Do I Miss High School?!

I'm proud to say that quite often, I look at lists of "must read books" and can say I've read quite a few of them. Most are due to school and while I abhorred assigned reading in high school, I seem to have carried a secret longing to read them on my own. How that happened, I am not sure.

I have read quite a few since graduating, books like "Treasure Island", "The Old Man and the Sea", Pride and Prejudice", etc.

Some of the books I've read, I've enjoyed on my own but some I feel could have benefited from a lengthy discussion of themes and imagery. And then there are those on my "I should maybe read that someday...but I know I'm gonna hate it" list; those are the books like "Brave New World", "Atlas Shrugged", and "Wuthering Heights" (which is as dissimilar to the first two books as a tennis ball is to a banana, I know). They are the books that I feel like I should read, but fear I'll get nothing out of them without classroom discussion.

At the top of this list is "Brave New World". It falls in my category of "goodness gracious I hate dystopian societies!" I've read "Anthem", "Fahrenheit 451", "1984" and "The Giver", have I not given the genre a fair run? Why do I still feel guilty that I have not read "Brave New World"?

It might be easier to read if I had a book club or something...how I miss what I had in high school at this moment. Let us be clear though. I miss the discussion (none of which I participated in because I was hiding in the corner, giving away my participation points) NOT the essays.

So here is the question. Should I suck it up and brave the pages of "Brave New World" though they might bring back horrific memories of trying to read "The Grapes of Wrath" over the summer so that I could read the 5th Harry Potter book, or "Jane Eyre" in exchange for a chance to play Final Fantasy VIII?

How far does one go to read the "classics" and is it worth it to read them just to say you did?

And a more important question, what happened to society that people have voted Twilight to number 48 on a "Books that everyone should read at least once" list on Goodreads!?! Perhaps if I read more about dystopian societies I might begin to understand...