Books You've read for school and you hated

[Raxo]

Well we've all had to read books for our English classes or whatnot. I just wanted to know what books have you read that were mandatory and made you feel like drowning yourself in a toilet after you finished reading them.

A book I absolutely despise The Scarlet Letter. Maybe back in 1850 when it was written it was edgy or some shit, but now it's boring as shit. The whole book is about a priest who has a baby and covers it up and this long drawn out crap of a book comes out. It's pretty short but so tedious to read.

[CheesePlease]

The Hobbit.

I couldn't even get through the first couple chapters it was that fucking boring.

[BilkEmDanno]

The Scarlet Letter is definitely one I hated. Lemme think of all the ones I've read so far to my memory-

The Pearl
The Outsiders
Of Mice and Men
The Bean Trees
The Odyssey
The Tragedy of Julius Caesar
Night
Animal Farm
The Catcher in the Rye
Some Random Mythology Book

That's all I can think of for right now. Out of those, I really only disliked The Pearl and The Scarlet Letter. The Pearl is just such a boring book. "Oh, I got a pearl. Oh, everyone hates me and the pearl brings bad luck. Oh. Well. Damn. Long. Drawn. Out. Plot. Okay, I threw away the pearl." Scarlet letter is all: "Hey, I got a scarlet letter sewn on my jacket for adultery. Oh damn."

Outsiders was borderline. I mean, I liked it, but it became too cheesy. Two street hoodlums go Brokeback and live in a house together and smoke on the stairs together and discuss their dreams like real manly gangsta's. Then, they save a few kids from a burning school. Yawn.

Odyssey was also pretty bad, but it picked up. At first, it was boring, then it got good, then it almost ended boring but they saved it.

[jewishjosh]

The Giver, back in grade 4. I gave up on it after not even two chapters but now that I'm almost all grown up I might be mature/open-minded/patient/interested enough to give it another chance.

Of Mice And Men was pretty bad, but it was tolerable.

[Mirrorman]

Lord of the flies. I threw it in the corner after the 1st 10 pages and didn't continue for like 2 months. It was fucking boring.

[Kitsuri]

Their Eyes Were Watching God.

AAAHHHH! Not only was a majority of the book written in what should be considered America's most unintelligible dialect ever created, but the characters die of rabies. Hmm. Just, blech. Worst read ever.

[abbey]

I have to read A Tale of Two Cities by Friday. I don't understand a word of it. But I decided I'm just going to read the Sparknotes for it and takes notes on each chapter.

[natalie137]

An Inspector Calls. Worst fucking play ever.

[cosmosforest]

Lies of Silence, by Brian Moore, and December Bride, by Sam Hanna Bell, both for the Leaving Cert. The 2 books deal with social division and dilemmas in the community (December Bride is about a farmhand who gets pregnant - I think - and Lies of Silence is about the IRA and a bomb plot and the morally torn protagonist who's a real loser!).
It didn't help that the Ordinary level teacher I had for most of the week was female and scorching hot, and the Honours teacher was a nicknamed Johnny Bravo, simply because he resembled the cartoon character in almost every respect!! The only place he fell short was the lack of blonde hair.

Overall, I liked the books I had to read in school, but I would much rather have read the books BilkEmDanno had to read, cos they're what I read now!

[ToastmasterAlpha]

I'm convinced that anything you read in school is ruined due to the fact that it's something you have to do, even if it really is a good book. For instance, I've heard so many great things about Ender's Game, and I love science fiction, but I had to drag myself through it in English Ten.

[WillJ.]

Death Of A Salesman - I hated it so much, It jumps around all over the place with all these flashbacks and just random plot developments that make no sense.
Of Mice and Men - I'm glad Lenny shot George. It actually made me enjoy a whole few seconds of the book. Shame that was dragged out and crappy aswell.

[Andyrew120]

I read "of Mice and Men" and i really liked it!! I would say it is one my favourite books I have ever read. I started reading "the catcher in the rye" but then i got bored and put it down and never picked it up again. It gets a bit boring.

[Dauntasa]

To Kill A Mockingbird is the most boring book I have ever read. There's a very good reason why its author never wrote anything else.

[xJesusx]

As soon as I read the title of the thread, The Scarlet Letter came to mind immediately. There are definitely others, but that is the one that sticks out the most.

[Krabby]

Well, most books I have to read are in dutch (often from flemish/dutch writers) so you won't know them. The one's I've had to read for english, namely "The nature of the beast" and "The Collector" were quite decent reads.
One book I had to read for school and despised was "Mevrouw Verona daalt de heuvel af" by Dimitri Verhulst, if anyone happens to speak dutch here.

I've always been someone who reads rather often, but when I have to do it for school I sort of dislike it, even if the book is good. Not because I have to read it, but because we have to make a task about it afterwards.

[AccidentalMartyr]

Hatchet by Gary Paulsen. It's not necessarily that it was bad, it's just that the class I read it in pounded all of its plot points, characters and everything else firmly into the ground. It basically sucked all of the life out of it and made it a bland, boring, awful read. I really hated that class.

[Cristo]

Weep Not, Child by Ngugi Wa Thiongo was pretty fucking horrible. Just reverse racism.
Therese Raquin by Emile Zola I absolutely loathed, and to drag myself through that only to give up half way, God awful.
A Doll's House by Henrik Ibsen was a pretty boring play as well.
Duchess of Malfi, again gruesomly boring play.

Books I did like on the other hand:

Perfume, by Patrick Suskind.
The Importance of Being Earnest, by Oscar Wilde.
The Outsider, by Albert Camus.
A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, by Aleksandr Solhneitsyn or some crazy name like that.

[JamesKPolk]

Chaucer's 'The Millers Tale". Not only it is written in mostly incomprehensible middle age English, but it also is about farts and having sex with someones wife. Seriously. Only good thing about it was- it's short.

[John Travolta]

Grapes of Wrath, The Scarlet Letter, Tale of Two Cities. Jesus Christ teachers suck cock.

[jewishjosh]

I'm convinced that anything you read in school is ruined due to the fact that it's something you have to do, even if it really is a good book.
I completely agree. This is why I just finished reading 1984 instead of waiting until I'm told to do it. I read The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time when it came out a few years ago and absolutely loved it. Last year when I found out we were reading it for English 10 I was so excited but I found that reading it while focusing on taking notes and remembering key things that stand out to an English teacher sucked the life and emotion right out of it. It's way more interesting to take from a book what you want to take from it.

The best English teacher I've ever had didn't make us do book reports, instead he had this thing called a Thought Book. We each had a journal where we'd jot down anything about the book that stood out, and we could write anything at all as long as it wasn't a plot summary. We were marked for quantity not quality, so there was no pressure to be amazing at English or to find what the teacher wanted us to find, though if we had a profound realization we'd get a few bonus points. I thought it was a brilliant idea: it helped me organize my thoughts in a way that made sense to me, and it made it way easier to find things that stood out to me and filter out the crap come essay time. It made Lord of the Flies that much more memorable for me. I've continued "thought booking" a bit and I found I got so much more out of 1984 because of it, it allowed the sociologist in me to invade into literature's territory.

[Dodger]

As soon as I saw this thread title, as in before I read the first post, my first choice was The Scarlet Letter.
It was a good idea but holy shit, Hawthorne drug dull and boring details out forever. Like 10 pages on how green the grass was, I don't give a fuck! Just get on with the story.

A few other ones I didn't like
Walden- Henry David Thoreau
The only reason I don't like this one, is mostly because of the deadlines my teacher puts on it. I feel if I were to read it on my own, I'd enjoy it, because I'd read it a bit at a time , because it's very philosophical and shit and can get very boring. I like the philosophy and stuff but it bores me to death when I have to read like 50 pages of it in one sitting.

Incidents in the Life of a slave girl
Boring, I've read much better slave stories and I think that this author made it up, because supposedly she stayed in a very very small room (not enough space to even stand up) for 7 years, then all of a sudden left and was able to walk perfectly. Bullshit, your muscles would take a very long while to gain their strength back.

March- Geraldine something
Again good plot and story line, a little too drug out and unnecessary elaboration.

But you guys have named some books that I actually really liked reading.
To Kill a Mockingbird was a pretty good book, so was Mice and Men. I really liked Animal Farm and Night, and I used to liked The Giver and The Lord of the Flies back in Middle School, though they seem a little dumb now.

Though I can't fucking believe anyone said Catcher in the Rye and 1984 were bad. You've got to be fucking kidding me, those are two of my favorite books ever. I was even a bit obsessed with Catcher for a while, I still pick it up and read it whenever I have nothing to do. That book is pure awesomeness.

[Kevosk]

I actually like a lot of the books in this thread, it's just the way teachers do it that pisses me off. The Chrysalids(sp?) is one of my favorite books, but our teachers just reached into the book and ripped its heart out then stepped on it. Lord of the Flies was also good until the teacher pointed out the connection between Simon and Jesus for the entire class instead of letting us figure it out.

EDIT: My english 10 teacher had us vote on what book to read: Animal Farm by George Orwell; or The Wave, a book about a half baked cult that didn't quite accomplish anything in some stupid ass SoCal school in the 60s. It was famous because some kid got beaten up who turned out to be Jewish and all of a sudden it's like "oh shit they're Nazis, let's let everything spin out of control to the point where neither side is right but the main character still has a grasp on things but actually she has no fucking clue and is an idiot".

Guess which book my english class picked. :bangkill:

[green rubber bands]

Peace Like a River. Boring book about faith assigned by a wacko, ultra-christian-but-has-to-pretend-like-she-isn't-because-she's-a-teacher. 'Twas boring, repetitive, unnecessarily complex, and had an overall dumb plot.

[farmgurl]

this year i've read the heart of darkness, cry the beloved country, and dun dun dun the brothers karamozaov they werent so bad though. just long and confusing.
i read the giver for class once and now its one of my favorite books!

[Ace991]

The Scarlet Letter of course was the first to come to mind. Such a poor story that I just do not understand why we still read it in school other than historical importance. But a twenty minute history lesson could cover everything you can get out of that book.

However, Angela's Ashes is the one book so far that I have really liked. Its not one of the typical class reads so that probably makes a difference.

[Ice_Mel]

Heart of Darkness sucked so much ass. I didn't even finish it 'cause it was so boring. However, I did kick ass when we had the Socratic discussion on it :lol:

[_cynosure_]

Hands down, The Color Purple. Worst freaking book in the world, with a low class and fucked up protagonist. WAY too let me talk about race and gay people because it will make my book profound. My class hated it so much that the teacher dropped it (unfortunately I'm a fast reader and finished it before he did that).

The Scarlett Letter was good read, but there are so many themes and undertones in Hawthorne's work that it shouldn't be a high school book, just like Huckleberry Finn. That's probably why people hated it, because teachers discuss the hell out of only one theme that is OBVIOUS.

[Corcho]

Ojos de mi Perro Siberiano, what a piece of shit, i readed in 55 minutes because a hated so much on the report I write: " Este libro es una mierda" (This book is shit)

Mierda = Shit

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[Gudizere]

A book called Heroes, and the basic jist of it is :

Some guy with no face goes back to his town to kill some guy who raped his girlfriend when they were young.

Yes, exciting.

[potolife]

Dicey's Song and Tangerine. Worst. Books. Ever! They're both coming-of-age stories, which i can't stand.

I actually liked To Kill a Mockingbird, Of Mice and Men, The Giver, The Odyssey, and also Fahrenheit 451.

[RebelWithoutASauce]

So I was in special education for almost all of my public school experience, which essentially means you are taught very little.

I can only remember having to read two or three novels when I was moved to advanced English in high school. I liked all but one.

Silas Marner
This is probably the most boring book I have ever read in my life. The longest novel I ever read was The Count of Monte Cristo (unabridged) which is 1495 pages with small print. Silas Marner is perhaps just a bit over a hundred. I couldn't stand it.
There is an entire chapter about a bucket breaking. It was quite meaningful but really, I think that just says it all.
Did anyone else have to read this drudgery?

[Counterfeit Dreamer]

The Iliad.

I always read the assigned books for class - even summer reading - but I could not work my way through this piece of shit. It is incredibly boring. It just says the same thing 50 ways and prattles on and on about extremely unexciting shit. Plus, Achilles is a little whiner.

[Godly]

Therese Raquin by Emile Zola I absolutely loathed, and to drag myself through that only to give up half way, God awful.

You had to read a book by Emile Zola in English? That's kind of strange because he's a French writer and a horribly boring one at that. So to have to read a book by him in English must have been horrid =/

I thought having to read his books in French was bad =S

[Couch]

House on Mango Street was utter shit. It's just a collection of vignettes that are horribly boring and have zero relevance to each other. I just sparknoted what I needed for the tests, because I couldn't bring myself to read the book.

Most people at my high school hated the books we had to read just because we were forced to analyze every sentence and possible symbol, image, etc. I tended to read ahead with any book I found interesting and as a result I ended up liking a lot of the books most people here didn't seem to enjoy, such as:

Of Mice And Men
Animal Farm
To Kill A Mockingbird
A Separate Peace (Not sure if this was mentioned by anyone else)
Night
Lord of the Flies

[Triple J]

Death Watch Just some boring book about a guy who is being hunted or something in a desert. I guess I'm not a desert person.

Also, being in Minnesota I guess for some reason we feel we need pride and we have to read a whole load of Gary Paulson books. So far we've read The Car, Hatchet, Brian's Winter, Woodsong, and Tracker. I don't want to put down those outdoorsy book people out there but wow it is just like 200 page books that have absolutely NO conclusions. And in the entire book of Woodsong, look around for quotation marks because I can't find 'em.

[El Mojado]

To Kill a Mocking Bird - I did not see the whole point of the story. In short words is, a black man is accused of rape of a white woman, kids are afraid of an old house, black man hires kids' father as a laywer. The laywer fights for the black man's rights and does not win. The black man runs and gets shot, while the white woman's father tries to harm the kids. Some guy pops out and fights them off, and turns out to be what they thought was a ghost story. It was a shitty book.

Other than that Of Mice and Men was good book, just shitty in some parts. Antigone wasn't intresting.

EDIT : The Pearl sucked ass too.

[StoryTeller5]

i really liked "Ender's Game" too bad there making a vedio game of it

Of Mice and Men was a good book by my standers

To Kill A Mockingbird sucked>.>

why is it that every 8th grade book is during the 1930's and someone dies at the end


and im hoping that by the end of high school one book we will have to read will be "The Hich-Hickers Guide To The Galexy"

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[Jallen]

My God people. To Kill a Mockingbird, The Lord of the Flies, 1984, and the Catcher in the Rye? Those books are absolutely awesome, epic, and unprecedented. All are good in their own way, and are symbolic to the point that you can't just read them once.

The books I hated? The Red Badge of Courage. I absolutely hated that book back in 7th grade when I read it, but it may be better if I were to read it now.

[Candystripe]

Their Eyes Were Watching God.

AAAHHHH! Not only was a majority of the book written in what should be considered America's most unintelligible dialect ever created, but the characters die of rabies. Hmm. Just, blech. Worst read ever.

I COMPLETELY agree with you. I thought the book was SO bad that I didn't read past the third chapter and got a C on my paper. I couldn't even listen to class discussions about it because the book was so illogical and ridiculous for me.

As for a lot of these other books mentioned, such as Of Mice and Men, Lord of the Flies, Death of a Salesman, Catcher in the Rye, the Odyssey, The Scarlet Letter, maybe a few others...I loved those books!

Others I have hated (mostly from my junior year in HS, when the curriculum was very feministic):
The Awakening (good plot line I guess but weirdly drawn out and too heavy on the symbolism)
House of the Spirits (it would have been good if the author had ended it HALFWAY through)
Angels in America (tries to bring light to EVERYTHING - racism, sexism, sexuality, AIDS, etc. etc. and the plot is SO convoluted I couldn't follow it)

that's all I can think of right now, surprisingly...

[timbot]

Wow...Most of the books that have been mentioned, that I've read, were actually books I liked. I guess I'm a nerd.
But I will say, I have no idea why people are so ga ga over Catcher in the Rye. I also don't think 1984 was that great. It was good. But, if we're gonna talk about drawn out books, that one struck me as too much.
I will agree with Candystripe, and say The Awakening was awful.
There have probably been plenty of others that I didn't like, but now I can't think of their titles.

[opn4bzns]

To Kill A Mockingbird is the most boring book I have ever read. There's a very good reason why its author never wrote anything else.

You know, I think that reason may be that she won a Pulitzer prize, her book was hailed as one of the most important of the century and that she made enough money to retire.

The Hound of the Baskervilles was pretty much the only novel we've read that I didn't particularly enjoy, but that was probably because I was sick a lot while we were reading it and missed large chunks of the story.

[Xambesi]

I think it was called... California?
It was about some girl, named California, who moves to, wait for it, California.
Hilarity ensues.

[phrysen]

I found myself always in the position of liking the books, everyone in my class hated and the other way round. Being German I didn't have to read as many books in English class as you guys. But still every single one was atrocious. About a boy, The Giver, A Handmaid's Tale, I hated every single one of them.But probably the most god awful books I had to read in German class. The Jew's Beech Tree and The Dykemaster to just name two.

On the other hand I absolutely loved Woyzeck and Maria Stuart, but apparently no one else ever did.

[Me,Myself And I]

uh all of my books i have read for school are boring one of them i read th 1st paragraph and gave up because it was soooooooooooo boring

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[Tempest]

Sooooooo many. Lets start from earliest high school memories of hated books and work up.

The Bean Trees: This is LITERALLY the most boring fucking book ever. Absolutely nothing happens, ever. I couldn't finish the last couple chapters because it was so painfully dull that I had to hit up sparknotes for it.

The Catcher In The Rye: Jesus christ, this is the WEIRDEST book ever. I couldn't get into this book due to a mixture of boring, drawn-out chapters and the pure weird factor. Just when you think you understand something that Holden Caufield is doing, it switches up. It's meant to be a delve into angst and sexuality, but it's just confusing and jumbled.

Tuesdays With Morrie: ARHGHTHHRHGHRH This book is ALMOST as boring as The Bean Trees. It is a good story for the first few chapters, but an old man telling stories can only be entertaining for so long, unless he's insane and babbling about nonsense.

Interestingly enough, I happened to like To Kill A Mockingbird. I thought it was pretty well written, and it touches on topics that most other writers wouldn't dare dream of back when it was published.

[History]

I feel like a loser because I liked a lot of the books you guys don't specifically The Giver. I thought it was a neat concept, though I read it later in life, not for school.

I really didn't like this one book we read in middle school called Carry on Mr. Bowditch, I thought it was a waste of time. I was also never a fan of Tom Sawyer and just about any book we read by Charles Dickens bored me to tears.

[Demoir]

I didn't really like To Kill a Mockingbird. I don't give a shit if it's revolutionary or whatever, it just bored me.

[GenericInsanity]

The Scarlet Letter immediately jumped to my mind as my least favorite book that I've read in English class. The amount of redundancy in that book made me want to SCREAM. It was incredibly predictable, and my teacher seemed to have an odd love affair with it.

Other ones I've detested were Romeo and Juliet, The Great Gatsby and The Grapes of Wrath. And no, I didn't hate Romeo and Juliet just because it is Shakespeare. I detested that play because the two main characters were possibly some of the most idiotic fictional characters to date. I was in disbelief the entire time we read it. I actually love Shakespeare, especially his comedies. Though Macbeth I considered brilliant as well.

[Fraudulence_Raft]

Anything by Shakespear. I just read Julius Caesar and it was boring as fuck, as well as A MidSummer Night's dream and Romeo and Juliet. Also A Lesson before Dying is boring as fuck.

You think the teachers just have a meeting and decide to pick the most boring books possible to make the kids read.

On a side note, I'm about to start Jain Air (probably spelt wrong, but that's how it's pronounced); should I expect anything exciting from it?

[Candystripe]

I'm so dismayed to see someone disliked The Great Gatsby!!! I thought that book was amazing. I remember reading a book called This Boy's Life sophomore year, and it was weeeeird. Not really unpleasant, but just very strange and slightly not believable. That year I also read lots of weird other things, like a short story called "The Rocking Horse" or something like that about a boy who likes to please himself on a rocking horse....that was probably the worst short story I've ever read. We also read Jane Eyre and Ethan Frome, which most people in my class hated but I loved.
I agree with most people that The Scarlet Letter is predictable and the symbolism gets beat out of it in most classes, but I think it can be a really interesting read for non-school reading and deciphering on your own.

edit:
Anything by Shakespear. I just read Julius Caesar and it was boring as fuck, as well as A MidSummer Night's dream and Romeo and Juliet. Also A Lesson before Dying is boring as fuck.
...
On a side note, I'm about to start Jain Air (probably spelt wrong, but that's how it's pronounced); should I expect anything exciting from it?

I think a lot of Shakespeare is great, and A Midsummer's Night Dream is hilarious! The thing is, watching the plays is usually a lot easier than reading them (both for understanding and general feel of the text/storyline). A lot of teachers don't want to spend forever explaining every sexual joke (trust me - there are a LOT in Shakespeare) or references and allusions to things from the past that we no longer know about.

As for Jane Eyre (pronounced jane air, yes). The book is incredibly long and sometimes overdone, but I thought it was great (as already mentioned) and the storyline is easy enough to follow, and a lot of the time very fun.

[w0312447]

Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe. We all should have taken the title as a hint. I spent most of the book mentally skipping over the words I couldn't pretend to pronounce. The rest of the book I spent trying to remember what just happened because nothing is making sense anymore and is this book time traveling? Not a fun reading experience.

[dontegh]

I'm in 8th grade and I had to read No More Dead Dogs which is a 5th grade reading level. Horrible horrible book. I thought The Giver was a good book, I read it in 3 days.

[Voracious32]

I've actually liked most of the books I've read for school. I always read ahead and finished weeks before I was supposed to. And then I always was asked to speculate about what might happen next.

What pisses me off about reading in school is all the analyzation. Whatever someone writes, it's interpreted as meaning something that it doesn't necessarily really mean. Hey, here's an idea - maybe the writer wasn't making an analogy to real-world racism/war/human rights! Maybe s/he was trying to entertain! Crazy, huh?

[ZYQ9]

To Kill A Mockingbird is the most boring book I have ever read. There's a very good reason why its author never wrote anything else.

Hell yeah, I read to kill a mockingbird in class and it was the worst thing I ever wasted my time doing.

[abbey]

What pisses me off about reading in school is all the analyzation. Whatever someone writes, it's interpreted as meaning something that it doesn't necessarily really mean. Hey, here's an idea - maybe the writer wasn't making an analogy to real-world racism/war/human rights! Maybe s/he was trying to entertain! Crazy, huh?
I totally agree.

"Why did the author use the word 'the' there?" I'm pretty sure they don't sit and think about every single word. Otherwise books would take decades to write.

[timbot]

Maybe it's because I'm a former English teacher, but I think analyzation is great. Of course, it can be over done. Most authors of Literature (with a capital L...you know the heavy stuff, like The Scarlett Letter or The Great Gatsby or so many others that have been mentioned here) really were trying to do something more than entertain. Graham Greene, for example, wrote Literature and also what he called "entertainments." So, basically some books he wrote to make some bigger point, and some he wrote just for fun. By the way, he's a pretty good author, and if you're a fan of older movies, he did some great ones.
Also, really good writers do put a lot of thought into the words they use. Maybe not every "the," "and," or, "a." Those are silly words to analyze...sometimes. (The difference between the, and a can be huge.) But, if you read Poe's short stories, for example, he thought a lot about the specific things he chose to describe, and the words he used.
Ok, enough lecture. Being nitpicky can be fun.

P.S. why does the spell check on this thing insist that I spelled analyzation wrong? I even had to double check myself in the dictionary.

[Jasmyn]

I actually loved "The Scarlet Letter" the second time I read it. I didn't like it at first. Definately an acquired taste. A lot of the books mentioned, I read for fun.
I hated reading "The Greats Gatsby" and "Watership Down."

[Roxi]

I read Cather in the Rye, and I must say, it's on my list of most hated books of all time.

There is a reason Catcher is the most loved book by serial killers. It's a fucking book about a guy dropping out of school, doing nothing, doing nothing, more doing nothing, and going to the natural history museum.

I really don't understand why people love this book so much.

[natalie137]

I really liked To Kill A Mockingbird, I'm quite surprised to see it on quite a few lists. Then again I had a really good teacher so maybe that makes all the difference?

[spaj]

If This Is A Man

I hate non-fiction World War books. They're depressing, repetitive and dull.

[AngelRedFlame]

House on Mango Street was horrible. It's what sticks out most in my mind.
The Pearl is horrendous, too. But then again, I think anything by John Steinbeck is worthless.

One of my teachers was a prude, up-tight old hag, and she would say, "Oh, my favorite writer is John Steinbeck. He's so wonderful at describing things. Unlike Edgar Allen Poe, his work is rubbish!"

Poe may not be my favorite, but John Steinbeck? Give me a break.

[Mirrorman]

My God people. To Kill a Mockingbird, The Lord of the Flies, 1984, and the Catcher in the Rye? Those books are absolutely awesome, epic, and unprecedented. All are good in their own way, and are symbolic to the point that you can't just read them once.

The books I hated? The Red Badge of Courage. I absolutely hated that book back in 7th grade when I read it, but it may be better if I were to read it now.

Maybe it was that the translation was written horribly, but it was so horribly boring, I wanted to die while reading it.

[KeyboardSpastic]

At the moment, Im reading The Kite Runner. Its ok, nothing special i guess. Its too slow for me. In year8, they tried to make us read excerpts of Anne Frank. To no-ones surprise, nobody actually finished it. Good luck getting a bunch of 14yr olds to take a book where the writer describes her genitals seriously.

[timbot]

One of my teachers was a prude, up-tight old hag, and she would say, "Oh, my favorite writer is John Steinbeck. He's so wonderful at describing things. Unlike Edgar Allen Poe, his work is rubbish!"


Your teacher should be shot. Nothing wrong with Steinbeck. The Grapes of Wrath is a wonderful book. But, to call Poe rubbish? That's terrible. He's the father of the short story, and in my opinion, a teacher's dream.

Also, I thought of another book I really really hated. To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf. I don't remember it too well, so I can't give a good reason for hating it. But, basically, it was awful.

[HappyPalooza]

Every book I've read in school blew. They're all "classics", but I can't stand them. Examples would be:
The Giver (I didn't get the point of it. A hippie yelling, "You can't take away our individuality, man!" was all I heard when reading it.)
The Hobbit (I found it boring.)
Rat (written by someone who went to my school, Jan Cheripko. So that's self-explanatory.)
Fahrenheit 451 (Who wants to read a book preaching about how great books are?)
Night (Found it boring.)
Shakespearian Works (Found them boring as well. Also, the sexual innuendo that my English teacher was pointing out wasn't so much clever as just childish to me. I guess that Caesar was okay.)

And many others. The only book that I've read in school and kind of liked was "Of Mice and Men." That's probably because I saw the movie first and Gary Sinise is awesome.

[kaylavictoria]

The Scarlett Letter sucked. I agree fully that the details were too drug out to make any type of sense. You'd read 3-4 pages about the texture of the sky.
Also, The Once and Future King, which was a rip-off story abot King Arthur was a pretty shitty read. Some parts were interesting but out of the 500+ pages, only about 15 paragraphs were interesting.
On the other hand, in my Criminal Law classes in high school, we got to read The Stranger Beside Me, by Ann Rule. That was kickass. It's about this woman who was best friends and co-workers with Ted Bundy, and how she sat beside him and talked to him nearly every day and had no idea what he was really up to.

[Dresden]

Well we've all had to read books for our English classes or whatnot. I just wanted to know what books have you read that were mandatory and made you feel like drowning yourself in a toilet after you finished reading them.

A book I absolutely despise The Scarlet Letter.

Oh god yes. I came into this thread thinking "Scarlet Letter". And there it was in the first post, hahaha.

Read To Kill a Mockingbird my freshman year. God... that book was boring.

[History]

Maybe it's because I'm a former English teacher, but I think analyzation is great. Of course, it can be over done.

I think it being "over done" is what everyone means about analyzation being crap. A lot of high school english teachers seem to read far too into the Literature they are teaching and just completely ruin the books. I read many of the classics on my own long before they came up in English class, and thank god I did, because I had too many teachers suck all the pleasure out of reading. I think most books in general are a social commentary of the time period they are written, but I don't think every image needs to symbolize something.

[Quadros]

'Enduring Love' by Ian McEwan. Fuck Enduring love and fuck McEwan in the ear. 'Oh hey, here's a potentially exciting storyline, let's fuck it up by veering off on pointless, two page long tangents that completely destroy any feeling of apprehenssion and tension. Sure, the atmosphere's dead now, but at least it's clear how a fucking hot air baloon works!'

Fuck him.

[NVM]

The Giver and My Side of the Mountain were really stupid.

[timbot]

I think it being "over done" is what everyone means about analyzation being crap. A lot of high school english teachers seem to read far too into the Literature they are teaching and just completely ruin the books. I read many of the classics on my own long before they came up in English class, and thank god I did, because I had too many teachers suck all the pleasure out of reading. I think most books in general are a social commentary of the time period they are written, but I don't think every image needs to symbolize something.

Yeah, I understand that. I don't know that I'd say they're reading too much into the stories. But, I think sometimes they go farther than a class of high school kids can really follow. It can be fun to really pull a book apart, but, only if that's what you want to do. Most high school kids just don't care about it that much. They want to read it, get the plot and be done.
I'm trying to remember my days in high school English. I know I never liked my English classes. My senior year I did enjoy the class, but that was mostly because we were testing this new project, and so weren't doing much of the usual English class stuff.
Once I got to college, though, it was a completely different situation. I really enjoyed all of my college English classes. Perhaps it was because they weren't so full of kids who read two paragraphs and said "this book is boring," or "this book is stupid," and couldn't form any opinion beyond that. Then, as well as now, I think that's generally just a sign of laziness. And, from a teacher's standpoint, that kind of response makes teaching anything really difficult.

[History]

Yeah, I understand that. I don't know that I'd say they're reading too much into the stories. But, I think sometimes they go farther than a class of high school kids can really follow. It can be fun to really pull a book apart, but, only if that's what you want to do. Most high school kids just don't care about it that much. They want to read it, get the plot and be done.
I'm trying to remember my days in high school English. I know I never liked my English classes. My senior year I did enjoy the class, but that was mostly because we were testing this new project, and so weren't doing much of the usual English class stuff.
Once I got to college, though, it was a completely different situation. I really enjoyed all of my college English classes. Perhaps it was because they weren't so full of kids who read two paragraphs and said "this book is boring," or "this book is stupid," and couldn't form any opinion beyond that. Then, as well as now, I think that's generally just a sign of laziness. And, from a teacher's standpoint, that kind of response makes teaching anything really difficult.


See I agree with you, college was way better for reading and analyzing, but I think having kids in your class that care is only part of the reason why. I can't speak with too much authority on this matter because my college lit classes were all in french, but I've found that you are more encouraged to make meaningful connections and universal concepts in books, not just to disect a paragraph for every symbolic meaning you can find.

[timbot]

See, I don't remember picking paragraphs apart too much when I was in high school. Of course, maybe my memory is just bad, it's been a few years. What sticks out to me are a lot of people who didn't want to do anything but read it and figure out the most basic plot structure, and once that was done to toss the book aside as if they had somehow "defeated" the book. As if once you figured out what a book was "about" that's all there is too it. If that's all there was to a book or any literary work, Shakespeare would be seen as a hack, not a genius.
Anyway, I'm gonna shut up here, because I realize I'm getting off the topic of the thread.

[Raxo]

The Giver and My Side of the Mountain were really stupid.

I really liked both of these books even while reading for school and analyzing the shit out of them. They were quite enjoyable.

I liked The Giver so much I read the sequel The Messenger, which wasn't as good.

[dinodoom7]

Year of the hangman. Boring ass book that tries to be out of the box with the brits winning the Revolutionary war, but was totally gay.

War of the worlds. Really boring in my opinion

[gizzalove]

Basically all the books I've read for school suck. The outsiders I didn't even finish and I'm saying it I fucking hate Shakespeare. Also all of the fucking WWII jew books I had to read except maybe two.

[Ollivak]

Incredibly, almost all my favorite books that I've read in English class (The Great Gatsby, The Hobbit, To Kill a Mockingbird, Fahrenheit 451, Romeo and Juliet, and The Iliad (granted we didn't read the whole thing)) have all been mentioned. Suppose everyone has different tastes, but if someone mentions Macbeth or Othello I may cry.

The books we've read that I've hated include: Heart of Darkness (this is the only book I've hated so much that I didn't finish it), The Scarlet Letter (I'm glad to see it's been mentioned so many times, because I really hated it), The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass (I'm sure it was an enlightening read in the 1830s, but I'm not interested about reading about people getting tortured), Pride and Prejudice (Mr. Collins made me laugh every now and then, but overall I just didn't care whether or not Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth had sex), The Red Badge of Courage, and All Quiet on the Western Front (I can't stand books on war for the most part).

[person]

Suppose everyone has different tastes, but if someone mentions Macbeth or Othello I may cry.

Maybe it was just my shitty teacher but I didn't care much for Macbeth. At all.
I don't care enough to look through the other posts to see if anybody mentioned it but: Great Expectations.

Actually the only books I honestly liked reading were Fahrenheit 451, 1984, and Animal Farm. And possibly The Giver to some lesser extent.

[timbot]

Basically all the books I've read for school suck. The outsiders I didn't even finish and I'm saying it I fucking hate Shakespeare. Also all of the fucking WWII jew books I had to read except maybe two.

Damn, what were you reading in school? I don't think I've read a single book about WWII and the Jews. Is All Quiet on the Western Front WWI or WWII? Either way it's not a "jew book." How many of these stinking holocaust books are there?

[keeblerleigh]

Their Eyes Were Watching God.

AAAHHHH! Not only was a majority of the book written in what should be considered America's most unintelligible dialect ever created, but the characters die of rabies. Hmm. Just, blech. Worst read ever.

i absolutely agree...I couldn't even make it past the first say, five chapters...and they made us read it my junior year...gay

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[keeblerleigh]

Damn, what were you reading in school? I don't think I've read a single book about WWII and the Jews. Is All Quiet on the Western Front WWI or WWII? Either way it's not a "jew book." How many of these stinking holocaust books are there?

Ummm...the diary of anne frank is an easy one to think about? duh

[Chocoholic]

The Scarlet Letter: Simple, boring, stupid story I could care less about.

The Scarlet Letterman: Even more boring and stupid. An author essentially took the main theme of The Scarlet Letter and made it 'relevant' to today. By 'relevant' the author means that the girlfriend to the captain of the basketball team is called a whore because she's wearing his letterman's jacket. It's also an MTV book. While reading it there were references to The OC, My Super Sweet 16, MTV, Teen People, and more "teen" things. I felt like puking all over the book. The characters were amazingly stereotypical. There was the Cheerleader, the Goth, the Indian who was the comedian, the "Artsy" girl, the Bookworm, and the Jock. Yes. It was that bad.

The Pearl:"Oh look I found a pearl. I'll be rich. But everyone is jealous and I don't know what to do. Oh no. I should put it back in the ocean." I hated this book. Which is a shame since I like Steinbeck's other books. Especially East of Eden. Some of the best characters ever created are in the book. There needs to be more 100% evil hookers in books.

Frederick Douglass: A Narrative of the life of Fredrick Douglass: Yes, slaves were treated badly. Yes you wanted freedom. No shit. I hated this book and I'm even half black.

Number the Stars: "I'm a little Jewish girl. I'm so innocent. But Nazi's will kill me. Oh no. I will run away." That's the whole story right there pretty much.

The Diary of Anne Frank: "I have to hide in an attic. Let me keep a diary for months." Why the hell did someone feel the need to publish her diary? Nothing fucking happens. Hell, the only halfway interesting thing I remember is when one of the boys of the family hiding out with them shows her his cat's genitals and starts explaining sex and stuff to her.

Four Perfect Pebbles: Yet another Holocaust book. And there is nothing new.

The Hatchet: It's supposed to be some big manly story about a kid who uses and hatchet and learns to survive in the wilderness. I kinda hoped he would get mauled by a bear.

The Cay: Kid gets in a ship accident, kid gets saved by some old black guy with a sweet accent, kid and old man live on an island until they are saved. But we learn to accept differences like race and age so its all good! Wrong. The book is so boring you'll feel like slaughtering the author.

Tuesdays With Morrie: No, this book is not 'uplifting' and it certainly didn't 'change my life'. This book was boring as hell and the old man dieing was a good thing. It meant the book was over.

[opn4bzns]

Damn, what were you reading in school? I don't think I've read a single book about WWII and the Jews. Is All Quiet on the Western Front WWI or WWII? Either way it's not a "jew book." How many of these stinking holocaust books are there?

I know what she means, we had to read a bunch too. Stones in Water is the only title I can remember, and I can't remember the author. It was quite decent though.

[timbot]

Ummm...the diary of anne frank is an easy one to think about? duh

I didn't say I couldn't think of any. But the original comment by whoever was that she hated all the WWII Jew books she'd read, except maybe 3.
So, off the top of my head I know:
The Diary of Anne Frank
Night
I Never Saw Another Butterfly (which is actually a play)

It seems to me, if you read enough of such books to hate "all but 3," then you must have read a hell of a lot of holocaust books.

oh...and there's also Maus, but I doubt anyone reads that for school...it's a graphic novel.

[February Stars]

Old Man And The Sea: About an old guy living in a remote country-like island, who is too old to fish, but is going to fish one last time. Catches a big fish, pulls him out to sea, blah blah blah, he fails miserably. It's a horrible book.

1984: Now, a lot of people like this book. But at times, it can be so boring, I'd rather put the book down and not read it. I really only got into it when there was suspense or something foreboding to come.

The Crucible: Out of all the books I dislike from school, this one I can almost deal with. It is a play, so it's easier to stay interested in, but this specific play can be so ridiculously boring at points, I fall asleep. And it's questionable how serious you can take this book.

Raisin In The Sun: About a broke colored family living in a broke area. After the grandmother of the family recieves some sort of compensation, she's going to buy a home in a richer white neighborhood. It's stupid.

[devilcurls6981]

I could not stand Romeo and Juliet. It made me wanna stab my brain out with a wire hanger through my ear.

[schlachthof.funf]

Most of the books that have been mentioned so far I've really liked...

The only two books I can remember disliking are Across Five Aprils and A Lesson Before Dying. Across Five Aprils was too Civil War and I disliked how ALBD was written. Also, it was wrapped up way too fast.

[INTUNEevolution]

Well we've all had to read books for our English classes or whatnot. I just wanted to know what books have you read that were mandatory and made you feel like drowning yourself in a toilet after you finished reading them.

A book I absolutely despise The Scarlet Letter. Maybe back in 1850 when it was written it was edgy or some shit, but now it's boring as shit. The whole book is about a priest who has a baby and covers it up and this long drawn out crap of a book comes out. It's pretty short but so tedious to read.

The Crucible and Death of a Salesman. God, I cannot stand Arthur Miller. He is a horrible playwright that needs to be forgotten.

[steve_skaa]

The Scarlet Letter, The Outsiders, and the Crucible. The crucible only had a few good parts in it. The outsiders was meh. And the Scarlet Letter sucked.

[Derelict]

October Sky: Originally titled Rocket Boys, October Sky is an anagram and was used to sell the book to a wider audience. It's an autobiography of Homer Hickham growing up in a coal town and he gets really interested in building rockets. I don't doubt it'd be good for someone who enjoys reading about someone's life, but for a grade 10 student it's just utterly boring.

I thought the Outsiders was pretty good when I read it in grade 7.

[Glorfindel]

The only book mentioned in this thread we had to read at school was Othello, and i really liked it, i hated Katherine Mansfield's short stories though.

[gizzalove]

Damn, what were you reading in school? I don't think I've read a single book about WWII and the Jews. Is All Quiet on the Western Front WWI or WWII? Either way it's not a "jew book." How many of these stinking holocaust books are there?

I've read probably close to 20 books on WWII and the holocaust. I don't remember any titles though I blocked them out of my mind.

[Raxo]

Another book I absolutely hate is All the Pretty Horses. Now I really hate anything that has to do with cowboys but a coming of age, love story, cowboy book is just the total package of a craptacular shitfest.

I liked most of the WWII books I had to read but I hated reading books about impoverished minorities struggling to survive (i.e The House On Mango Street, Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry)

[Goldfinch]

The English department at my school made all the incoming freshman in honors English read All the Kings Men. It was quite possibly the most excruciating mental experience of my life. Later that year they made us read this incredibly awful book Freaky Green Eyes.

That same year I adored reading Catch 22. Go figure.

[INTUNEevolution]

I've always really liked the existential works of literature we read. The Stranger by Camus, The Metamorphosis by Kafka, The Catcher in the Rye by Salinger come to mind. But I've been a fan of Kafka since wayyy before we read it in school.

I know some of you are like "Wha!? Holden an existentialist?" but there you go.

[tunacake]

I got lucky. Up to and including now I've always had awesome English teachers (and I've never had a good French teacher). For the most part, they don't make books seem worse than they are, which is a bonus. But it's the stupid books to account for all of the stupid people in the classes that bug me.
Son of the Mob by Gordon Korman stands out in my mind. Some kid whose father is some big mafia guy, and he starts going out with some chick whose father is an FBI agent because he hates his family. Whatsername's father has been trying to trackdown buddy's father for years. I think they ended up together with a happily ever after ending. Maybe the FBI agent and the mob boss became drinking buddies or something. I stopped paying attention by then.

[opn4bzns]

1984: Now, a lot of people like this book. But at times, it can be so boring, I'd rather put the book down and not read it. I really only got into it when there was suspense or something foreboding to come.

Really? I read this eagerly when I was 13 or so, and we all know the amazing attention spans of 13 year olds. The only dull part was the 10ish page extract of goldstein's book, and that wasn't that bad.

[abbey]

The only dull part was the 10ish page extract of goldstein's book, and that wasn't that bad.
I totally skipped that whole part.

[tunacake]

I totally skipped that whole part.

I didn't skip it, but it took like 3 days to get through, even though it was only like 10 pages. Still, I'd have to say that's my favorite book of all time. Glad I never had to read it for school.

[naked.chickens.on.ice]

Silas Marner. It's all about karma and some crazy old fuck who goes psycho over money and finds a little girl. You'd think a book that short wouldn't be very hard to get through, but the dialogue was so damn dull. It's the only book in school I've actually had to struggle my way through. And then I had to sit there and have my teacher ask me to find the symbolism in the symbolism.
Most boring read period.

[poketron]

oh god
Bridge to Terabithia. I didn't like it at all. I read it in 5th grade and I figured out the ending just by reading the back of it.

[Raxo]

I totally skipped that whole part.

I skipped it too because it seemed unnecessary and really almost killed the book for me.

[opn4bzns]

I totally skipped that whole part.

Yeah, I did too, to be honest. I sort of skimmed through it, but it didn't seem to really add much to the story, so I didn't bother with it.

[GCBC]

I am really surprised that only one person in this thread mentioned Ethan Frome and in that mention, liked it (if I remember correctly). This is the only thing I remember reading in my high school days that made me want to poke my eyes out with forks. Guy falls in love with his maid, wife threatens to send her away, they try to kill themselves by running into a tree while on a sled, and end up paralyzed. Whiny, dark, and boring as shit. And to make it even worse, our teacher made us watch the crappy movie that was made out of it. Ugh.

[abbey]

I skipped it too because it seemed unnecessary and really almost killed the book for me.
I agree. It really took away from the book as a whole. Did he actually expect people to read all that crap?

[timbot]

now I almost want to read the book again because I don't remember this part you're all talking about. Of course, I thought there were several points where all the momentum was just lost, and it suddenly got boring. Good book, neat concept, but it could have been so much better.

[INTUNEevolution]

now I almost want to read the book again because I don't remember this part you're all talking about. Of course, I thought there were several points where all the momentum was just lost, and it suddenly got boring. Good book, neat concept, but it could have been so much better.

I'm a little ashamed to admit that I started the section, you know, read a page or something and I was like, "How long is this?" I flipped some pages and I was like dude F this.

[keeblerleigh]

I didn't say I couldn't think of any. But the original comment by whoever was that she hated all the WWII Jew books she'd read, except maybe 3.
So, off the top of my head I know:
The Diary of Anne Frank
Night
I Never Saw Another Butterfly (which is actually a play)

It seems to me, if you read enough of such books to hate "all but 3," then you must have read a hell of a lot of holocaust books.

oh...and there's also Maus, but I doubt anyone reads that for school...it's a graphic novel.

I was gonna say ;-) lol yeah for some odd reason I don't think they allow graphic novels in school...

[tunacake]

I'm a little ashamed to admit that I started the section, you know, read a page or something and I was like, "How long is this?" I flipped some pages and I was like dude F this.

Looks like I'm the only one who suffered through it. I didn't want to skip it cause i figured there was something incredibly important to the plot somewhere in there, which there wasn't...I don't like to skip things anyway.
It did take away from it a little bit, but not all that much. Still my favorite book.

[Biguardo]

I agree. It really took away from the book as a whole. Did he actually expect people to read all that crap?

That was actually one of the most important parts of the book.

I didn't read that much in English, but the once I read were all fairly allright.

The Lord of the Flies was allright, it had some lenghts, but also some pretty good scenes, like for example [SPOILER]Simon dying or Simon hallucinating about the Lord of the Flies[\SPOILER]. I just hated it's overall message.

Death of a Salesman was pretty enjoyable, so was Of Mice and Men.
Brave New World was also very cool, I enjoy lots of dystopian novellas lately.

Macbeth by Shakespeare was kind of a pain in the ass.
But I have to say, I am a person that wouldn't really read those kinds of books in private, but when I have to, and later discuss them in class and get some sense out of them, I enjoy them pretty much. So I also did like Macbeth after all.

I also read a lot of novella and plays in German class, and they sucked to a much wider extend, but I don't think any of you knows any of them.

[haza]

Of Mice And Men was pretty bad, but it was tolerable.

We just read of mice and men and i think its awesome! But thats my view.

A Kestrel for a Knave Absolute bollocks. Barely a friggin story line. Just a guy and a bird.....wow!

[Biguardo]

I think the ending of "Of Mice and Men" was one of the saddest pieces of literature ever written. It was one of the closest I've ever been to crying about a book.So,yeah, that kind of impressed me.

[schlachthof.funf]

Uh, yeah. You might've come close to crying, but I was bawling at the end of "Of Mice and Men." Loved it.

[JENNMAR]

The Great Gatsby. Sorry F.Scott Fitzgerald, it was lame. stupidest plot line ever, about some rich old guy trying to win over a hot young married thing with his car, which people in my class say is yellow, but it was cream, it said it in the book. lord of the flies was lame too, but gg takes the cake.

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[badumpbumpbump]

Yeah, Hatchet is pretty f-ing retarded. Why would you read a children's book with one character?

[Profane Methane]

Nice Shooting Cowboy, It's a collection of short stories written by some tosser and the worst book I have read in school. He tries to make these fancy sentences that just plain annoy me, and make the book quite confusing at times. He also uses slang and if you don't understand his slang certain sentences don't make sense.
One of the worst written books I have read.

[ADevil4LostBoys]

I have to agree... Scarlet Letter is grounds for homicide... or suicide... or both. We just finished reading it in my English class. Needless to say, I failed both tests over it 'cause I thought it was the worst book ever and only skimmed the contents.

[ZYQ9]

I could not stand Romeo and Juliet. It made me wanna stab my brain out with a wire hanger through my ear.

Hated the book but i liked the movie we watched. First time we got to watch a sex scene in school.

[natalie137]

I've just had to read an extract of La Jealousie for French Lit, about a guy who thinks his wife is having an affair based on an incident where the man he suspects his wife is seeing squashes a centipede. It's ridiculous, I actually hate it.

[Raxo]

Hated the book but i liked the movie we watched. First time we got to watch a sex scene in school.

What's so great about watching a sex scene in school?

I had to read Romeo and Juliet too and goddamn it was so boring. We also saw a movie and that too sucked. Man Shakespeare stuff is boring when you have to try and figure out every little thing.

[Fodniethan]

Stone Cold: Absolutely terrible. Attempts to be meaningful but actually just a bunch of boring predictable events tied together in what could loosely be called a plot. Plus I hated every single character.

A Christmas Carol: Sorry Dickens, but my God this book is boring and over analysed.

[INTUNEevolution]

The Great Gatsby. Sorry F.Scott Fitzgerald, it was lame. stupidest plot line ever, about some rich old guy trying to win over a hot young married thing with his car, which people in my class say is yellow, but it was cream, it said it in the book. lord of the flies was lame too, but gg takes the cake.

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Um, what? I oppose this post. Fitzgerald is teh own, no lie.

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[timbot]

What's so great about watching a sex scene in school?

I had to read Romeo and Juliet too and goddamn it was so boring. We also saw a movie and that too sucked. Man Shakespeare stuff is boring when you have to try and figure out every little thing.

I don't understand why Romeo and Juliet is read so much. It's got to be one of the oldest, most tired plots of all time. It wasn't new when Shakespeare used it, and it's certainly not new now. There's definitely much better Shakespeare that high school students could be reading.

[MSB]

A Separate Peace was probably one of the worst books I've ever read. I don't know why, but it just totally bored me and took forever for me to get through.

We also had to read a compilation of Steven King (I'm drawing a blank as to what it was titled, and no, it wasn't nightmares and dreamscapes). Everyone else was pretty psyched because it wasn't the normal high school English reading. I was totally bummed since I'm not a fan of Steven King and his shitty story endings.

Richard Wright's Black Boy is also near the top of my list of shitty high school reads. We spent nearly every class debating on whether on not he greatly exaggerated. Our class, and teacher, decided that he totally over-exaggerated. I was so glad to be done with that book.

[vincent_scaryface]

I don't understand why Romeo and Juliet is read so much. It's got to be one of the oldest, most tired plots of all time. It wasn't new when Shakespeare used it, and it's certainly not new now. There's definitely much better Shakespeare that high school students could be reading.

Doesnt the fact that it's read and copied so much lead to the conclusion that it is a strong plot? Sure there are better Shakespearian plays, but the Romeo and Juliet story has been around for millenia for a good reason. I've enjoyed it in all it's forms that I've come across - except for that movie version with DiCaprio in it. God that was awful.

The worst book I've read for school was Dicken's "Hard Times." To be honest, the story was fine, but the way he wrote it was awful. He wrote out the character's lines phonetically to show the accents. It was hard to read that some of the sentances had to be read aloud because they didn't make any sense.

[Unspoken]

Out of most of the books that I've had to read at school, they were enjoyable. There are a few that were probably the most terrible things ever.


Hatchet was terrible. I didn't even finish this one. Teacher got mad, but she couldn't blame me; curriculum made us read it. There was another Gary Paulson book that I can't be asked to remember (nor do I want to), but it sucked ass as well.

Number the Stars was another one I refused to read. There was only one Holocaust book that I thought was actually really great, and I can't even remember what its name is.

Diary of Anne Frank follows along the lines of the previous one along the boredom factor. Absolutely terrible. Had to act this one out, too.

The Magnificent Ambersons is actually not a terrible story; I enjoy reading it. It's just that my Literature teacher made us critique every chapter, and if we didn't catch one minuscule detail that isn't even that important to the story or character development, then we got a zero on that chapter. Lame. That's what is now keeping me from reading ahead.

[timbot]

Doesnt the fact that it's read and copied so much lead to the conclusion that it is a strong plot? Sure there are better Shakespearian plays, but the Romeo and Juliet story has been around for millenia for a good reason. I've enjoyed it in all it's forms that I've come across - except for that movie version with DiCaprio in it. God that was awful.

The worst book I've read for school was Dicken's "Hard Times." To be honest, the story was fine, but the way he wrote it was awful. He wrote out the character's lines phonetically to show the accents. It was hard to read that some of the sentances had to be read aloud because they didn't make any sense.

Not so much a strong plot as an easy plot. It's very basic, which is why it sticks around. But, if something has been around for so long, it has to be reinvented to stay interesting. One thing that always bothered me about Shakespeare is his lack of original plots.

[MSB]

Not so much a strong plot as an easy plot. It's very basic, which is why it sticks around. But, if something has been around for so long, it has to be reinvented to stay interesting. One thing that always bothered me about Shakespeare is his lack of original plots.

His lack of original plot? Sure, maybe compared to todays literature, but back then no one was really combining comedies and tragedies into one.

I can totally see why some people might not enjoy Shakespeare, but to say his plots lacked originality is weird.

[Ventric]

I was too busy reading about Karl Marx to care much about the school books that were being handed out but I absolutely despised To Catch A Killer.

[Scottish_Scholar]

Books I loved:
Pride and prejudice
Mayor of Castorbridge
East of Eden
Jane Eyre
The Once and Future King
The Old Man and the Sea
Animla Farm
The Color Purple
Lord of the Flies
The Catcher in the Rye (even though it had no apparent point)
The Phantom of the Opera (we had a "free read" book)
.....and many more I'm sad I can't seem to remeber

Books I tolerated but were overall iffy:
Romeo and Juliet
Of Mice and Men
Beowulf
The Great Gatsby
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
A Separate Peace

Books I ABSOLUTLY HATED and gave the serimonious bonfire treatment to after I was finished with them:
The Crucible
The Scarlet Letter
Roll of Thunder Hear my Cry
The Diary of Anne Frank

[timbot]

His lack of original plot? Sure, maybe compared to todays literature, but back then no one was really combining comedies and tragedies into one.

I can totally see why some people might not enjoy Shakespeare, but to say his plots lacked originality is weird.

It's not weird at all, it's very true. Ask a Shakespeare scholar. He's not known for original plots. Lots of them were taken from Greek mythology and plays. For example, Romeo and Juliet: "Romeo and Juliet belongs to a tradition of tragic romances stretching back to Ancient Greece. Its plot is based on an Italian tale, translated into verse as Romeus and Juliet by Arthur Brooke in 1562, and retold in prose in Palace of Pleasure by William Painter in 1582. Brooke and Painter were Shakespeare's chief sources of inspiration for Romeo and Juliet. "
Also, "Scholars have often noted four periods in Shakespeare's writing career.[65] Until the mid-1590s, he wrote mainly comedies influenced by Roman and Italian models and history plays in the popular chronicle tradition."

You can find lots more along those lines just by checking out wikipedia.

So, yes, the plots that weren't new when Shakespeare was using them are even less new 400 years later.

[MaxAlcolo]

Back in highschool I didn't have to read a lot of books, and I did not read the ones that were assigned to the class. Though, I remember trying to read The Diary Of Anne Frank, and if I remember correctly I hated it like most of the students.

Then I went to college and had to drop out after three weeks for medical reasons, but I did read Tristan & Iseut in french class. That one wasn't bad, but the story seems a little cliché today. (Probably wasn't back in 1170)

[Humus]

Skellig, by David Almond.

:moon:!

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[Akvod]

The Great Gatsby

"What does the green light in the end mean?"
"Why is the car yellow?"

I've might of enjoyed it better if fugurative language wasn't crammed down my throat.

In fact I hate the over analyizing in language arts classes.

[Barista]

I'm convinced that anything you read in school is ruined due to the fact that it's something you have to do, even if it really is a good book. For instance, I've heard so many great things about Ender's Game, and I love science fiction, but I had to drag myself through it in English Ten.

Yeah, totally agree. For ages I wanted to read Dracula, so for my English dissertation I decided to do Dracula and one of my favourite books "The Vampire Lestat."
I've put off reading a book I enjoy because it has that air of school and work around it, and also couldn't enjoy Dracula. Haven't even got to the end yet.

[Spiffy13]

The only book that I can actually remember the title of that I hated reading for school is The Westing Game - I could NEVER follow along with it. It was just confusing.

I have only read like 4 or 5 books overall that I actually liked for school.

[El Travo]

There aren't many books that I've read for school that aren't good, the ones I didn't like I didn't really read so I can't remember the name and stuff. The one I hated was about a native child having to grow up in a comunity that had nuns teaching at the schools and they treated the natives bad and stuff, he ran away and became a bull rider. Sorry for lack of name but I really can't remember it. Overall, it sucked.

[The Fetus]

Though I can't fucking believe anyone said Catcher in the Rye and 1984 were bad. You've got to be fucking kidding me, those are two of my favorite books ever. I was even a bit obsessed with Catcher for a while, I still pick it up and read it whenever I have nothing to do. That book is pure awesomeness.

Yeah, both are great works of literature, especially The Catcher In The Rye. It's one of my favorites, and I too was (am) obsessed. People who hate it don't understand the hidden meaning(s).

Overall, the books I've read for school that sucked was Montana 1948. Less of a mainstream school book. I mean, it was okay at some parts, but overall went for a deeper meaning that wasn't really there.

I like Shakespeare, although I did not like Othello which I had to read last year. It's too racey. Mainly most African-American literature I got bored of. I mean, I'm not racist or anything, I just hate to read about poor people that were discriminated one hundred years ago. Although, I absolutely loved Black Boy

[Hats of!]

The Outsiders.
Any book where the main characters name are Ponyboy and Sodapop and where the males are descriped as roman gods afraid for female contact is doomed to fail. Fail hard.

[Raxo]

The Outsiders is a book I like because all the homosexual undertones make me laugh.

[HappyPalooza]

Yeah, both are great works of literature, especially The Catcher In The Rye. It's one of my favorites, and I too was (am) obsessed. People who hate it don't understand the hidden meaning(s).

I know about the hidden messages in Catcher and I still didn't like it. I think it might be because I tend to disagree with the whole "children are innocent" idea. Every child I met was a brat, and most aren't corrupted when entering society, but shaped (not always for the better, but most of the time I find it to be the case). At least that's the way I see it. Also, the repetition of "phony" and "goddamn" irritated me to no end. I know people have a tendency to repeat words when they speak, but that was painful. There are more "goddamn"s in the book than there are pages, without exaggerating. All I really saw a was a pissed-off "rebel" teen who whined and complained about everything. The only part I was sucked into was the part with the pimp and the ho. I found that pretty funny.

[Jonk]

The Pigman: Simple book, bout some guy who collects pigs, some guys break pigs, pigman dies, boy and girl love eachother, boring shit

To Kill a Mockingbird:Hate this, its alright but the racism, the rape deal, it makes me feel..uneasy when i read it

[Miss Freeze]

The Worst book I've ever had to read for school was Walden and Resistance to Civil Government. My whole class hated it with a passion. One guy actually took it out back and peed on it after we were done with it in class. Other choose to burn there copies. It wasn't worth the 8 something I had to pay for it. It made it tens times worse that the old drone of a teacher would spend the enitre class lecturing about what we read the night before. If it wasn't bad enough the first time.

Another one I disliked was Dante's Inferno. Dante is just an angry child with a pen and a piece of paper looking to get revenge on anyone who had wronged him in life. It paints a picture of these layers of hell, each design to shoot down some idea or old hero. It's propaganda agianst the old pagan ways that Christianity disaproved of.

[timbot]

To Kill a Mockingbird:Hate this, its alright but the racism, the rape deal, it makes me feel..uneasy when i read it

I think that's part of the point of the whole story. I don't think Harper Lee was trying to make people feel warm and fuzzy about racism and rape.

[Scottish_Scholar]

I think that's part of the point of the whole story. I don't think Harper Lee was trying to make people feel warm and fuzzy about racism and rape.

LMFAO, that's exactly what I was thinking.

Without the rape and racism it would just be another boring story about some children that are trying to get a so called "ghost" out of hiding, don't get me wrong I love Boo but if the story just centered around him it wouldn't be a classic

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[KillCodyDead]

To Kill A Mockingbird. The fact that I'd already read, and disliked it beforehand didn't help much when I had to read it again, this year. I've always been a very fast reader, when I want to be, but usually I take it slow so I can really absorb the detail and actually understand the words I'm reading. However, we have what I like to call idiots in my class. The ones with no excuse for being stupid except that they don't try. They read so slowly that we had to switch over to a tape, which recited the book in a monotone hick accent. My blood curdles just thinking of it.

[Gratisgulasch]

I can't believe Death of a Salesman got mentioned at least twice. I loved this "book", read it in less than a day.
Same counts for 1984. It's such a wonderful and groundbreaking piece of art...but each to his own.

The most horrific book I had to read was The Illiad by Homer. It was in 9th grade, I think...and after one week of not making it over first 10 pages, I gave up.

Other books I hated are mostly German literature from the 17th to the 20th century, so it would be quite pointless to post them here as no one will know them. ^^

[Chrono]

the crucible i hated, possibly as i couldn't relate to it, but still, awful play/book

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[Jallen]

I thought that the Crucible was one of the best stories I had ever read. The fact that it's based ona true story and it's a metaphor for the McCarthy hearings made it really interesting to me.

[timbot]

I thought that the Crucible was one of the best stories I had ever read. The fact that it's based ona true story and it's a metaphor for the McCarthy hearings made it really interesting to me.

I was about the say "what are you talking about? The Crucible isn't connected to McCarthyism...but I'm wrong. We either didn't bring that up when I read it in high school, or I just didn't care. I did enjoy it, though. Now I might have to read it again.

[Phorpus]

I actually liked most of the books I read at school, but two books I hated were Lord of The Flies and Animal Farm.

I understood their premise, their lessons, and what they were aiming for but it still didn't get rid of the fact that their endings were annoyingly unfair. I know it's childish to want all books to end happily ever after but for some reason these two just burn me.

What's weird is that other books also had pretty unhappy endings and didn't even bother me.

[dameon5646]

i dont think ive ever actually finished a book for class

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[P0K3M0N_MA5T3R]

I'd say everything we've ever done;

Spies-it's ok I suppose and it's full of deep meaning, but to be honest, nothing happens, it's some kids who spy on one of the kids moms because they pretend she's a German spy, then all this coming of age bollocks happens, it turns out the mom is actually up to something, then more coming of age bollocks, and in the end she was having an affair. How dull.

Richard III- I hate most of Shakespeares stuff and I always get the impression that the only people who actually like them are people that love Literature, which funnily enough 99/100 school kids don't. I don't want to have to wade through stupid English that makes no sense, I can stand the Millers Tale because when you strip words down they are actually quite similar to today's English, so why is that English which is like 300 years newer than Chaucers makes no fucking sense?! Plus the fact that it's a historical story where you know what's going to happen from the start, makes it even more boring.

Making History-Hey everyone loves the Irish and their "amazing" history, right? Wrong. I don't and I'm pretty sure everyone else in my class, except the ginger haired Irish ogre who sits at the back of our class, doesn't either. The fact that the entire play is basically just 4 or 5 characters talking about the battles they are about to do, then talking about how shit the battle was afterwards, makes this one of the dullest "stories" ever told. If you saw this at a theater you would actually want to kill yourself it's that dull. Another thing is that the story doesn't really go anywhere. Ok, it sort of shows the downfall of a leader, and how a historian wants to document him as a hero even though he lost his main battle. But the fact that the play is about 70 pages long and skips from between 5 months, to 8 years in between scenes, removes any character development and in the end we really don't give a shit that he's lost everything.

Other things like Death of a Salesman, Of Mice and Men and even Opening Worlds (an extraordinarily dull set of short stories about different cultures which you really couldn't care less about, that ultimately amount to nothing and which we had to analyse so much for our exams), where all made more bearable by the fact me and my 2 friends used to take the piss out of them, and quote funny things from them (like Lennies rabbit obsession in Of Mice and Men) thus confusing anyone not in our class.
But now I'm in a class without them, the stories seem so much more dull, basically the 3 plays I've detailed above are ones which we've done since the new English class, and I hate them all.
I do not mind the Millers Tale though, 20 pages long, pretty humerous, (he grabs a woman by the "queynte", yeah I'll let your figure out what that is) and the fact that our teacher taught us a whole lesson on the above word and kept saying it in it's modern English equivalent, asking us to think of worse swear words, kind of makes the lessons better.

[AmareEstMors]

Thankfully I went to Catholic school so to offset the books we enjoyed good movies such as that offsetted the books I didnt like in each class:

The entire Old Testament:
Napolean Dynamite (scripture class)
The Goonies (scripture)
Little Big Man
Spiderman (english)

The Prince
Monty Python and the Holy Grail (medieval history)
Indiana Jones, I dont know which one (medieval again)

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[mcmurphy75]

Definitely Great Expectations. Man that was terrible. Who has the nickname Pip anyway?

I would agree with anyone who said The Pearl.

But Lord of the Flies, Animal Farm, and 1984 are all great. I've read Animal Farm at least ten times. No joke. And I just finished re-reading Lord of the Flies. Its only the second time for that one but I could definitely read it more than that.

[INTUNEevolution]

Books I loved:

Books I ABSOLUTLY HATED and gave the serimonious bonfire treatment to after I was finished with them:
The Crucible
The Scarlet Letter
Roll of Thunder Hear my Cry
The Diary of Anne Frank

Oh dear.

[timbot]

Richard III- I hate most of Shakespeares stuff and I always get the impression that the only people who actually like them are people that love Literature, which funnily enough 99/100 school kids don't. I don't want to have to wade through stupid English that makes no sense, I can stand the Millers Tale because when you strip words down they are actually quite similar to today's English, so why is that English which is like 300 years newer than Chaucers makes no fucking sense?! Plus the fact that it's a historical story where you know what's going to happen from the start, makes it even more boring.


You really find Shakespeare's English harder to understand than Chaucer's? Interesting. Also, just because you know "how it ends" doesn't mean there isn't some great stuff in there....then again, I probably thought the same way when I was in high school.

[INTUNEevolution]

How old are you tim? I imagine you're in college, scoffing at the highschool students trying to contribute to this thread and failing pretty miserably.

[timbot]

I'm out of college, actually. 25 years old. I honestly wasn't trying to scoff at anyone--not in that last post at least, can't speak for sure of other posts. I honestly was surprised that he/she found Chaucer easier to grasp than Shakespeare. And I wasn't trying to tease anyone by saying there's more than just knowing how it ends. I'd really like these high school kids in here to realize that. But, like I said above...I didn't really think that way in high school either. I hated most of my high school English classes.
And just out of curiosity, are you saying I'm failing at scoffing, or they're failing at contributing?

[Gratisgulasch]

Thankfully I went to Catholic school so to offset the books we enjoyed good movies such as that offsetted the books I didnt like in each class:
[...]
Monty Python and the Holy Grail (medieval history)
Indiana Jones, I dont know which one (medieval again)
Haha, are you serious? You watched Monty Python and Indiana Jones as examples of medieval history? What kind of school is that?

[mcmurphy75]

Haha, are you serious? You watched Monty Python and Indiana Jones as examples of medieval history? What kind of school is that?


The kind of school I wish I had gone to!

[JCamps]

Holy shit, The Pearl. What. The. Fuck. That was possibly the worst book I've ever read. But I love my English teacher now, he understands required material is shit. So now we're reading Cat's Cradle, which I loved. Of Mice and Men would have been good if our teacher didn't rape the book by getting every bit of symbolism out of it. But oh dear lord, the pearl.

[Gratisgulasch]

The kind of school I wish I had gone to!Sounds fun, but doesn't seem to be of high educational value.

[abbey]

Alright, alright. Enough with the derail. Back to books.

[Ikin]

To Kill a Mockingbird
Lord of the Flies
And....that's all I can remember now.


What's with the hate for Animal Farm? I loved that book.

[Jallen]

Oh dear.

This made me laugh really hard.

Anyways, I can't believe some people don't like the Lord of the Flies. I didn't find it boring at all. The storyline was amazingly gripping, in my opinion.

[Miss Freeze]

Wurthing heights. I almost liked the story line but I found it annoying to read.

[timbot]

This made me laugh really hard.

Anyways, I can't believe some people don't like the Lord of the Flies. I didn't find it boring at all. The storyline was amazingly gripping, in my opinion.

I hope I didn't already say this in here--I went back and checked and didn't see it--but, I didn't really like Lord of the Flies. I read it and kind of thought I liked it, probably because I didn't find it too hard to read, but then when I tried to think about it, I felt like I didn't understand it at all. I think I'll have to put it on my list of books that I need to reread now that I'm out of high school.

[Raxo]

Wurthing heights. I almost liked the story line but I found it annoying to read.

Wuthering Heights

I read this for my British Literature class and it was such a boring story with so much useless detail in it. The story wasn't interesting enough for me and I fell asleep reading this shit several times.

[INTUNEevolution]

I'm out of college, actually. 25 years old. I honestly wasn't trying to scoff at anyone--not in that last post at least, can't speak for sure of other posts. I honestly was surprised that he/she found Chaucer easier to grasp than Shakespeare. And I wasn't trying to tease anyone by saying there's more than just knowing how it ends. I'd really like these high school kids in here to realize that. But, like I said above...I didn't really think that way in high school either. I hated most of my high school English classes.
And just out of curiosity, are you saying I'm failing at scoffing, or they're failing at contributing?

I thought there might be confusion about the failing line. I was talking about their inability to contribute. Well, that's not true, my opinion isn't any more important than someone else's, if we go by my philosophy, but my human nature tells me that every single other person is inferior.

And I'm in highschool, so I'm there with you on the hatred front.

[INTUNEevolution]

In response to Wuthering Heights, my initial reading made me think it was a beautiful story of unrequited love, and my second reading made me realize just how bad it was.

In response to Lord of the Flies, I could not finish it my first time through, but I was 10 so there you go. When I reread it I found it compelling, but like I said, there is an age you have to be to stand it.

Also, on days like just before winter break, my history teacher lets us watch Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

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[Ventric]

Also, on days like just before winter break, my history teacher lets us watch Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

And what a great movie that was!

Lord of the Flies proved to open a vast array of doors that delve into many topics.

[Cob450]

Anything by Plato. Not that he doesn't have interesting ideas, but I can't really stand self-important philosophers, especially ones who attempt to set up entire societies that wouldn't work anyway.
Most Greek tragedies. There are some good ones, like Oedipus (the classic) but the others just seem like rip-offs from that, even Antigone. I did like the Odyssey, but I don't like rip-offs of the epics either like the Aeneid.
Descartes' Meditations on First Philosophy: I like the fact that he starts out skeptical in order to prove that skepticism is wrong, but once he tries to do that, he turns to stupid proofs that don't make sense.
There are a whole bunch more, but I don't remember the half of them.

[Idioteque]

Ugh, everything we've ever read by Dickens. I really cannot understand why that hack is held in such high regard.

[timbot]

Ugh, everything we've ever read by Dickens. I really cannot understand why that hack is held in such high regard.

Dickens a hack? Ouch, that hurts. Dickens isn't the greatest, but I think he's pretty good. Can't say I've read anything by him that I disliked.

I never understood why anyone really likes Emily Dickinson. Talk about a hack. A sickly young girl writes a bunch of morbid poems that nobody sees until after she's dead. "I heard a fly buzz when I died," ugh. It's like finding an emo kid's journal and making him a literary great.

[crustaceanation]

We had to read Ordinary People and it sucked. All it is is filler and you just read about everyday life waiting for something interesting to happen.

[Miss Freeze]

Speaking of Dickens. I really didn't like anything by Emily Dickinson. She was a recluse who got bored and jotted down a few poems, most them crap, she never intended for them to be sold, or read for that matter. Then after she died and some people thought they would cash in on her and sold them. I hate having to study her crap.

[timbot]

Speaking of Dickens. I really didn't like anything by Emily Dickinson. She was a recluse who got bored and jotted down a few poems, most them crap, she never intended for them to be sold, or read for that matter. Then after she died and some people thought they would cash in on her and sold them. I hate having to study her crap.

Thank you for seconding my opinion. In college I wrote a paper about the terrible reasons she is liked these days--much more thought out and intelligent than my above rant. I don't think my professor liked it much, because she likes Dickinson--probably just because she's an old feminist and likes nearly any female writer.

[Oodge]

Why The Whales Came is one of the most shallow, unrealistic, deplorable books I've ever laid eyes on. And don't get me started on that weirdo who runs over some woman and then can't get over himself afterwards. I hated that one so much I've managed to erase it's title from my mind. The entire book could have been told in the first and last 15 pages.

I'm shocked that The Hobbit got a few mentions here, I'm joyful that Of Mice and Men got a few, although I read that of my own account and only finished it because it was short anyway, and I'm also glad that someone else in the world has read A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovitch. Another perfect book for school english that gets ignored by most. Depressing

[ComboMove]

The Scarlet Letter =Horrific
But I also disliked Farewell To Arms By Hemingway. It was the wost thing I had ever read.

[INTUNEevolution]

How can anyone hate Anthem?

It's like God decreed that someone needed to write a book that toppled him as a supreme entity.

See what I did there? God decreed that Randians were to be born? HA classic.

[Ghoulz]

We just finished Catcher In The Rye in English.it's ok
for independent reading i'm reading War and Peace.My Teacher thinks i'm insane

[StoryTeller5]

Anne Frank I remeber when our class got this book someone had read it before hand. So they told every one about page 130. I laughed so hard that a 14 year old girl wrote this. Her father is still alive and I could imagen what he thought when he saw that.

But asides that I hated it. You were stuck indoors for 2 years it sucked, I get it. Thats why we took down Hitler.

Of Mice and Men I only liked this book for 1 reason. When we had to read this book out loud during class we could swear. And as luck had it as someone stared to curse the prinicble walks in.

I thought it to be ok.

[INTUNEevolution]

Oh, The Joy Luck Club.

I see why people like it, but I just don't get it. It seriously needs help in the Keeping My Interest category.

[Idioteque]

We had to read Ordinary People and it sucked. All it is is filler and you just read about everyday life waiting for something interesting to happen.

My class just finished reading Ordinary People as well, it was just as boring as you said.

Personally, I had my fingers crossed for Conrad to attempt suicide or something just to make it interesting.

[MrDoctor]

Bean Trees was boring as hell.I just copied my friends notes and cheated off him during the reading

[WookieRage]

All Emily Dickinson poems - Emily Dickinson was a crazy emo bitch. Her stuff all has the same theme; death, flowers, and her inability to get over herself and go outside instead of locking herself in her attic wallowing in self-pity. Give me a break.

The Scarlett Letter - It isn't mandatory for tenth graders, but I will be forced to read it as a senior so I figured I'd do it sooner rather than later. The author completely failed at trying to express his desired theme because the book simply doesn't have a plot. There is no climax. There is no structure. There are absolutely no events. It is just about how miserable some ho's life was cos she got knocked up by a priest.

[DARSEE]

In my class, we just finished reading Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe. It pretty much sucked until the end. I also hated Great Expectations, but i am pretty sure everyone agrees. It was good at the beginning, but Dickens tends to ramble. Also The Martian Chronicles and any short stories i was made to read by Ray Bradbury.

I generally like Shakespeare when it is discussed in class, but otherwise it sucks so bad. I enjoyed Romeo and Juliet, although it should have ended way sooner.

I don't understand why everyone seems to dislike Anne Frank. I never had to read it as a requirement for school (My 8th grade teacher sucked, she was supposed to assign it but never did.) but recently i was Miep in the play version of Anne Frank at my school and had to read it for that. I enjoyed it so much i read it again. It is a lot different when you read books on your own time i suppose. Hated Tom Sawyer when it was assigned, but loved it on my own.

And i loved Lord of the Flies. It was like the only book assigned that year i read with on time.

[Hawke]

Fuck Fuck Fuck Jane Eyre. How the fuck can anyone enjoy reading that boring ass, piece of shit, go nowhere book. How in gods name did it win an award for something; anything!? I want to burn it in a fire that burns hotter than the sun itself!

Fuck that book.

[Ghoulz]

Fuck Fuck Fuck Jane Eyre. How the fuck can anyone enjoy reading that boring ass, piece of shit, go nowhere book. How in gods name did it win an award for something; anything!? I want to burn it in a fire that burns hotter than the sun itself!

Fuck that book.

Say fuck more please. Your intelligence is showing.


I despise Romeo and Juliet. the only Shakespeare tragedy I hate.

[Hawke]

Say fuck more please. Your intelligence is showing.


I despise Romeo and Juliet. the only Shakespeare tragedy I hate.

Fuck R&J. I fucking hated that fucking book too. Infact, Fuck Shakespeare's work all together. I guess I see why some people like it because it's well written(to them) But when I read a book I like to read it in Current English and not have to look at the side notes to see what Shakespeare's old English actually meant. And not have to read in poetry format. FUCK that.

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[Ghoulz]

Fuck R&J. I fucking hated that fucking book too. Infact, Fuck Shakespeare's work all together. I guess I see why some people like it because it's well written(to them) But when I read a book I like to read it in Current English and not have to look at the side notes to see what Shakespeare's old English actually meant. And not have to read in poetry format. FUCK that.

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Good thing he took my advice.
We are doing Macbeth when i get back from break. Thoughts on this?

[timbot]

I like Macbeth. Good story, interesting ideas. And, it spawned what I feel is the best movie ever based on a Shakespeare play, Scotland, PA. Andy Dick, Christopher Walken and Jennifer Aniston all in a 1970's setting. Even if you don't like Shakespeare, rent this movie. It's much better than Dubliners by James Joyce, a collection of short stories I couldn't stand.

[Kippers]

Just last week we finished "Lion Heart" by Jessy Martin. Worst author ever!

[Shaori]

Of Mice and Men
Confusions
Silas Marner.
The last one was the worst. It dragged on for so long and was so boring. We were meant to write an essay on it, and I ended up writing an essay entitled '100 Reasons Why I Hate Silas Marner'. It did reach 100 reasons, and I could have continued. That essay ended up being passed around the class and was probably read more than the book itself. That's not saying much though.

[testiclize]

The Pearl-This was very possibly the worst book I have ever read. Ever. It was boring, it was pointless, and the teacher that was reading it aloud (this was only 7th or 8th grade) had to stop ever two minutes to explain what had just happened.

Antigone-Partly just because this was Sophoclese and the translation didn't go so well, mostly because, guy bangs his mom, gets some really messed up kids, and this is what happens to said kids...wow, yay inbreeding.

Romeo and Juliet-this was just so boring, couple teenagers who's parents hate each other fall in love...oh boy. Of course, im not much of a Shakespeare fan as it is.

[Dida]

Where to begin
recycle
thunderwith
the green wind
boy
some book about an apocalypses
skelig
A midsummer nights dream
Oh and its not a book, but English has now ruined Mean Girls for me because if i watch it all i can think about is the use of colours and like film techniques and stuff
And bridge to Terabithia - she came in and said this is a really sad book because she dies in the end

[MissRAWR]

I read The Scarlet Letter my Sophomore year. It was absolutely terrible.
Wuthering Heights was also one...
Summer of my German Soldier (wow that was in 8th grade)
Things Fall Apart
Sense and Sensibility
Great Expectations...

There's more but that's all I can think of right now. I usually read the SparkNotes for everthing :lol:

[Oodge]

Mean Girls had something to ruin?

[timbot]

I read The Scarlet Letter my Sophomore year. It was absolutely terrible.
Wuthering Heights was also one...
Summer of my German Soldier (wow that was in 8th grade)
Things Fall Apart
Sense and Sensibility
Great Expectations...

There's more but that's all I can think of right now. I usually read the SparkNotes for everthing :lol:

How do you know if the book is any good if you just read the SparkNotes? Sigh...kids these days :lol:

[GrapefruitMovin]

Chaucer's 'The Millers Tale". Not only it is written in mostly incomprehensible middle age English, but it also is about farts and having sex with someones wife. Seriously. Only good thing about it was- it's short.

God i hated that novel with a passion... I also hated The Reeve's Tale also it had a very similar story line.

[Clank22]

Had to read cue for treason in grade 10, didn't get through half the book before just going on the internet and getting chapter summaries. Also another one I hated was Brave New World, could never get into the book.

I really like it when teachers let you choose your own book, it makes it so much better and easier to write about(this year I read Jurassic Park, and I am Legend)

[Wackomyjacko]

I would say the worst book I had to read in school was Silas Marner. I mean, honestly, who wants to read about an old man with a humpback who finds a little girl in the snow and decides to make her his. You know she's gotta feel embarrassed when she's out in public and that thing is hobbling around behind her, breathing down her neck and what not. It was so boring. The only kick I got out of it was that the author made it look like there was more to their relationship than 'father and daughter'.

[MissRAWR]

How do you know if the book is any good if you just read the SparkNotes? Sigh...kids these days :lol:


Those are the ones I actually read through.
I dunno why I read the shitty ones and didnt read the good ones. Well, I read To Kill a Mockingbird, and I liked it. And Hamlet, but that was a play.

But one that I couldnt even get through was Joy Luck Club. That book was waaaay too boring for me.

[RandomGuy]

Scarlet Letter, someone better ban that piece o' crap!

[timbot]

And Hamlet, but that was a play.


Are you saying plays are more likely to be enjoyed? Or are you saying they don't count as "books?" If someone is going to call "The Miller's Tale" a novel, then I think plays are permissible.
By the way, Hamlet is good, but I prefer Macbeth

[WiseOldTabbyCat]

Silas Marner. I got sick of it after the first page. George Eliot is so very dull.
English is one of my favourite subjects, so pretty much all I have read has been good.

However, I DESPISED "A view from the bridge". What an awful play. It makes terrible reading, and the ending is a real let-down.

[Syphon]

Hatchet by Gary Paulsen. It's not necessarily that it was bad, it's just that the class I read it in pounded all of its plot points, characters and everything else firmly into the ground. It basically sucked all of the life out of it and made it a bland, boring, awful read. I really hated that class.

I liked it the first time I read it ... in grade 4. Then we read it again, every year until grade 8. Now I hate the book.

I really disliked Catcher in the Rye.

[TangerineOrange]

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn
The Odyssey (I have mixed feelings on this book, but at the end of the day, I'd say that I didn't like it that much).
Lord of the Flies
Ethan Frome
Going After Cacciato
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

... and I'm sure there are more, but I simply can't remember them right now.

[SHaRkbAIt]

Jane Eyre i think.....
page 2 was as far as i ever got... it was that boring.

Pride and Pred.... ended up reading it on the merry go round at dreamworld.

there's also that book about the savage and the drugs... brave new world i believe... only book i ever through into the incinerator...

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[thatswhatyourmomsaid]

I had to read:

"The Tale of Despereaux" which was a completely STUPID story that should be burned and spat on

"The Listmaker" which was boring as all shit

and the most depressing book in the history of the world (not sad, cos sad can be good if it's written well, this was just bad, badly written, and the storyline wasn't a plot, it was A FREAKING TRAINWRECK!)

"Bye Beautiful"

Julia Lawrinson (the author) should be chased by an angry mob

Harsh, I know, but I can't stand crappy books

[Whoisdan]

I don't care if The Mocking Bird was top shit back in the day or still is, I just plain ol' didn't enjoy it. Firstly, I really hate kids. Having Dill anywhere in that book just pissed me off, at every scene he participated in. The whole "Boo Radley's House" side-story annoyed me, because they spent the entire book builiding up, only to say that the misunderstood child of the Radley family that nobody liked and thought was evil, despite not knowing him, TURNED OUT TO BE A NICE GUY. I never would have guessed.

And the movie.. Dear god. That was just a punch in the face for it all. Dill pops out of nowhere, all the kids are more annoying than I thought they were, and they changed the part where Atticus tells his kids and stuff that the black guy got shot escaping the prison camp he was at, by saying they shot to wound him. Instead of shooting at him 17 times. I understand why they did it, but I don't care. Still a shitty move on the producer's part. Also, the whole court case took so damn long, and I could've told anyone who the guilty suspect was five chapters previous to the court case itself.

Yeah, that ends that.
But before the year we were to read mocking bird kill book, I read a book called "The Garbage King" which was about a fat, rich, spoiled little african kid named Dani, who leaves home due to an over-controlling father threatening to send him to military school. At first, I thought he was just a spoiled brat that is whining and complaining despite living a perfect life, but he DOES grow on you, and he ends up joining with a street gang (after living on a farm in slavery, ouch) And he really changes his pace of mind, and it's not a bad book. Although my memory is a little iffy on it, as it's been about 2 years,
but yeah. If you see it lying around, give it a read. I sadly don't remember the author's name, but not many booked are named The Garbage King.

[lollercaust]

Some of these will most likely not put me in the best light.

Romeo and Juliet; A Midsummer Night's Dream - In fairness, I was only in 9th when I read R&J but for both of them I could just never get into them. For MND, at least, I'm just not that much into Shakespearian comedies.

Fahrenheit 451 - It's a great book, I'll agree. And it definitely teaches lessons like 1984 and Animal Farm would, but I didn't really like having to read it. I felt like it was <i>too</i> much of its exaggerated style to be interesting.

Paradise Lost - Oh, this is a big one. Because I hated it does not mean I didn't enjoy reading it. It was a very good read, and I felt like I learned a lot more about literature by finishing it, but I didn't like it in the end, and would have much rather read others.

[AnnaNemyss]

I also thought of The Scarlet Letter as soon as I read the name of the thread. Another one that popped into my head was The Old Man and The Sea X[
Someone mentioned The Giver a few comments ago, but I have to say I really enjoyed it.

[Ralbert07]

So Far From the Bamboo Groves

I hate whiney 8 year olds :(

[timbot]

So Far From the Bamboo Groves

I hate whiney 8 year olds :(

What year did you read that? I checked it out as a possibility to read with 5th or 6th graders. I didn't think it was bad. Not something I would personally want to read for fun just because I'm too old, but good for a younger age group.

Also, don't you feel a little silly calling that 8 year old whiney? I mean, you're sitting at home, on the Internet making sad faces about books you had to read for school, and SHE (I think it was a girl) is the whiney one?

[kussese]

The Red Badge of Courage and The Scarlett Letter are definitely the worst books I've ever read for school :facts:

[Counterfeit Dreamer]

Okay, so I'm going to have to go ahead and agree with everyone who mentioned Heart of Darkness. This is just one more book my horrible English teacher tried to inflict upon us this year.

It was awful, and not so much a book as much as a manual of how to over-elaborate every single sentence you write.

Conrad sucks. :argh:

[FallenMorgan]

The one book I hated that I had to read was "Out of the silent planet" by C.S Lewis.

[notafan]

The Story of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, it was so boring and I didn't understand a word of it.

[FallenMorgan]

The Story of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, it was so boring and I didn't understand a word of it.

I also hated some of the older books. The writing style was hard to understand.

[TheHighwaySong]

I most likely have to read 1984 next year. I tried reading it before and I couldn't get through it. It was just so boring to me.

[thomas30113]

The House of Dies Drears, something like that. it was sooo shitty.

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[FallenMorgan]

I most likely have to read 1984 next year. I tried reading it before and I couldn't get through it. It was just so boring to me.

1984 is a great, and actually very profetic book. George Orwell was an intelligent guy.

[Slutty McBangerton]

Okay, so I'm going to have to go ahead and agree with everyone who mentioned Heart of Darkness. This is just one more book my horrible English teacher tried to inflict upon us this year.

It was awful, and not so much a book as much as a manual of how to over-elaborate every single sentence you write.

Conrad sucks. :argh:
I read "Lord Jim" by him, and I found that awful as well.

I really don't like his style of writing, nor the style of writing from that time period.



I have yet to read a book for school and enjoy it, but some of the worst I had to read were Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and Lord of the Flies. For the most part, it's the authors writing style that I disliked, rather than the actual stories. I find if I don't like the way the author writes then I won't finish the book, regardless of how compelling the story might be.

[WhooshNoises]

Catcher In The Rye, JD Salinger.
I was forced to read this one in high school and I absolutely hated it. It was like the main character had a personality disorder of the worst kind. I could barely follow the storyline, and I was SO glad when it was over.

[Dawn]

I'm doing an English course at uni, and I haven't liked a book they've made us read yet.
Jane Eyre, The moonstone, Great Expectations, Sign of four... Didn't help that I had no idea what was going on in most of them.

[FallenMorgan]

I don't like books that are sort of childish, or unrealistic Sci-Fi books.

[MikeyTuck]

I have to read The Scarlet Letter and Jane Eyre over the summer for my AP English next year.

Last year I had to read Bless Me Ultima, and it was the most lame and boring thing I've ever had to read. When they weren't fighting in Spanish, they were praying in Spanish -_____-

[INTUNEevolution]

:(

Great Expectations was good.

[Dawn]

I did like the first few chapters, then it just completely lost me.
Perhaps I'm just to simple minded..

[Besh]

After January. There are no words to describe the displeasure that was having to read that book. The author switches writing styles before the ending (i.e. Instead of writing "she did this" its "you did this"). Chapter 11 was 3 lines long! I wanted to beat myself to death with that book, but I figured it wasn't worth being used for something useful, so I decided to return it back to resource hire as soon as I finished it.

[MrDoctor]

I hate "Romeo And Juliet" But this is probably do to the teacher making me read all the long parts. And the the old English.

[MikeyTuck]

After January. There are no words to describe the displeasure that was having to read that book. The author switches writing styles before the ending (i.e. Instead of writing "she did this" its "you did this"). Chapter 11 was 3 lines long! I wanted to beat myself to death with that book, but I figured it wasn't worth being used for something useful, so I decided to return it back to resource hire as soon as I finished it.

I totally get what you mean. That is one of literature's most frustrating books to ever be in possession of.

[Scrotemeal]

The house of the spirits. Isabel Allende. Worst book i've ever read, I hated it so so much.
It's 'magical realism', which is total bullcrap. Its a terrible plotline, it switches between characters and first to second to third person for a chapter or a paragraph, then changes again. And all the chapters are 50 fucking pages long. Hate hate hate with a passion.

[The Muffin Man]

I am really shocked by the responses to this thread. I thought 1984 was one of the greatest books i have ever read. The Catcher in the Rye was a terrible book I agree. It was boring uneventful and left you asking if their was a point in even continuing. I liked the delving into the characters mind but it needed a fucking plot. But I promise i have a book that will blow all of your books away.

The Known World

Oh my jesus this book is bad. Its about a slave family and how they all get seperated. And then they all die. At the end of the book EVERY character is dead. Shitties book I have ever read in my life. You couldnt even follow the damn thing.

[ShaunAnator]

Tim Winton's Minimum of Two. It has been acclaimed to be great by many newspapers and especially my teacher at the time. It was about ordinary people in ordinary situations. If I liked stuff like that I watch big brother. I had to know it like my back hand too for our final exam (final year) so it being shit really didn't help.

[Anouk]

I had to read a lot of shitty books for Dutch literature, but a few of them were absolutely... Aaargh!

1) God's Gym
No, it's not about God. It's about a guy with the nickname Godzilla, short: God. He ownes a gym. It's just SO boring. It starts with a 20 page long letter that's just Boring. Then they continue with more Boring stuff. After that it got so Boring I fell asleep.
2) Familieziek (Family ill)
This story just doesn't make sense at all. A chapter is like 5 lines and then some more strange stuff happens. The story is just so weird...

[SomethingWitty]

Othello. I really fucking hate that play. Of all the Shakespearean dramas to choose from they chose the one with the whiniest, most incredible cast.
I liked The Merchant of Venice, Romeo and Juliet, and MacBeth though. Shakespeare had obviously taken temporary leave of his senses when he devised the characters of Othello.

[NadiaPotter]

they made us read just a few ones... thanks to the Lord

but I really didn't understand quite well "the little prince"

and hated!, really hated "the gift of the star", it was about a boy, who find this star... and the freaking star only go him bad luck, but they were like "oohh it has a gift", the poor boy have the worst time of his life, and he didn't see it that way... in the end.. I think he went with the star to the heaven or something like that. Don't remember, don't care...

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[TrippieChick]

Right now for my Honors English Summer work, I am reading A Brave New World and A Brave New World Revisited. I just can't bring myself to like it because I've read 1984 and it's an exponentially better book with the same idea.

[Tweek]

1984 is also written a lot better, with more original ideas.
I am also currently doing assessment on Brave New World.

[Chaplin]

Yeah I have to agree with people and say that reading the Pearl was a horrible experience. I think "Grapes of Wrath" was great but "The Pearl" was just plain boring.

[prime_pm]

The Scarlet Letter, hands down. The teacher even told us from the beginning "You are going to hate this book." Then I asked "Then why don't we read The Hobbit like all the other schools? I hate this school. And every February we have to drop all our important projects just to celebrate National Guilt Month."

I may have adlibbed.

[Balkothdr]

My God, I hated David Copperfield and Pride and Prejudice with a passion. And we had to read them both in the same year. Scarlett Letter was pretty much crap as well. I'm surprised at the number of schools that had to read it.

[Lush]

Wow, I don't know if it's the Canadian school system or what, but you all got to read way better books than what I had to in High School. I think the longest book we read was 200 pages. My sister was in Advanced English, and I envied her because they read much better books. I read all of the ones she brought home too. Ender's Game, The Chrysalids, I liked both of them.
Probably THE worst book I've ever read in school is 'The Stone Angel'. It's about an old lady going senile, and it jumps back and forth between her past and present life. At one point she becomes lost in a forest somewhere and takes a dump in the woods. Seriously. What the hell? I think I'm the only person in the class who read the whole thing.
I read Grapes of Wrath for school when I was pretty young, and likely didn't understand it fully, but I liked it.
I was indifferent to Hamlet, MacBeth, and pretty much any of the other Shakespeare we did in school.
We had to do a book, something about 'Crabbe', it was the protagonist's last name. It's a story about him becoming a teenage alcoholic and getting in trouble at school. It was just whatever to me.
The majority of the books we did in school were below my reading level so I just read them and then didn't do the homework on it because I finished reading them long before we were assigned the homework.
In 9th grade we did 'The Raven' by Poe, and I wish more than anything that more Poe was done in schools. I think he's brilliant. One of my favourite authors by far. His stories are so creepy, even the comedic ones.

[The Reverend Is]

I HATED the fucking Outsiders gayest book and movie ever, it was boring and annoying/complete waste of time.
It literally made me want to drown puppies.

[Raxo]

I HATED the fucking Outsiders gayest book and movie ever, it was boring and annoying/complete waste of time.
It literally made me want to drown puppies.

The book was full of homosexual undertones and that made petty enjoyable for me because it was funny. The story itself wasn't really that bad. Hate would be too much of a strong word for this book. It was average but not a book that deserves hate.

The movie was shit. I'll give you that.

[ShadowFlame]

Oh god...
This is the worst book you will ever read in your life:
No country for old men.
It was total fucking shit.
I Wanted to die.

[OhJehovah]

I would definitely have to say The Piano Lesson.
Never quite understood why an enitre book was dedicated to somebody having a piano in their house that just happened to be old.