The one piece of literature you hated reading in school

[Boom]

King Lear and Macbeth are the only two Shakespeare works that I unabashedly love.

While I recognize it as a classic, I never was able to get into Hamlet.

 

[DoomsdayApex]

1984 and Animal Farm made the list?!

 

[DoomsdayApex]

King Lear and Macbeth are the only two Shakespeare works that I unabashedly love.

While I recognize it as a classic, I never was able to get into Hamlet.

Really?

Sad to say, I played a part in the play [Laerates].

 

[Teelie]

I can't think of any specific titles off hand I despised in school right now. There are plenty I've read that were out of school but often found in literature classes.

The two which stand out most for me are both Kafka, Metamorphosis and The Trial. I didn't care for either of them and I don't believe I even finished The Trial. It's such dry, boring reading.

I do like Shakespeare though and I don't mind it in play format although the stage performances and movies I've seen are naturally better.

 

[Bat-Mite]

Pride and Prejudice.

Other than curing my insomnia, that book was of no use to me. Out of all the stinkers that I had to read (90% of the assigned books, I'd say), that one takes the cake.

 

[The Question]

Well dang, I have no issue reading plays. The Crucible to this day is one of my favorites (while I hate The Death of a Salesman, but that's because of a specific Prof I had who was obsessed with it and had us write 3 papers on it during one class).

I tend to act them out in my head when I read them.

But I mean seriously, the stage direction is as fun as the actual material!

Exit, pursued by a bear

I think the problem with Willy Shakes is that his stage direction isn't anywhere near as well written, witty, or engaging as his dialogue, and it's in a dialect of English that's hard to follow along with due to it's unfamiliarity, especially when it doesn't have the emotion oozing out of it like his dialogue does. The dialogue is either to follow because you can pick up the rythm and how the characters seem to feel. So, ultimately, reading his plays becomes a chose because stopping to read the stage direction breaks up the rythm he build up with his dialogue in a very bad way. That's why his plays are all much better viewed as opposed to read. He never intended them to be read by anybody but the cast and crew.

My schools focused on books about things that were boringcould happen in real life.

In my middle school we did a bunch of short stories I can barely remember, and the novels were (that I can remember) were:

To Kill a Mockingbird
Lord of the Flies
The Year of Impossible Goodbyes
So Far from the Bamboo Grove
The Chocolate Wars
Of Mice and Men
Black Boy
The Secret Life of Bees
Macbeth
The Oddessy
And another book that i can't for the life of me remember that was about a teenager growing up in China in the '60s.

In retrospect I liked pretty much all of those books except for Lord of the Flies and Black Boy (I found his narrative style to be very dry). Although I was a little annoyed by the fact that The Year of Impossible Goodbyes and So Far From The Bamboo Grove are essentially the same book, about a young girl and her family living in Korea during the time of the Japanese occupation of WWII. But oddly enough they were both autobiographies, and one was from a Korean pov and one was from a Japanese pov so I let it slide. But still, the class made reading them a pain in my ass and turned me off of casual reading for a while.

Then in high school, well I didn't have any required reading in high school because my high school was awesome.

 

[Franklin Richards]

Considering there were no directors and no actor ever got the entire play, I'd say you were close. However there are no stage directions in Shakespeare short of Exeunt and Enter Tom, Dick, and Harry.

 

[The Apocalypse]

To Kill A Mockingbird. I just hated that book so much. The Great Gatsby was a bore as well.

 

[Franklin Richards]

Wow. Another vote for Mockingbird. I'm shocked.


Please tell me you guys love the movie at least.

 

[Spider-Aziz]

Some pieces of poetry I hardly recall

 

[Mr. Thing]

King Lear and Macbeth are the only two Shakespeare works that I unabashedly love.

While I recognize it as a classic, I never was able to get into Hamlet.

Othello and Hamlet are my two favourites, and funnily enough, for the life of me I just cannot get into King Lear or Macbeth.

 

[BestGirl]

A Separate Peace. Most of that book was a snoozefest.

Also, Julius Caesar and Othello are my favorite Shakespeare plays. Iago :heart:

 

[Mr. Thing]

A Separate Peace. Most of that book was a snoozefest.

Also, Julius Caesar and Othello are my favorite Shakespeare plays. Iago :heart:

Haha, yeah Iago's great. One of my favourite English Literary characters ever.

 

[BestGirl]

Haha, yeah Iago's great. One of my favourite English Literary characters ever.

I was a sophomore in high school when I read Othello. I didn't care for Shakespeare at the time and was stunned at how awesome Iago was.

 

[twylight]

I think the problem with Willy Shakes is that his stage direction isn't anywhere near as well written, witty, or engaging as his dialogue, and it's in a dialect of English that's hard to follow along with due to it's unfamiliarity, especially when it doesn't have the emotion oozing out of it like his dialogue does. The dialogue is either to follow because you can pick up the rythm and how the characters seem to feel. So, ultimately, reading his plays becomes a chose because stopping to read the stage direction breaks up the rythm he build up with his dialogue in a very bad way. That's why his plays are all much better viewed as opposed to read. He never intended them to be read by anybody but the cast and crew.

I've never been in a Shakespeare class where we didn't watch the movies/plays. However I don't think that negates reading the plays.

 

[The Question]

I've never been in a Shakespeare class where we didn't watch the movies/plays. However I don't think that negates reading the plays.

I have.

And I think it should negate it, honestly. Spend the rest of the semester or whatever discussing the play, but watch it first to get it over with.

 

[terry78]

We did watch the 1968 Romeo and Juliet in 7th grade, which got the requisite "ewwws" and "woooos" when the brief topless scene came up.

 

[DarkSovereignty]

and a shocking appearance by Basil Exposition.

 

[JJJ's Ulcer]

I have to admit I'm surprised by all the books mentioned... 1984, Animal Farm, Heart of Darkness, To Kill a Mockingbird, Great Gatsby... loved all of those. But maybe the problem is I didn't read those in highschool under academic duress, but on my own accord in my early to mid 20's.

I remember Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 was read in my 9th grade class, and what was unusual was everyone was enjoying the book fine until the underachieving class-clown started joking about how terrible it was. Then everyone turned on it overnight. We're still like sheep at that age in terms of what we like and dislike.

 

[terry78]

^And there you go. When you're required to do something, it automatically makes it no fun.

 

[SuperFerret]

Plus all those books were boring.

 

[jonathancrane]

I despise Romeo and Juliet with a hellish passion.
Aside from that, I did not like Lord of the Flies or any of the short fiction by James Joyce. Sure, I understand the social significance of the works and will admit they have an artistry to them, but like the paintings of Jackson Pollock, I just cannot immerse myself in them, nor derive any enjoyment.

 

[Mr.Webs]

Animal Farm? 1984? Paradise Lost? Wow. But hey, to each their own.

For me, it was Catcher In The Rye. When I read it, I thought it was just all about this weird, whiny kid who liked to *****. I realize I read it a bit too young, around 13 or so, so I couldn't appreciate it, but either way, I just couldn't get into it.

 

[Lighthouse]

The Chocolate War.

 

[Mr. Thing]

Animal Farm? 1984? Paradise Lost? Wow. But hey, to each their own.

For me, it was Catcher In The Rye. When I read it, I thought it was just all about this weird, whiny kid who liked to *****. I realize I read it a bit too young, around 13 or so, so I couldn't appreciate it, but either way, I just couldn't get into it.

I think that is actually the beauty of Catcher in the Rye. You can complicate it all you like but that's the jist of it - Holden's just a whiny little teenager who doesn't know what he wants.

I know its rather cliche but Catcher is actually my favourite all-time novel, and I think it's because I read it around 14. I'd never read a book before with that kind of continuous, colloquial narrative. I thought it was a revelation.