What books did you read in school that you like/hate?

[overlyspoiled4sure]

Disliked SILAS MARNER. Loved it when we were allowed to read what we wanted to find vocabulary words. My mom gave me GONE WITH THE WIND during one winter break. Bad mistake!! She almost had to pry the book away from me so I could do my chores. I got a lot of vocabulary words from that book & it remains a favorite to this day. I actually thought the movie had been cut when I went to see it because so much wasn't in it.

 

[browneyes106]

Liked:
Catcher in the Rye, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Death of a Salesman, To Kill A Mockingbird
Hated
The Man Who Killed The Deer

 

[JaneBanks]

I loved The Great Gatsby and Lord of the Flies.

I hated The Contender and Silas Marner.

 

[swanmom]

We had to read "Giants in the Earth" by O. E. Rolvaag. Here's my plot summary. Terrible winter and snow, death ... terrible winter and ice storm, death ... locusts, death ... drought, death ... plan to move west for a better life, death on the trail ... starvation, paralyzing blizzard, ... broken wagon, more starvation and the final chapter - father sets out to get help for the family in the broken wagon, dies in the snow.

I swear that this is exactly what stuck in my mind from that book more than 25 years later. I think I've been scarred for life!

 

[Katie's Butterflies]

I really liked: Wuthering Heights, To Kill a Mocking Bird, Persepolis, Great Gatsby, A painted House, The Hobbit, Giver (I always thought he died at the end until I read the sequel), Tale of Two Cities... the list goes on and on

I really did not like: Shakespeare (except MacBeth), Regiment of Women, A Man For All Seasons, Lord of the Flies. There are a bunch more but I think I’ve blocked them out.

 

[mom3sonstt]

The one stand-out from high school for me was "Wuthering Heights". I remember reading the assigned chapters and not getting much out of it, then going to class the next day and Mr. Klotz (most amazing teacher ever!!!) would go over what we had read. I sat there just amazed that he and I were reading the same book - I got nothing out of it - and he was telling me this amazing story with really interesting characters. I tried - I never saw what he saw. I even, years later bought the book and read it again as an adult. I still didn't "get it". I remembered what he had said, and I got more out of it than I would of had I never had Mr. Klotz. I never really enjoyed any of the British Literature books we had to read in that class. I do enjoy reading, but not the classics, I guess.

 

[wendym]

It's from The Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner" And I so agree with those who say dissecting novels kills a love of reading - took me years to regain it.

 

[ZephyrHawk]

I generally loved just about everything I read in high school. The one exception would have to be The Octopus. God, was that horribly depressing.

If I had to pick one I read that I enjoyed piecing out the most, it would probably be The Inferno. I'm not going to hell, by the way, I get stuck in the vestibule of the uncommitted. Good to know I'm prepared!

 

[MiniGirl]

I enjoyed most of my reading assignments. Favorites included Great Gatsby, Scarlet Pimpernel, and Count of Monte Cristo. I also enjoyed books by G. Orwell -- mostly because I found them to be an easy read with simple symbolism. Oh and one I didn't expect to enjoy, but really did was Cry, the Beloved Country.

I didn't really like any of the russian authors and struggled with War and Peace and Crime and Punishment. I also disliked (and still do) any book written in stream-of-consciousness. Ugh!!! It just makes my head hurt. Now, one that I did not enjoy but thought I would was The Hobbit.

 

[LukenDC]

I hated Tristram Shandy and could not get into Middlemarch. Favorites in school (high school and college) include Sense and Sensibility, Pamela, The Italian, and Mrs. Dalloway.

 

[LuvCuteBoys]

Looks like Silar Marner was a favorite
Hahahahaha.

 

[daughter_of_amid_chaos]

LOVE:
High School:
East of Eden
All The King's Men
Night
Red Sky at Morning
Catcher in the Rye
To Kill a Mockingbird
Chesapeake
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
Watership Down
A Separate Peace

College/Masters/Ph.D.:
Brave New World
Player Piano
Pride and Prejudice
Battle Cry of Freedom
Beowulf
The Age of Innocence
1984
Lincoln
White Teeth
The Killer Angels
Persuasion
The Confederate Nation

HATE:
High School:
The Scarlet Letter
Fahrenheit 451
The Old Man and the Sea
A Tale of Two Cities

College/Masters/Ph.D.:
I can't really think of any that I absolutely hated outright lol

 

[disneydance]

I've enjoyed so far Whirligig, Farenheit 451, Anthem, Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry, Crash and thats really it...

I've hated so far... The Outsiders, Of Mice and Men, Romeo & Juliet, Julius Caesar, Animal Farm, Things Fall Apart

 

[luvmy3]

Hated anything Shakespeare. Loved Lord Of The Flies and The Stand by Stephen King.

 

[teacherlisa1978]

Looks like Silar Marner was a favorite
Hahahahaha.

Yes! I was at the International Reading Association convention in Chicago in April and my favorite speaker, Richard Allington said, "WHY are kids still reading Silas Marner?" And it's true! There are so many rich and wonderful books out there.

In college (English major here) I hate, hate hated "Sister Carrie." Possibly the most boring book I've ever trudged through. But it's still on my bookshelf. I can't make myself get rid of it-it's sort of like a trophy to show that I survived the misery I guess.

In high school I had better luck-loved "The Name of the Rose," "Rebecca," "Of Mice and Men," "Cold Sassy Tree," "Sense and Sensibility" and even "The Odyssey."

Really struggling to remember ones I loved in college...oh! "I Know why the Caged Bird Sings," Maya Angelou has had an amazing life. (Just finished the huge volume of her collected autobiographies a few weeks ago-wow!)

 

[teacherlisa1978]

I've enjoyed so far Whirligig, Farenheit 451, Anthem, Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry, Crash and thats really it...

I've hated so far... The Outsiders, Of Mice and Men, Romeo & Juliet, Julius Caesar, Animal Farm, Things Fall Apart

"Roll of Thunder Hear my Cry" is an amazing book-I read it with my 6th graders in the winter (I work with small groups of struggling readers across grade levels) and it touches even the jaded ones. There are several sequels, FYI.

 

[PUZZLDY5]

Love Love Love - To Kill A Mockingbird, and Where The Red Fern Grows (although, I think that was a middle school book)

HATED- The Iliad / The Odyssey I didn't think I ws ever going to get through them.

 

[PollyannaMom]

I think the assigned book I reread the most on my own was Jane Eyre. I also remember really getting into To Kill a Mockingbird, and enjoying a bunch of stuff we read for a senior class called "Alternative Societies" - Brave New World and things like that.

The book I hated the most was Last of the Mohicans, mostly because I was actually too young to read it when it was assigned (4th grade - the violence was still too much for me at 9). I also disliked Of Mice and Men, and pretty much everything where the beloved dogs and horses died.

 

[LukenDC]

In college (English major here) I hate, hate hated "Sister Carrie." Possibly the most boring book I've ever trudged through. But it's still on my bookshelf. I can't make myself get rid of it-it's sort of like a trophy to show that I survived the misery I guess.

I plan to read Sister Carrie this summer.

Slightly off-topic, but I just started reading Main Street by Sinclair Lewis and I am really enjoying it. Broadly speaking, the story is about the tension between cultural/intellectual elites and small town provincialism.

 

[Poohs Pal]

In grade school I loved Huck Finn and Island of the Blue Dolphins
High School: Great Expectations
I don't really recall anything I didn't like "ahem" could be due to age. Been awhile since high school. The one's I liked stuck with me.