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

[caitycaity]

old man and the sea. it was TORTURE!

also, in 8th grade we had to read "the pearl" by john steinbeck. i normally like steinbeck's stuff, but i thought that book was pretty awful.

wvrevy, we had to read "things fall apart" too. it's by chinua achebe. i actually thought it was ok.

 

[Toby'sFriend]

That book had such a profound effect on me, just so terribly sad. I fretted over her death for weeks (maybe months?) afterward.

I think that was it - it was an incredibly depressing book and we did tie it into history class so a good portion of our day was spent mired in those images. We dwelled on it for months. I remember that there was a TV movie released about the same time and we had to watch it. We also had to watch documentaries of video footage of the concentration camps, including disturbing images of the bodies and gravesites.

 

[jrydberg]

Not in high school, but in college... Aristotle's Nicomachaean Ethics. He had the ideas, but man what a dull writer. It's like reading a philosophic dictionary.

Plato should've helped him out a bit on the writing

 

[snoopy]

Originally posted by caitycaity
old man and the sea. it was TORTURE!

also, in 8th grade we had to read "the pearl" by john steinbeck. i normally like steinbeck's stuff, but i thought that book was pretty awful

I had forgotten about The Pearl. That was pure drudgery.

 

[NMAmy]

Reading back through this thread has reminded me of something. A few years ago I worked in the English Department at a college and we had a book club that included several English teachers. We finally had to put our collective foot down and tell them that they were no longer allowed to pick the books. OMG, they would pick the most depressing books! I vividly remember one about female mutilation (by Toni Morrison maybe?) that I had to put away and not finish. When we called them on this, one asked me "Why do you not want to read about depressing things?" Well, heck there are enough depressing things in my life without me spending my free time reading about them!

I really enjoy stories about adventures or people with some redeeming qualities. And yes, I'm a sucker for a happy ending!

My favorite book club moment was when we picked a Harry Potter book and my DD was the group leader. The English chair started on about Neitsche and good and evil and I had to ask her if she could ever just enjoy a good yarn! She told me that yes, she loved the book but she couldn't turn the english teacher off without REALLY trying.

 

[rcyannacci]

Originally posted by jrydberg
Not in high school, but in college... Aristotle's Nicomachaean Ethics. He had the ideas, but man what a dull writer. It's like reading a philosophic dictionary.

Plato should've helped him out a bit on the writing

LOL- yea, Aristotle's Poetics is no picnic either. And we had to read multiple translations to debate the concept of catharsis...what a boring two weeks that was!

Plato- certainly more entertaining. I love the irony that he argued against drama, but wrote in dialogue format.

 

[Dee & Greg]

For a college literature class.. it was called "Stop Time" by Frank Conroy. OMG, I actually just looked it up on amazon and it is still in publication. I remember it seemed like one long sentence with no puncuation for over 400 pages. UGH. Needed to write a paper on it, and I believe I wrote that it was a waste of paper and time. Don't think I got a good grade in that class!
I love to read, but I hate to read something that has no meaning, or at least tries to give you the feeling that you must not be sophisticated enough to understand or relate to the book. Sometimes crap is just crap.

 

[caitycaity]

i remembered another one: the good earth. UGH!

 

[ZebraStripes]

Totally hated Animal Farm. To this day I still have no clue what it as about.

On the Scarlett Letter...I would have said that too until I just recently listened to it on tape. I found it much better the second time around. Kind of like a soap opera.

 

[Skywalker]

Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad and Lord of the Flies, I don't remember who wrote that one. Took them in high school English and hated them!!!!

 

[kbeverina]

I'm trying hard to think of a book I hated, but I can't think of one. I've always loved reading, so if it was a novel I could generally get into it eventually.

What I really hated were the short stories by the likes of William Faulkner, Stephen Crane, Ernest Hemingway, etc. I just couldn't get into that style and thought the short stories were incredibly boring. I thought they went too much for stylistic content and not enough for telling a good story content.

In 11th grade we concentrated on American writers and in 12th grade we did English writers--I enjoyed that a lot more. Those were great stories!

 

[wvrevy]

I think "Animal Farm" really depends on how it's taught. As a teenager, it'd be easy to miss the symbolism inthat book unless you knew what to look for.

caitycaity: You can keep "Things Fall Apart" We had just finished Vonnegut's "Slaughterhouse Five" and I'd just read "Cat's Cradle" on my own, so "Things" just paled SOOOO badly in comparison

 

[Sandy V.]

"The Red Pony" by John Steinbeck.

I like much of Steinbeck's work, but why on earth would a 9th grade English teacher think kids would be drawn to a story where the horse dies?!?

I also grew up in the era where Jonathan Livingston Seagull was very popular - but that book bored me to tears. I never finished it. Same with Watership Down.

 

[Galahad]

I didn't like "Howards End". I'll be flamed here but I also think "Catcher in the Rye" is hugely overrated.

 

[DooDahDay]

I hated reading the Red Badge of Courage in school.

 

[rhanditresmom]

Silas Marner....I'm getting sleepy just thinking about it....yawn.

Also did not like Great Expectations.

 

[Sonya]

I HATED "Where the Red Fern Grows" and "Lord of the Flies"

 

[vettechick99]

ITA! Mark me down for hating Great Expectations, Shakespeare (like the stories, hate the writing) and The Scarlet Letter.

Was pleasantly surprised by Of Mice and Men. The movie was just as good!

 

[MinnieM21]

For my college history class I had to read "Germinal" by Emile Zola, it was an ok book but it was 500 PAGES LONG! Thank goodness for Spark notes.

 

[ead79]

I couldn't stand Lord of the Flies, Grapes of Wrath, or Of Mice and Men (I'm not a Steinbech fan). I enjoyed Heart of Darkness and A Brave New World, however.