Book spin-off - worst "literature" you had to read in school

[mcppalmbeach]

For someone who loves to read, I hated a lot of it even if I got a lot out of reading it lol. Beowulf is god awful, I hated Tess of the durbervilles, the Scarlett letter, most of Hemingway and Mark Twain, Steinbecks. It’s a long list!

[al dente]

I HATED Where the Red Fern Grows. Literally every other word was "coon" and just about hunting? I don't remember now but just remember my passionate hate for it.

I went to a subpar school that switched teachers a lot so I did To Kill A Mockingbird from 8th grade till senior year in highschool.

[loira]

I really hated 19th century literature, both in English and in French. Too many characters, so much prose. I just could not slog through Hugo and Dickens (although I love A Christmas Carol). Also hated Proust and Hemingway for different reasons (interminable sentences about nothing versus a thousand short sentences about nothing).

But if this is about lit before university I guess the worst thing I read was The Veldt. Just bizarre and creepy.

[chickadee77]

@@@@

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.

It sucked in elementary. It sucked some more in undergrad. It continued sucking in grad school (twice!) And when I read it to my own third grader, I decided that was it. I have another younger kid, and we'll either skip it or watch the Disney movie if it comes up again. Sorry not sorry kiddo.

I also found most of Jane Austen incredibly dull (I did like Northanger Abbey for some reason).

[sonrisa]

Oct 16, 2024 20:37:14 GMT -5 meowmaps said:

Reading Lord of the Flies was a traumatic experience I'll never forget. I'll hate it forever.

I’ll second this.

I felt so validated years later when I learned the real life example of this turned out completely the opposite.

www.theguardian.com/books/2020/may/09/the-real-lord-of-the-flies-what-happened-when-six-boys-were-shipwrecked-for-15-months

[sakoro]

My book club uses this as an icebreaker question often. My school’s curriculum had an awful lot of old white male authors from the 18th and 19th century compared to what other book club members say they read in school. It was almost as if our English teachers wanted to destroy all interest in reading for pleasure 🙄

In addition to Scarlet Letter, Hemingway, and others that have already been mentioned, I loathed Billy Budd by Herman Melville. The homosexuality theme totally went over my head.

I’m so relived that we read a lot of female authors and contemporary perspectives in book club. I don’t understand why my teacher thought 15 year old girls would relate to Hemingway’s stoic males. I was always way off in interpreting or understanding those characters’ motivations.

[basilosaurus]

Oct 16, 2024 18:51:12 GMT -5 erbear said:

My 10th grader is reading "Heart of Darkness" right now and I just cringed remembering how much I hated that book. We also had to read "The Red Pony" in 6th grade (why? Who makes 11 year olds read Steinbeck?), which we called "The Dead Pony" because that pony died on page 1.

What do remember reading in the name of "the canon"? 

Out of all the assigned books (6 per year for honors, 12+ in AP lit, plus whatever was in our giant lit books which included things like steinbeck or shakespeare or dickens in their entirety),that was the only book I didn't finish. I swear Conrad got a thesaurus and just went with the first 3 options listed instead of choosing the most accurate. "The weather was cold, frigid, icy." And, yes, while I can respect the occasional literary device to use multiple words, it felt like every damn sentence. Also, out of the 12+ books that year, the teacher only give us a pop quiz on that one. I got the distinct impression, though, she didn't count it in our grades or even care. She just was fucking with us (loved her!)

Overall I think the school did a good job balancing classics and keeping our attention. One year was all books relating to FL in some way (so, this included Alas, Babylon and I know why the caged bird sings). 10th was American, 11th was British.

My biggest criticsm would be the boring ass British classics. I'm good with Pride and Prejudice once my teacher introduced it as cynical criticsm of British society. Nothing will make me like the Bronte sisters.

[basilosaurus]

Out of curiosity a few years ago, I went to my school's website to look at their book list. They take an entirely different approach now. Every single subject has suggested reading. So, biology might include a Neil Shubin book and history might have McCullough.

I thought that was a pretty cool approach to encourage a deep dive into subjects of interest. It's been a number of years since I looked it up, so I don't how how or what credit they give. IIRC in ELA it was something like "read 2 from this list" for each term. Other subjects might have had a similar requirment, that you read one over a certain time period.

In looking up their book lists, they also put online the suggested faculty reading list. This is surely modeled after the military which has recommended reading for servicemembers at all levels, and base libraries have numerous copies.

[georgeglass]

Oct 16, 2024 23:44:54 GMT -5 sakoro said:

...

In addition to Scarlet Letter, Hemingway, and others that have already been mentioned, I loathed Billy Budd by Herman Melville. The homosexuality theme totally went over my head.

...

Billy Budd was going to be my answer here. And ironically, our teacher got PISSED when a guy in my class commented on the homosexuality theme - she insisted there was no such thing. 

[mrsukyankee]

I actually chose Shakespeare as my English lit class in university, so I obviously enjoyed that (and now go to see shows at the Globe in the summer).

I was a huge reader (thanks librarian mom) and so I liked most of what I read but like sent , I did not enjoy Beowulf. Old English? Shakes head, nope! I struggled with languages (French) so trying to 'get' Old English was a struggle. And I didn't like struggling with academic things. I was very lucky that we had fabulous English teachers (overall) who made connections to the now and to the current history.

[joy]

I looooove reading but I hated most of what we had to read in school.

A Separate Peace especially bothered me.

My 10th grade English teacher was so frustrated that we hadn’t read Moby Dick that he threw out the curriculum and had us read that for months. As I didn’t completely hate Moby Dick, I feel this saved me from even more books that I would dislike as much as A Separate Peace.

One book I loved was The Picture of Dorian Gray. I’d read that right now.

[CrazyLucky]

I love reading, but only for fun. I generally didn't like the require reading in school. I don't want to have to think so hard about what this symbolizes and what that means. Just write what you mean! LOL. That said, I have special hatred in my heart for Walden.

Edited to add: I did love Edgar Allan Poe.  It may have been because my English teacher that year was so amazing, but I still read Poe and thirty years later, I can still quote a huge section of the Raven.

[shauni27]

Oct 17, 2024 6:20:54 GMT -5 mrsukyankee said:

I was a huge reader (thanks librarian mom) and so I liked most of what I read but like sent , I did not enjoy Beowulf. Old English? Shakes head, nope! I struggled with languages (French) so trying to 'get' Old English was a struggle. And I didn't like struggling with academic things. I was very lucky that we had fabulous English teachers (overall) who made connections to the now and to the current history.

THIS. I loved to read in HS. I always had books with me. I actually loved the assignments of reading books and writing about them from a very young age. But old English and particularly Beowulf are my nemesis. 

[noodleoo]

Oct 17, 2024 6:44:15 GMT -5 joy said:

I looooove reading but I hated most of what we had to read in school.

THIS.  I was going to say all of it.  I loved reading as a kid but I was a fantasy/sci fi fan and had zero interest in the books that were required in school.  I read them, but I don't even remember them now.

[janegold]

Hated Beowulf and The Trial.

[waverly]

As I Lay Dying
Of Mice and Men
Lord of the Flies
Scarlet Letter
Separate Peace (tried 4 times could never get past the first 20 pages)
All Quiet on the Western Front
Where the Red Fern Grows
Jack London books

Ugh so much old timey rural American lit

[StrawberryBlondie]

Oct 17, 2024 8:03:27 GMT -5 noodleoo said:

Oct 17, 2024 6:44:15 GMT -5 joy said:

I looooove reading but I hated most of what we had to read in school.

THIS.  I was going to say all of it.  I loved reading as a kid but I was a fantasy/sci fi fan and had zero interest in the books that were required in school.  I read them, but I don't even remember them now.

I generally didn't like the American lit we read in high school (e.g., Steinbeck, Faulkner, Twain). I was an English major in college and that continued. I really loved Truman Capote though.

[AdaraMarie]

I really hated The Catcher in the Rye, which I remember, and Ethan Frome, which all I remember about it is hating it.

[mysteriouswife]

Of Mice and Men was terrible! Hated every word

I had nightmares about the Giver and I’m still not over it.

[breezy8407]

I remember all the dystopian novels being painful except Handmaids Tale. Never really enjoyed Shakespeare either.

[TR]

Oct 16, 2024 19:55:52 GMT -5 mcsangel2 said:

I read Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury freshman year of college, I haaaaaaated it. Leading me to have never read any other Faulkner.

This for me, but senior year of high school. Haaaaaated it.

[emilyj]

Add me to the “Lord of the Flies was a traumatic experience” group. I fucking HATED that book.

I never liked to read Shakespeare. I didn’t hate any of it, but I didn’t enjoy it.

Clockwork Orange and Animal Farm were also strong dislikes.

I was/am a pretty voracious reader so there wasn’t a lot I disliked. I wish we had read Toni Morrison in high school.

[emilyj]

Oct 16, 2024 22:24:40 GMT -5 al dente said:

I HATED Where the Red Fern Grows. Literally every other word was "coon" and just about hunting? I don't remember now but just remember my passionate hate for it.

I went to a subpar school that switched teachers a lot so I did To Kill A Mockingbird from 8th grade till senior year in highschool.

My 4th grade teacher read this to our class.

I had nightmares for weeks after the axe part.

[rupertpenny]

Add me to the list of Tess of the D'Ubervilles haters. Thinking about that book makes me so angry.

I had to read Summer of My German Soldier in 10th grade and that one really pissed me off too.

[Jalapeñomel]

Oct 17, 2024 8:57:25 GMT -5 AdaraMarie said:

I really hated The Catcher in the Rye, which I remember, and Ethan Frome, which all I remember about it is hating it.

I also hated Catcher in the Rye, but I didn't read it in school. 

[ellipses84]

We read The Hobbit in 7th Grade and I hated it. I think it was because we had to take turns reading it out loud in class and some kids reading skills were pretty behind which felt like torture to listen to. I actually really like LOTRs and the movies, but in The Hobbit book the Smeagle obsessing over Precious in a cave chapters really drag on and on.

I also hated Bridge to Terabithia which was 6th grade. Everything I read in high school / college was ok.

[cville]

Oct 16, 2024 23:21:09 GMT -5 loira said:

Also hated Proust and Hemingway for different reasons (interminable sentences about nothing versus a thousand short sentences about nothing).

YES YES YES on Hemingway. He was like a slightly more self aware Joe Rogan. Macho bullshit male appeal.

[stuffandthings]

They made us read The Outsiders (S.E. Hinton) in 8th grade and it was awful. Boring, cringe, terrible writing. The teacher was SO OBSESSED with the fact that the author was "only" 15 when she wrote it and I was kinda like, well, I can tell she was 15...

My teacher just kept acting like we should be relating to these teenagers from the 1950s or whatever and I just didn't get it, at all. Ugh, just thinking about slogging through that awful book makes my head hurt all over again.

[cville]

I'm sad about all the Beowulf hatred. Seamus Heaney's translation/recasting is great. Mead halls! Angry vengeful monster moms! Dragons!

[stuffandthings]

Oct 17, 2024 9:16:33 GMT -5 Jalapeñomel said:

Oct 17, 2024 8:57:25 GMT -5 AdaraMarie said:

I really hated The Catcher in the Rye, which I remember, and Ethan Frome, which all I remember about it is hating it.

I also hated Catcher in the Rye, but I didn't read it in school. 

In 10th grade we could choose from a list of books for our summer reading assignments, and one of the books on the list was Catcher in the Rye. I made it about ten pages in before I was like, nope, gonna pick something else.