Continuing book threads...What was a book that you hated but teachers made you read

[rcyannacci]

Inspired by all the book threads, I started thinking about books that teachers made me read in school that I hated. (I teach, and I always wonder about this now).

My absolute least favorite was Great Expectations by Charles Dickens. It was so creepy and scary- Mrs. Haversham was a loon, and Estella was so mean to Pip! This book let me know immediately that I was not a fan of the Gothic novel. I think I also hated it because there were never any good books assigned that had female protagonists... I never had anyone to relate to. (We also had to read My Side of the Mountain...such a boy book, I was not in the least interested in living in a tree or making clothes from animal hides.)

 

[snoopy]

OMG, I have no problem answering this one. The book was A Tale of Two Cities. I truly detested that book, and even more I detested my teacher, one of the first lay teachers I had -- up until that point I was taught by nuns. This teacher, Mrs. Peavy -- I still remember her nasty face, made getting through that book a complete nightmare. Fortunately, she was the only bad English teacher I ever had, the others instilled and encouraged my love of books.

 

[Rajah]

Brave New World!

And something I think was Animal Farm? Something about pigs leading the barnyard...

 

[Jenn Lynn]

I think it was reading Shakespeare. I just could not get into it. Most of the other books we had to read I read ahead because I wanted to know what happened next.

I think The Great Gatsby was my favorite book I had to read for school.

 

[jrydberg]

Silas Marner

 

[NMAmy]

Now I know there are many people that love this book but I just couldn't stand the book "Siddhartha" by Herman Hesse. In fact, DH loves it and is constantly giving me grief about it. I did a huge essay on it saying what I disliked about it and got an A. It helped that the teacher was a great lady and a friend--my best friend lived with her and so I saw her all the time after school. She knew I had read it and as long as I had legitimate reasons, she was fine with the essay.

I'm thinking that as an adult, I should go back and give it another chance. Maybe I'll like it now.

I'm sorry that the other posters didn't like Great Expectations or A Tale of Two Cities. I'm a big Dickens fan and love both the stories! It's all a matter of taste.

 

[Toby'sFriend]

The Scarlett Letter. And then Demi Moore did that really stupid movie adaptation of it also.

In Jr. High/Elementary I hated Anne Frank and Flowers For Algernon. My kids had to read them also and I STILL hate them.

 

[Jenn Lynn]

I also didn't like The Old Man and the Sea. I don't think I really got it back then. LOL!

 

[snoopy]

Amy, I think it was more that I didn't really get A Tale of Two Cities, and the teacher was inept at helping me to understand it. I've considered giving it another try, but everytime I think about it I think about that mean teacher........

 

[snoopy]

Oh my gosh, I have forgotten Anne Frank. What did you hate about it, Toby's Friend? That book had such a profound effect on me, just so terribly sad. I fretted over her death for weeks (maybe months?) afterward.

 

[ahutton]

For Whom the Bell Tolls. I didn't and still don't get Hemingway. But I loved The Great Gatsby and Brighton Rock - those were a couple huge surprises.

 

[Shellie722]

That's easy- Canterbury Tales by Chaucer. Absolutely HATED that book which is really unusual for me b/c I usually like anything. I mean I even enjoyed Beuowolf!

 

[nkjzmom]

I absolutely hated Canterbury Tales. I even gave it a second chance like snoopy said and after that reading I donated the book....I will be happy to never see it again.

 

[JetMom]

The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner worst thing I ever read!

Books I read for school and loved... Shane, 1984, Our Town(not a book technically), The Scarlet Letter, Huckleberry Finn, and To Kill A Mockingbird.

 

[jrydberg]

I'm with ya on The Scarlet Letter.

Hemingway, on the other hand, I really enjoyed reading. The Old Man and the Sea, For Whom the Bell Tolls, A Farewell to Arms... the only one of his I didn't care for as much was The Sun Also Rises.

 

[decker96]

The Red Badge of Courage -- had to read it in 8th grade and I couldn't stand it.

 

[rcyannacci]

Originally posted by snoopy
Oh my gosh, I have forgotten Anne Frank. What did you hate about it, Toby's Friend? That book had such a profound effect on me, just so terribly sad. I fretted over her death for weeks (maybe months?) afterward.

I reacted the same way to Anne Frank...and this was one of the few books we read that I completely related to the main character. The diary format was so personal, and I felt so connected to her. Plus, we were learning history (my fav. subject), and I was so horrified that something that barbaric had happened in the same century I was living in. In retrospect, what I think is so great about this book is that you approach it with dread because you know what eventually happens to Anne, but when you are reading it, she is so animated and alive, just a normal teenage girl trying to work through issues of family, love, etc. It makes the end all that more poignant.

I also agree that maybe I ought to give Dickens another try.

 

[wvrevy]

In AP English I had to read a book called "Things Fall Apart" about an African tribesman who...well, that's about all I remember (I seem to have blocked it out). Also, "The Agony and the Ecstacy" about Michelangelo and the de Medici family was possibly just slightly less boring than reading the phone book would have been.

 

[rcyannacci]

Originally posted by JetMom
The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner worst thing I ever read!

Books I read for school and loved... Shane, 1984, Our Town(not a book technically), The Scarlet Letter, Huckleberry Finn, and To Kill A Mockingbird.

I'm absolutely with you on Our Town- I was deeply affected by the 3rd act when Emily tried to go back to talk to her mother and discovered that none of us actually see the beauty of life while we are living it. I still occasionally think of this on days when I haven't stopped to notice anything around me.

Yea, Faulkner is a tough read.

 

[Maleficent13]

You will never, and I mean never, meet anyone who despises James Joyce like I do. I have a BA in English, and you would be hard pressed to find a book I can't find at least one redeeming feature in, but A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man is by far the most pointless, useless, irritating piece of literature I have ever come across.

People, including my ex, used to say that I must not understand it if I didn't like it. So I read it 3 times. Finally, one day, I decided no, there's nothing wrong with me. This book just sucks. Period.