For a lot of people, their reading careers begin and end in high school. The works of F. Scott Fitzgerald, George Orwell, William Shakespeare, and a bunch of other white guys are piled on them until they believe there's no other type of literature besides the kind that are allegedly well-written and conclusively boring.
But sometimes these books (a.k.a. literary canon) slip on by. There are a number of books it seems like everybody who graduated from high school besides me read. But I've heard about them through the grapevine, rumors and hearsay. I don't plan on reading these books at this point because I'm pretty sure I know exactly what they're about. Here are a few books I've heard so much about I think I probably know their stories.
A bunch of animals live on a farm. They're probably farm animals. I would guess pigs, chickens, and maybe some cows. Since it has something to do with communism, I'd say the animals have to share what they produce. So this book probably follows a hen who lays some eggs. A cow makes a bunch of milk. The hen takes some of the cow's milk, and the cow takes some of the hen's eggs. They then realize they want back what they respectively produced, but the farmer gets involved, things go awry, and a revolution happens. The book ends with the animals making an omelette that includes all of the farm's produce.
This high schooler living in 1984 just wants a new Stratocaster like his hero, Eddie Van Halen. But, just as he saves up enough money to buy a new axe, Big Brother (i.e. his older brother) spies on him and finds where he's hidden his savings. Big Brother then takes the high schooler's money and uses it to update his wardrobe to impress a girl. The little brother then takes it upon himself to ruin Big Brother's first date with this dream girl, which happens at the junior prom. It's like a John Hughes movie set when? In 1984, of course.
In a world where time travel exists, a man named Billy Pilgrim is a butcher on the run. He's on the run from ravenous alien hunters who hunt people named Billy. As a cosmic butcher, Billy's only hope is to travel between the galactic hubs called slaughterhouses. He goes from slaughterhouses one to four searching for safety from his alien hunters, but to no avail. His only hope is to try Slaughterhouse-Five, which nobody's heard from in several thousand years. What will Billy Pilgrim find at the final cosmic slaughterhouse?
An old man goes fishing. Also, he drinks a lot. Probably says something misogynistic.
Set during the Vietnam War, a battalion of American soldiers are stuck in Vietnam, all communication cut off from base camp. They're deep in enemy territory. Each soldier has a distinct personality and something back in America they have to get back to. Also, they each carry something, such as backpacks, guns, and canteens. But, it becomes clear as the stakes rise, that the heaviest things these soldiers carry are not on their backs…but in their minds.