I finally read Fahrenheit 451. It was required reading in high school but I didn't read it. Go figure.
Reading it now with the gusto of wanting to read, just wow! It was a great story that I don't think my younger self would have appreciated. Everyone likes to cite that its about book burning and censorship, but thats just what you get from reading the back of a book and maybe the bit of the beginning. Its about so much more than that! Dumbing down media for something thats easier to consume, keeping people happy/distracted at all times, growing apathy in society, and the dumb persecuting the intellectual because they feel inferior. God this feels relevant today as I am sure it was back in the 50s when it was written.
I swear I work with someone that is just like Montag's wife.
That's the problem with mandatory reads. On the one hand, sometimes you really get into a mandatory read you might not have come across with (That's how I came across the South American magical-realism writers). But you can also hit a wall with a book you're not ready to appreciate.
I'm in favour of directed reading. If the reading of a chapter comes with commentary and discussion, the book seeps into you even when you hadn't connected with it at first, and by the time you keep reading, the themes and ideas are already present in your mind. I've seen that even complex writing like Shakespeare, or difficult text because of the language, like Chaucer, are made enjoyable to teenagers if the reading and the debate go hand in hand.
Of course, your mileage may vary. All we did as children, in my case, was read the books and face a test at the end of the term.
As for good reads, I've read SPQR by Mary Beard. One of the most insightful and enjoyable works of historical divulge I've seen. If you're interested in Roman history, especially Republican, and it's not your first foray into the field (maybe you've read Rubicon by Tom Holland, or some well researched novel set in Ancient Rome, like Graves' "I, Claudius" or Lindsey Davis' crime stories, give SPQR a go, I think it's quite remarkable.
Mind you, it's not a "history" in the simplest sense, it's more of a rumination on how Roman history has been studied, and the change in perspectives in the last 30 years.