Required readings for English class... We have all been there, and most of us hated it, but I choose to believe they aren’t all bad. I am sure English teachers do not sit behind their desks, plotting to assign the most boring books to their students, so in honor of my fourth year of English classes in high school, here are four required readings for school I felt were not that bad to read.

1. Lysistrata by Aristophanes

If you think about it a little, this book is quite sexist. Aristophanes basically makes fun of the notion women can actually have power in society. Putting that aside (although I never forgot it), I cackled with amusement at the dialogue between the men and women as the women withheld sex from their husbands. Seeing the power of sex weaken the entire population of men was hilarious.

2. Hamlet by Shakespeare

If you flipped through my annotated copy of Hamlet, you would find multiple pages where the only annotation I made was, “I love Hamlet”. I lived vicariously through the sassiness and utter savage-ness of Hamlet in the play. I related to Hamlet more so than any other character in any book I ever had to read for class.

3. Inferno by Dante Alighieri

As I stayed up late (or rather, did not sleep) to finish reading the book for a quiz in class, I swooned at the interactions between Dante and Virgil clearly stemming from romantic love (further confirmed by a reading of Dante x Virgil fanfiction). No one can tell me Dante and Virgil were not in a relationship behind the scenes.

4. Twelfth Night by Shakespeare

It is with a vindictiveness I did not realize I possessed that I read as all the characters messed up their own lives because of their own foolishness. It made me realize no matter how rough my life is, I will not have the misfortune of the characters in the play (although it is a comedy, I do not think the conclusion for each character was satisfactory).