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[jonesey]

x2 on Gatsby...and Catcher in the Rye is outstanding.  It still holds up.  I had to re-read it for grad school, and it's a very different book when you're in your 30's (having originally read it in HS). 

It's funny, where I teach now (Florida) neither Gatsby or Catcher is required reading in high school.  Come to think of it, I wonder if any reading is required in HS anymore...

[mended_drum]

I don't much like Gatsby.  The author seemed to write the same novel again and again with characters that I found boring in the extreme.  Steinbeck was the first time I'd read anything that even implied people like my family could belong in a literary work.  I think I loved Twain for the same reason.  I might include Life in the Iron Mills by Rebecca Harding Davis on the same list.

[chubbytiger]

I found Catcher to be a bit dull.  The Scarlett Letter was good; Shakespeare, Hemingway & Twain are geniuses; All the King's Men was great.  James Fenimore Cooper: well, I think Twain pretty much pegged him in 'Literary Offenses', but his stories can be entertaining.  Assigning Steinbeck, on the other hand is pure sadism.  I was once forced to read The Chrysanthemums and I actually considered gouging my eyes out with a dull spoon.  Even the memory makes me want to start drinking, and it's only 9:30 AM.