The one piece of literature you hated reading in school

[Suirou]

The Old Man and the Sea.
I got assigned that and I couldn't get into it.

 

[JJJ's Ulcer]

Man, I loved The Stranger as a teen.

 

[the amazing fro]

The Stranger is a good book but I kept wanting to deck Meursault. He really irritated me. My friend, however, thought Meursault was the best fictional character ever to be created.

 

[Vid Electricz]

Actually 13 is the perfect age to read Catcher. That's its target-audience (despite contrary belief, its target-audience is not psychotic assassins). I read Catcher twice in my teens and loved it both times. I tried to read it a year ago (I'm in my late 20's now) and just couldn't get into it. The magic was gone. I could not longer relate to Holden and his adolescent problems.

Really? Huh...I've never had that mindset before. Salinger was actually in his 30's when he wrote CITR. Which is amazing to say the least, that he so accurately captured the mindset and feelings of adolescence.

 

[Bruce Banner]

As an English major, I don't know how I feel about all the hate I am seeing towards Catcher in the Rye. One of my professors is going to have us read it again later this term.

I will say as I write the paper for it, I cannot stand As I lay Dying by William Faulkner.

 

[Mace Dolex]

So you don't even know if they got out of the attic or not.

Well our class did see a documentary about it.

I was never a fan of Romeo and Juliet.

My 9th grade class saw the movie version that was done in the 60's and our class giggled a bit because of the slight nudity that our teacher almost had to stop the movie. t:

 

[Manic]

A Handmaid's Tale!

I hated that book so much. It was non-linear in the worst way and it thought it was a lot more clever than it really was. I could tell even my teacher didn't like it because he then showed the class the film Logan's Run (which had nothing in common with A Handmaid's Tale other than them both taking place in the future) and gave us the option of choosing which one to write our essays on.

 

[Speedball]

The only Shakespeare play I hated reading was a "Comedy" of Errors. I failed to see the comedy in the play.

 

[Shemtov]

As I said, the correct answer to this thread is The Scarlet Letter.

If you've never read it, I dare you. All the other novels mentioned in this thread are a cake-walk compared to that literary abomination.

I found that book OK. Can you explain why you hate it so?

 

[JJJ's Ulcer]

I have to say I also enjoyed Scarlet Letter. I found it very readable considering how long ago it was written.

 

[OtherwiseKnownAs]

Catcher in the Rye. I just couldn't stand Holden, at all.

 

[bell110]

Anything.

 

[moviedoors]

I remember not much caring for The Outsiders, even as a 7th grader. I was already beyond young adult fiction by that point. Also, I get annoyed to this day when I talk to people in their freaking 30's who say their favorite book is The Outsiders. All I can think is "why, because you haven't actually read a book since you were 12?"

I didn't hate Romeo and Juliet, but it tested my endurance. I prefer my Shakespeare with more murder, backstabbing, insanity, forced cannibalism, horrific monsters, deliciously slimy villainy, and nothing but death at the end. What was most annoying about reading Romeo and Juliet was really just timing though. I was 14, a freshman in high school, and in the middle of Titanic pulling a kaiju on the world wide box office. After we finished reading the play we were going to watch the Franco Zeffirelli version, which I was fine with me (I was well on my way to being a film buff by that point, and Zeffirelli was on the list of things I needed to acquaint myself with). But, Romeo + Juliet was recently available on video and you'd better believe every 14 year old girl in my class petitioned loudly to watch the version that had Leo in it. So now we read it, watched the Zeffirelli version, and then watched that loud, obnoxious, ADD addled version featuring a cast (with the exception of Pete Postlewaite) that couldn't speak Shakespeare to save their lives. I got my fill of Romeo and Juliet for the next several decades.

 

[Spidey-Bat]

I felt the same about the Romeo and Juliet movies. We only watched clips of the Zeffirelli version, which I also didn't mind. The modern version was just stupid though.

I remember I volunteered to read Mercutio's lines not knowing it was the scene with his Queen Mab speech which was about 3 full pages. I never volunteered again after that.

 

[The Squirrel]

Catcher in the Rye wasn't bad, but I never finished it. But I hardly finished any of the books in high school.

 

[Thebumwhowalks]

Catcher in the Rye. I just couldn't stand Holden, at all.

Yet, I bet all these people who hate Holden love Homer Simpson. That's what it's like for me, seeing folk hate on Catcher is like seeing folk hate on the Simpsons, well, y'know, the really good episodes.

edit: You don't have to personally like a character in a piece of fiction in order to enjoy it, well, you can be like that, but you'll probably be restricting yourself from enjoying so many great works. The character just has to be compelling for me, man, I thought it was like that for everybody until I came on the internet.

 

[Lantern Venom]

Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman. I can't remember anything about it now (high school was a long time ago) other than the sheer agony of it.


And I'm with all the Shakespeare backers in this thread. If any playwright can be said to be a BEAST, it was him. He was a genius. I can't get enough of Romeo and Juliet, Othello, and Hamlet.

 

[Aesop Rocks]

Animal Farm.

**** that book.

 

[JJJ's Ulcer]

Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman. I can't remember anything about it now (high school was a long time ago) other than the sheer agony of it.


And I'm with all the Shakespeare backers in this thread. If any playwright can be said to be a BEAST, it was him. He was a genius. I can't get enough of Romeo and Juliet, Othello, and Hamlet.

Oh yeah? Well, I'm starting the Walt Whitman backers. I thought Leaves of Grass was beautiful in parts. But I read it in college with a laidback professor, so maybe the atmosphere was a bit more relaxed and mature than in a highschool setting.

 

[Thebumwhowalks]

I can't get enough of Romeo and Juliet, Othello, and Hamlet.

I haven't ever read Hamlet, I just can't imagine him having solo adventures without teaming up with Winnie the Pooh.

 

[JJJ's Ulcer]

I haven't ever read Hamlet, I just can't imagine him having solo adventures without teaming up with Winnie the Pooh.

I barely resisted posting the 'lolwut' pear (only because it would have taken up half the page), but I have no idea what you're talking about.

 

[Thebumwhowalks]

eh, I'm not gonna ruin the gag by explaining it, i thought it was pretty obvious.

ok, i thought of a piece of 'literature' I hated reading in school, one morning i swallowed a block of hashish in school, and we were all sat round a table in english with our teacher studying some poem, man, I started tripping out of my box and was praying the teacher did not ask me anything about the poem, as fractals were forming everywhere and my mind was flying.
I ended up so stoned/tripping that I had an intense giggle fit at lunchtime because they were passing out vouchers to win a caravan in the dinner school, and then pretty much passed out in art, which ran for two hours that day. I sat and positioned my hand to draw this one line over and over on a still life drawing of a kettle i was doing while my head hit the desk. The teacher took me outside, and I could not make out a single word she was saying haha, in reply i just said, 'aye, i just really need to go to the toilet.' , and got the hell out of there, head spinning in the bogs.
at home i collapsed on my bed and my sis told me that whenever her or my parents came upstairs to check i was alright i would just talk nonsense, haha.
That was the only time i ever tripped in school.

eh, went a bit offtopic, but eh, fug it, blame JJJ's ulcer for stalking all my posts and telling me i type up too much or that my jokes don't make sense, haha.
hope you enjoy the post JJJ haha

 

[Sensi]

As an English major, I don't know how I feel about all the hate I am seeing towards Catcher in the Rye. One of my professors is going to have us read it again later this term.

I will say as I write the paper for it, I cannot stand As I lay Dying by William Faulkner.

I really didn't care for this either.

 

[Shemtov]

I barely resisted posting the 'lolwut' pear (only because it would have taken up half the page), but I have no idea what you're talking about.

I'm guessing Ham-let = Pig-let.

 

[JJJ's Ulcer]

So in the end, the joke was wrong anyway. Oye... moving on.