Students with excellent reading and comprehension skills find the verbal sections of the SAT and the reading test on the ACT much easier to attack. Classic literature offers you a chance to practice reading typical SAT and ACT passages and to expand your vocabulary.
Carry a book with you at all times, reading whenever you have a few spare minutes, such as during a break at work, in the doctor’s waiting room, or at the pool. While reading, mark any unfamiliar words and define them when you return home. And you can also check our SAT Word of the Day archives for any unfamiliar word that you may need defined.
Below is list of great literary works that can help you build a powerful vocabulary and the mental acuity needed to best those ACT and SAT reading passages. It is based on the easiest and most interesting classic stories as recommended by PowerScore instructors. We’ve also included the most recent movie version for you to view after completing the novel.
Book | Author | The Plot in 3 Words | The movie stars: |
| Pride and Prejudice | Jane Austin | British romantic comedy | Keira Knightley |
| Wuthering Heights | Emily Bronte | Passionate love story | Juliette Binoche, Ralph Fiennes |
| The Awakening | Kate Chopin | Wife finds freedom | No movie version available |
| The Red Badge of Courage | Stephen Crane | Civil War fear | Audie Murphy |
| Don Quixote | Miguel de Cervantes | A madman’s adventure | John Lithgow, Isabella Rossellini |
| The Three Muskateers | Alexandre Dumas | Historical French adventure | Charlie Sheen, Keifer Sutherland |
| The Great Gatsby | F. Scott Fitzgerald | Rags to riches | Robert Redford, Mia Farrow |
| Lord of the Flies | William Golding | Deserted island boys | Balthazar Getty |
| The Scarlet Letter | Nathaniel Hawthorne | Punishment for adultery | Demi Moore, Gary Oldman |
| Catch-22 | Joseph Heller | WWII satire | Alan Arkin |
| Brave New World | Aldous Huxley | Year 2540 utopia | Peter Gallagher, Leonard Nimoy |
| The Metamorphosis | Franz Kafka | Man becomes insect | Steven Berkoff, Tim Roth |
| To Kill a Mockingbird | Harper Lee | Deep South prejudice | Gregory Peck |
| The Call of the Wild | Jack London | Yukon sled dog | Charleton Heston |
| Beloved | Toni Morrison | Effects of slavery | Oprah Winfrey, Danny Glover |
| Animal Farm | George Orwell | Farm animals revolt | Kelsey Grammer, Julia Louis-Dreyfus |
| The Bell Jar | Sylvia Plath | Young woman’s depression | Julia Styles |
| The Catcher in the Rye | J.D. Salinger | A teenager’s alienation | No movie version available |
| The Grapes of Wrath | John Steinbeck | Great Depression sharecroppers | Henry Fonda |
| Treasure Island | R.L. Stevenson | High seas adventure | Charleton Heston |
| Uncle Tom’s Cabin | Harriet Beecher Stowe | Cruelty of slavery | Avery Brooks, Bruce Dern |
| Adventures of Huckleberry Finn | Mark Twain | A runaway’s story | Elijah Wood |
| Candide | Voltaire | French adventure satire | No movie version available |
| Slaughterhouse-Five | Kurt Vonnegut | WWII time travel | Michael Sacks, Ron Leibman |
| The Color Purple | Alice Walker | Southern women’s difficulties | Whoopi Goldberg, Danny Glover |
| The Picture of Dorian Gray | Oscar Wilde | Price of vanity | Josh Duhamel |
| Native Son | Richard Wright | Depression-era racism | Victor Love, Matt Dillon |
Got any other books that you think should be on this list? Leave it in the comments!
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