Last Updated on September 30, 2026
Quick answer: A good high school reading list mixes widely taught classics, such as To Kill a Mockingbird, 1984, and Antigone, with contemporary fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and drama. Reading broadly builds skills for college courses and the SAT, and it gives you genuine answers when applications or interviewers ask what you have been reading.
High School Reading List: What to Read Before College
Developing a reading habit is critical to success in high school, college, and beyond. Regular reading from a good high school reading list will help you succeed at the college application process. For example, one of the best ways to prepare for the Reading and Writing section of the SAT is to read widely and often. Some college applications ask you to list the books and other texts you have explored outside of class. [1] Alumni interviewers often ask about recent and favorite reading, too.
As you develop your reading habits, focus on reading broadly across different genres: fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and drama. This will look most impressive to future admissions officers and interviewers.
Important note: This high school reading list is intended to provide both a foundation and an expansion for what to read before college. Some of these books (marked “standard”) are regularly assigned in high school classes and will be necessary stepping stones to reading assigned in college courses. Other books (marked “adventure”) are intended to expand your reading repertoire and give you some impressive options to refer to on applications and in interviews.
Fiction
Author: Toni Morrison (Standard or Adventure)
American novelist and Nobel Prize winner Toni Morrison, who taught at Princeton for many years, is necessary reading [2] on the historical experiences of African Americans, particularly women.
Try Beloved or The Bluest Eye for standard high school reading assignments.
Branch off from the norm with Tar Baby or Song of Solomon for an adventure.
Author: Sherman Alexie (Standard or Adventure)
Native American writer and poet Sherman Alexie is not only critical high school reading, but a humorous and approachable writer who often focuses on the experiences of teenagers.
Try The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian for a standard in a high school reading list (also suitable for middle school readers).
Take on an adventure with The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven.
Author: Harper Lee (Standard)
Harper Lee’s novel To Kill A Mockingbird follows protagonist Scout’s childhood in the American South and comments poignantly on the history of race relations. This book is universally assigned in American high schools and everyone will assume you’ve read it throughout your life.
To Kill A Mockingbird is typical in a high school reading list.
Author: Margaret Atwood (Adventure)
Margaret Atwood tackles contemporary issues ranging from sexism to environmental destruction in her novels. Her books are less commonly taught at the high school level and have darker themes and more mature content.
Adventure with The Handmaid’s Tale, a dystopian classic that paved the way for widely popular teen series like The Hunger Games and Divergent.
Author: George Orwell (Standard)
Allegory master George Orwell is one of the most frequently assigned authors for high school readers. No one forgets their first encounter with a George Orwell novel, even if it was required reading for an introductory English course.
Read Animal Farm or 1984 to catch up with this dystopian master’s standard high school reading.
Author: Junot Diaz (Adventure)
Brilliant MIT professor and Dominican American Junot Díaz captures the experience of immigrants in a captivating voice for the 21st century. Díaz’s protagonists are young and their speech and experiences will be immediately relatable for high school readers.
Try Drown or This Is How You Lose Her if you like short stories. Díaz’s novel The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao is a Pulitzer-Prize-Winning adventure.
Non-Fiction
Author: Maya Angelou (Standard)
Maya Angelou’s memoir is now widely accepted as required reading for literary success. It’s a powerful examination of loneliness, racial stereotyping, and the redemptive power of literature.
Try a standard, but life-changing, high school choice in I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings.
Author: Jon Krakauer (Standard)
Adventure writer Jon Krakauer’s books are riveting for even the most reluctant readers. Less commonly assigned in high school than other standard books on this list, they are nevertheless widely read non-fiction accounts of Krakauer’s adventures in the wilderness.
Try Into the Wild or Into Thin Air for gripping standard high school non-fiction.
Author: Art Spiegelman (Adventure)
Art Spiegelman’s holocaust narrative in graphic novel form is rarely assigned in high school classes. Elie Wiesel’s Night or Anne Frank’s Diary are more popular picks, but Maus ought to be required.
Ready for a graphic novel that will revolutionize your understanding of what “comics” can achieve in terms of storytelling? Try Maus for an adventure.
Author: Tara Westover (Adventure)
Tara Westover’s memoir Educated follows her path from a childhood without formal schooling in rural Idaho to graduate study at Cambridge. It raises hard questions about family, loyalty, and what it means to educate yourself.
Try Educated for a nonfiction adventure that pairs well with any conversation about learning and identity.
Author: Rebecca Skloot (Adventure)
Rebecca Skloot combines science writing and investigative reporting in The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, the story of the woman whose cells became one of the most widely used tools in medical research. It is a thoughtful choice for students interested in biology, medicine, or ethics.
Poetry
Poet: Emily Dickinson (Standard)
A recluse for much of her life, 19th century American poet Emily Dickinson produced some of the most popular and widely read poetry today. Her slant rhymes are beautiful.
Read “I felt a Funeral, in my Brain” or “Because I could not stop for Death” to get started on this standard high school poetry.
Poet: Robert Frost (Standard)
If you didn’t read “The Road Not Taken” in high school, you must have been home sick that day. It seems impossible that any American high schooler misses the opportunity to read and study this poem in an English class.
Make sure to read both The Road Not Taken and Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening.
Poet: Louise Glück (Adventure)
Nobel Prize winner and former U.S. Poet Laureate Louise Glück wrote in clear, direct language that draws on personal experience and classical myth. [3] That makes her an unusual, but manageable, choice for a high school reader.
Try her poetry collections Faithful and Virtuous Night or A Village Life.
Drama
Playwright: Shakespeare (Standard or Adventure)
Every student needs to read Shakespeare in high school. Notorious for his complex language, Shakespeare is more digestible in performance than on the page. Try any of the famous film adaptations of his plays as interesting complements to the original texts.
To meet the standard requirements for a high school reading list, read both a comedy and a tragedy. Take your pick of Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, or Macbeth for tragedies. Enjoy a happy ending with Much Ado About Nothing, As You Like It, or Twelfth Night.
Already familiar with The Bard? Try one of Shakespeare’s lesser known plays for an adventure: The Tempest, Henry V, The Winter’s Tale, Titus Andronicus.
Playwright: Sophocles (Standard)
Sophocles was a great classical Greek playwright who shaped theater for centuries to come. His three dark plays set in Thebes–Oedipus Rex, Oedipus at Colonus, and Antigone–are referenced throughout Western literature.
Antigone is a standard high school assignment.
Playwright: Tom Stoppard (Adventure)
Up for a challenge? Try one of the cerebral and complex plays of British playwright Tom Stoppard.
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead and Arcadia are two of his most celebrated plays.
Turn Your Reading Into a Competitive Edge
The right reading list does more than prepare you for class discussions. It helps you sharpen your critical thinking, expand your worldview, and impress admissions officers. Our team of admissions counselors can work with you on how to showcase your reading and intellectual curiosity in essays and interviews.
How to Talk About Your Reading in Applications and Interviews
Colleges sometimes ask about your reading directly. Columbia, for example, asks applicants to list the titles of texts, resources, and outlets that have contributed to their intellectual development outside of academic courses, in 100 words or fewer. [1] Our guide to the Columbia supplemental essays covers how to approach that list. Interviewers ask similar questions in conversation, so be ready to explain why a book mattered to you, not just what happened in it.
The best answers are honest and specific. Choose books you actually finished and enjoyed, even if they are not the most famous titles on this high school reading list. Mention a scene, an argument, or an idea that changed how you think. A list made only of prestigious titles, with nothing you can discuss in depth, tends to fall flat.
How to Build a Lasting Reading Habit
Set aside a small, regular block of time, even 20 minutes before bed, and keep a running list of what you read with a sentence or two about each book. Alternate between assigned texts and books you pick yourself so reading never feels like homework alone. If you plan to take AP English Literature, reading across genres now will also prepare you for the novels, plays, and poems on the AP Lit exam.
Ready to Take the Next Step?
Get a clear, honest read on which path actually fits your goals, and the specific next steps to build a competitive application. Click here to book your complimentary consultation.