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
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.
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.