The one piece of literature you hated reading in school

[the amazing fro]

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.

Damn straight. I usually find positive points to all the books I read. Couldn't find a single one in this book. So unbelievably dull and drab. The bit where she goes into a description about an egg is unbearable. It would be nice imagery if it was anyway near subtle. I've noticed that all the girls I know who have read it really like it while all the boys I know despise it. Strange...

 

[Bim]

Don Quixote (The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha), by Miguel de Cervantes. If you're latin chances are you had to read it at least once. I adore reading (i'm a proud bookworm) but to this day i cant read this one lol.

 

[BLACKVULCAN]

Moby Dick!
yeah i know it was some existentialism crap about dude trying to conquer his inner demons, but it still was some dude chasing a fish! Greenpeace would have had his ass.. plus it was long as hell!

 

[Spider-Aziz]

There were those $#%^ stories of animals chatting, they are bad now, they were bad then

 

[Secret Fawful]

Silas Marner. It's too bad I never got anything by James Joyce. I would have read it aloud in funny voices.

 

[DoomsdayApex]

Moby Dick!
yeah i know it was some existentialism crap about dude trying to conquer his inner demons, but it still was some dude chasing a fish! Greenpeace would have had his ass.. plus it was long as hell!

Holy crap! And here I thought the whale was a metaphor for the Captain's shortcomings... downtown.

 

[Sundancer]

Salinger's son played Captain America in the 90s movie.


I think the prose to these classics is very heavy compared to today's writers so a lot of it comes out as boring.

 

[BLACKVULCAN]

Holy crap! And here I thought the whale was a metaphor for the Captain's shortcomings... downtown.

hahahah what English teacher did you have in High school Doomsy!! i knew the jokes were coming aplenty when i mentioned that book... this is the hype after all !
too bad there wasnt anything funny about reading that stupid book!
no cyborg whaling fishermen ! nothing!

 

[Sawyer]

Life of Pi. I actually enjoyed most of the older stuff that I had to read, but Pi was so ****ing boring to me.

 

[Rhiannon]

I did like Brave New World a lot. Its what 1984 should have been.

Interesting! I've been out of school for a few years, but I recently read both 1984 and Brave New World. I was completely enthralled by 1984, but Brave New World didn't make as much of an impression upon me. I will say I think Brave New World is the more complex of the two novels, both in content and writing style.

I majored in English, and I had to read Piers Plowman for a class on visionary medieval literature in grad school. Oh... God. It's rare that I'll say I completely disliked a book, but Piers Plowman was painful.

 

[Hobgoblin]

Interesting! I've been out of school for a few years, but I recently read both 1984 and Brave New World. I was completely enthralled by 1984, but Brave New World didn't make as much of an impression upon me. I will say I think Brave New World is the more complex of the two novels, both in content and writing style.

I majored in English, and I had to read Piers Plowman for a class on visionary medieval literature in grad school. Oh... God. It's rare that I'll say I completely disliked a book, but Piers Plowman was painful.

I liked BNW because I could see it happening. "Dont worry or think too much. Just have fun! Here is some soma to relax you. Feel free to have sex with whomever you want." I think thats a much more realistic way of achieving world domination than the ideas in 1984. Plus the genetic selection of people to lead based on their looks and intelligence. Not to say that that will happen any time soon but I do hear people wanting to have "designer babies."

 

[redhawk23]

Quite honestly high school literature classes could make me hate anything. In my school unless you just regurgitated the teachers personal interpretation, no matter how much support you gave for your conclusions, you were just wrong. Which defeats the point of a literature class.

Of the books I had to read The Grapes of Wrath was horrible.

Not a big fan of Catcher in the Rye either. I like it to a point but it is preposterously over-rated. One could argue that all so called "classics" are over rated but that book is more so.

 

[SpideyVille]

I kinda wonder just how my high school was one of the top high schools in NYC, yet I never had to read some of the more common classics like Catching in the Rye, Brave New World, Animal Farm, etc.

 

[Darthphere]

I remember everytime I was assigned a book to read in school I had read it already. I love Catcher in the Rye and The Great Gatsby probably because I didn't read it with all the unnecessary tediousness of assigned reading assignments.

 

[Colossal Spoons]

I was gonna vote for Canturbury Tales like the rest of you because of it's difficulty to read but I think sad stories are worse than boring ones. The Scarlet Ibis and Where The Red Fern Grows wrecked me as a kid. I can't take dogs or tiny children dying.

 

[terry78]

I kinda wonder just how my high school was one of the top high schools in NYC, yet I never had to read some of the more common classics like Catching in the Rye, Brave New World, Animal Farm, etc.

Probably because whoever wrote that one tried to do a blatant knock off.

 

[SpideyVille]

Probably because whoever wrote that one tried to do a blatant knock off.

Touche.

 

[JJJ's Ulcer]

I always heard 1984 was superior to Brave New World, so I read the former and not the latter. Why do some people say BNW was better? What did it contain that 1984 lacked? Serious question. If you convince me, I'll pick it up next time I'm at ye olde book-store.

 

[Darthphere]

I couldn't put 1984 down the first time I read it. I was bored to tears by Brave New World.

 

[the amazing fro]

Both 1984 and BNW are excellent studies into two dystopias that are achieved by two very different means. Both have a lot to say about humanity, the way we operate and give to interesting extreme possibilities of where we could be headed. I think 1984 is better written than BNW but I find what BNW has to say a little more interesting. Overall I think they are pretty level.

 

[Mrs. Sawyer]

I don't know, for me its between The Scarlet Letter, Huckleberry Finn or A Separate Peace: All dated works.

I'll go with A Separate Peace just becuase I have a funny story that goes with it. Me and everyone in the class thought the main characters were gay, so the teacher says for our essays if anyone says that they're gay fails instantly.

 

[Immortalfire]

I remember finding Call It Courage pretty annoying.

 

[Ahura Mazda]

Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes was a book I did not enjoy. It was a very long winded political treatise that had a reference to God every three lines.

 

[zanos]

If I had to pick one, it would be "Of Mice and Men." I don't think I was forced to read more than a dozen books from elementary all the way to the end of college so there aren't many choices. I hated virtually all of them and it is for this reason why I chose never to back to reading books until just over 2 years ago. Better late than never I suppose. I still hate the classics, but I've read alot more since.

 

[Scourge2099]

I was gonna vote for Canturbury Tales like the rest of you because of it's difficulty to read but I think sad stories are worse than boring ones. The Scarlet Ibis and Where The Red Fern Grows wrecked me as a kid. I can't take dogs or tiny children dying.

Where The Red Fern Grows is the only novel I've read that still makes me cry to this day.