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

[JetMom]

Originally posted by Sonya
I HATED "Where the Red Fern Grows" and "Lord of the Flies"

I liked Lord of thr Flies.

Also, Where the Red Fern Grows is one of my All Time favorite books!!!

Oh well -- Everybody's Different!

 

[Cindy B]

Animal Farm! It was the worst part of 6th grade... and then in 10th grade I had to read it again...


I still can't believe we read/discussed Animal Farm in the 6th grade

 

[theSurlyMermaid]

I HATED HATED HATED Tess of the D'Urbervilles.

Also disliked Great Expectations, but nothing can compare to the loathing of Tess.

But had it not been for assigned reading, I never would have fallen in love with Pride and Prejudice, Wuthering Heights, Gone With the Wind and To Kill a Mockingbird.

I also loved Animal Farm.

 

[Kim in TN]

For me it was Dracula, I just couldn't get into it
I also didn't care for Canterbury Tales.

 

[caitycaity]

i also really liked lord of the flies and animal farm.

 

[mickeyboat]

Beowulf. I could not understand a word of that thing, although I liked the story. I wonder if I could understand it now?

Denae

 

[Crankyshank]

I loved Animal Farm and Tess of the D'urbeville

I absolutely loathed Hemingway- what a misogynist! and Siddartha was so boring.

 

[JVL1018]

I am a voracious reader but there were a few that I just hated in HS:

Animal Farm
A Tale of Two Cities(!!!)
The Great Gatsby(which I am going to reread soon, I think I may like it now)
1984
Lord of the Flies

Some of the ones mentioned here I enjoyed, such as:
Canterbury Tales,
The Scarlet Letter(a lot!)
Of Mice and Men
Steinbeck & Hemingway are both okay, I didn't hate them didn't love them.

As for Shakespeare, I LOVED The Merchant of Venice and MacBeth. Othello and Hamlet not so much.

 

[DisKim]

I'm laughing to myself reading this board as the English teacher who assigns these novels. I have 2 new classes this year and I am currently reading novels that I don't care for that I will have to force my students to read. One of them is Great Expectations. I'm not a big Dickens fan. As a student, I liked everything I read. I guess that's why I'm teaching English now .

 

[Figment22]

Beowulf-- Ugh! Hated it.

I was also not crazy for Crime and Punishment.

 

[zagafi]

I hated Grapes of Wrath. BLECH. Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God (though not a book per se) was pretty much a buzzkill, too.

I have a BA in English (used to teach HS English, but I'm a tech coordinator now) and some of the things I disliked in high school I loved in college.

 

[GlennandAnn]

I hated Rebecca, by I think Daphne duMaurier. I don't think I got much past the first chapter, and I am a reader. I also hated Lord of the Flies, Flowers for Algernon, Beowulf, and The Canterbury Tales. I did read The Jungle by Upton Sinclair and wrote a report about it and I really liked that book.

Ann

 

[Bob Slydell]

Pride and Prejudice (and pretty much everything by Jane Austen).

As far as poetry goes, I've never been able to read anything by Wordworth (or WordsWords as I remember referring to him as a kid).

 

[DMickey28]

All of them. I hated every book I had to read... however now I look back, especially at college lit classes, and find myself re-reading a lot of the books.

I hate HAVING to do anything. I can eat low carb on my own all day long, however as soon as i START the South beach diet, it's all down hill!!!

 

[katerkat]

Oh my gosh, the first thing that popped into my head was Oprah's newest book of the whatever - Anna Karenina. SO FREAKING LONG! It might have been good, but not when you read Part 1, Part 2 and Part 6 because it's taking so long! (And I'm a fast reader!) Of course, we also had to read Madame Bovary, which was the same story but thousands of pages less.

I'm surprised at how many of my favorites are mentioned here! Loved Flowers for Algernon (I bawled), Where the Red Fern Grows (I bawled) and Great Expectations (no bawling). Also Rebecca, the Canterbury Tales, Tess of the d'Ubervilles...

I liked Beuwolf, but hated the second book we had to read. The title was whatever the monster's name was - Grim-something? It was very existential and I just didn't get it.

 

[Rock'n Robin]

DisKim, why do you have to teach books you don't like? Our curriculum isn't specific as to what literature to teach as long as you can make it fit the standards.
I have quit teaching books I don't like. I don't teach The Scarlet Letter anymore. I only gave Great Expectations one year--bleck! My honors seniors voted (given a choice) to drop Canterbury Tales for this year's students and I may honor that and give it a year off. I may also replace Pygmalion with The Importance of Being Earnest. As for a British novel I usually do 1984 with my seniors, who read Animal Farm earlier (but not in 6th grade--sheesh! How can you draw the parallels with communist Russia with a bunch of 11 year olds?) I may also do Tale of Two Cities, which I like a lot.
I know what you mean about summer reading--I am trying to reread To Kill a Mockingbird and Walden. Both noble books, but if last year's 10th graders are any guide, they can't handle Mockingbird.
As a student I HATED a book called "The Chosen" by Chaim Potok, about jewish boys coming of age. But that may have been because I didn't like that teacher either. That was also the year I read "Julius Caesar", which is so boring I fell asleep during a professional production.
I LOVE teaching Hamlet, Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, The Odyssey, Great Gatsby, Beowulf and a newer book called "Fallen Angels" about Vietnam.
Robin M.

 

[donaldbuzz&minnie]

Another vote for Silas Marner. 9th grade English. Hated it, hated the class. I had a teacher who should have been a mortician.

 

[snoopy]

I loved The Chosen. I read that one so many times I ended up havng to throw it away it was so dogeared.

 

[daughter_of_amid_chaos]

THE SCARLET LETTER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
and anything by Shakespeare

 

[Costumesaremylife]

I love to read and will gladly give anything a chance. Now that being said I absolutley hate To Kill a Mockingbird. Many people don't like it when I say this, but believe me I've tried. I have read it more than once, seen the movie and even the stage play. Still I hate it. The other books on the list are Where the Red Fern Grows, Old Yeller, The Red Ponyand basically any book where an animal gets hurt. Also including Apt Pupil, but I was reading that on my own. I through that book out the window of the car. I love shakespeare. Funny if the people die It's ok. I just hate it when the animals do. Books I absolutely loved reading were Summer of My German Soldier, Diary of Anne Frank, Hamlet, Much ado about nothing. (I know they are plays)