these short stories.

# 2 Bodas de sangre by Federico García Lorca

My absolute favourite Spanish book ever! I've lost track of how many times I've read this one and I'll probably read it so many more times I don't even want to start counting again. It's short, not so simple and very dramatic. Also: It's not a weird Spanish story so I really enjoyed it for actually being empathizable.

# 1 To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

What else could it be? My Number One book is of course my all time favourite classic! I read this before reading it in class and it was quite hard to keep myself from spoiling my friends the whole time. Once I blurtet out the ending of a certain character in the middle of class, but not too understood what I was actually saying, thank god. I still haven't read Go Set a Watchman, but I've got the book at home so I'll do read it someday (soon, hopefully!).