I'm kinda sad I was never assigned to read 1984 - always wanted to just haven't gotten around to it. Should put that on my list.
I liked a TON of the books assigned in school. Sometimes it was pretty awkward because I could tell everyone else just watched the movie when we had to talk about the books in discussions or presentations. I wasn't the type to call them out on it either, I mean I've done it before, just rarely.
But among my favorites read in school would be:
Clockwork Orange (probably at the top of my list for literature read in school)
Huckleberry Finn (probably read this a gazillion times for school but loved it each time. Also really like how the older you get the more you take away from the book. I first read it when I was really young and of course most of the themes flew over my head)
Fahrenheit 451
Lord of the Flies
Animal Farm
Things Fall Apart
Read a lot more of course but those stood out to me.
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As for currently reading, I'm still into young adult fantasy for now and am going through the Dark is Rising Sequence. I'm on the second book which takes place during Christmas, so hey, fitting. This series (at least so far) is a fantasy adventure that takes place in the modern world. An evil force called the "Dark" seemingly possesses people to fight against the "Old Ones" which seem to be timeless magical beings which may be known from tales (for example, Merlin is in one though he is disguised as an old man). In the first book, a trio of kids find an old map to the holy grail which their nearby neighbors, possessed by the dark, go to extreme lengths to try and steal from them. The second book follows a new hero, though Merlin returns. This new hero however seems more interesting for he is gifted with magic, unlike the kids of the first book.
Also forgot to mention last time I posted here, but over the summer I read Outlaws of the Marsh which is awesome but so incredibly old as can be gathered by the misogyny within the book. Despite that, its a good read about 108 outlaws banding together against a corrupt government. Whats interesting though is I probably only felt like a couple of the bandits could really be called heroes or wrongly labeled as outlaws due to the corrupt government. Still, they had amusing personalities and characters so I liked reading about them anyways. But so many of the bandits deserve to be outlaws (again the misogyny plays part here, where the author tries to excuse the bandit's murder on the basis that the woman he killed is an adulteress). Nevertheless, it was an interesting read and one of the four classic Chinese novels. (I've now read 3 of the 4,
Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Outlaws of the Marsh, and Journey to the West).