i'm gonna say that i'm otherwise a bad judge of "what books would be interesting to kids in school to read" because, as you may have guessed from my love of overly long sentences, i actually get along quite well with victoriana and so paddled my way cheerfully through dickens while other people were constantly distracted on pure technical merits
also i found The Golden Compass, assigned for summer reading one year, to just be... incredibly tiresome on many levels
note i am vehemently not saying to not teach Austen books, because they're extremely important historically and she's a fantastic pioneer of a woman author
i'm just saying that i personally would rather eat Pride and Prejudice with sausage gravy than read it. please don't make me. i did my time. i got out. YOU CAN'T MAKE ME GO BACK, MAN
i feel much the same way about the writings and speeches of Virginia Woolfe just to continue my Bad Feminist Terrible Literature Opinions C-C-C-Combo there
wait hold on i know, here's the Real Reason You Shouldn't Trust My Judgement About Literature:
despite absolutely adoring Pratchett and enjoying the stories from Gaiman i've seen adapted, every time i try to read Good Omens i don't get very far because, although people rave about it and love it, i just mostly get the feeling that it's two good authors cancelling each other out and leaving tepid mush instead of brilliant fireworks happening.
but to continue my having Bad Book Opinions
i would rather eat an Austen novel with gravy than have to read another one, the Wheel of Time series is like trying to grate your own face off with a ped-egg, and Snow Crash is a delightful book right up until you hit the brick fucking wall of babylonian mythology at which point it chucks all of your enjoyment out the window and takes a knife to all your car tires.