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

[mrsslocombe]

I read Catcher in the Rye in my 30s and was like "what is this whiny brat bullshit." Definitely does not work on a grown ass adult.

[aurora]

I was a huge reader growing up and still read more than most American adults, but I definitely notice that I don't have the attention span/focus that I used to. I think my phone habits have contributed to that.

I'd say I enjoyed 75% of the books I was assigned in high school. I generally disliked the ones with more "modern" (using this loosely), angsty (usually male) main characters, e.g. Catcher in the Rye, Gatsby, etc.

I remember really liking Les Mis so I actually started to re-read it a few weeks ago and this definitely emphasized my current lack of focus.

[felicity]

I can't remember everything they had us read, but I definitely didn't have to read a lot of the ones you guys did. Moby Dick and anything Shakespeare were the ones that stood out as being really awful for me though.

[abs]

I feel pretty vindicated in this thread with all the Beauwolf/old English lit hate. All these years I thought it was just me!

[aurora]

Oct 17, 2024 8:06:31 GMT -5 waverly said:

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

I loved this book so much. I read it many times and bawled so hard each time. I'd be afraid to try it again as an adult

[tiki]

I simply could not get through Great Expectations. Had to switch to a different assigned book. I actually hated most of what was assigned in 11th grade english, and I really think that's where I stopped actively reading for pleasure.

[DotAndBuzz]

The Jungle - so graphic and just totally grossed me out

Animal Farm and Lord of the Flies. HAAAAAATED those.

I know I read A Separate Peace, but maybe that's the one I loathed the most, because I've completely blocked it from my memory.

[StrawberryBlondie]

We didn't have to read Animal Farm, but our 10th grade social studies teacher made us watch a film strip of it.

A film strip. In 10th grade.

[waverly]

Oct 17, 2024 9:49:13 GMT -5 aurora said:

Oct 17, 2024 8:06:31 GMT -5 waverly said:

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

I loved this book so much. I read it many times and bawled so hard each time. I'd be afraid to try it again as an adult

I don't actually love sobbing that much ha ha.  Speaking of classic literature, I cried so hard when Beth died in Little Women, and now I avoid that book. 

[wise_rita]

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

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

I'm listening to this right now and enjoying it.

I'm surprised by all the Animal Farm hate! I just reread it a year or two ago and it held up for me.

[kitty]

I have always loved to read and was fine getting through any book that was assigned even if it wasn't my fave but The Ambassadors by Henry James stands out as being the worst ever. I don't think I ended up even reading it fully which was something I never did because I was always such a rule follower. It's probably still kicking around the house somewhere. I should find it and see if it's as horrid as I remember.

[midwestmama]

+1 to Lord of the Flies.

Dante's Inferno was not a favorite of mine.

The short story "The Most Dangerous Game" - horrible.

A couple of my favorites were The Little Prince and The Things They Carried.

[picksthemusic]

I hated Scarlet Letter and Great Gatsby. Long-winded male authors annoy the shit out of me. Like - I couldn't get past the first chapter of Song of Ice and Fire because UGH. The only one I can tolerate/enjoy is Tolkien.

[Scout'sHonor]

Oct 17, 2024 9:50:12 GMT -5 tiki said:

I simply could not get through Great Expectations. Had to switch to a different assigned book. I actually hated most of what was assigned in 11th grade english, and I really think that's where I stopped actively reading for pleasure.

This is my most hated too. Like my normally straight As, finish everything self gave up and was okay with a C for that project because it was so bad.

[StrawberryBlondie]

Oct 17, 2024 11:51:08 GMT -5 Scout'sHonor said:

Oct 17, 2024 9:50:12 GMT -5 tiki said:

I simply could not get through Great Expectations. Had to switch to a different assigned book. I actually hated most of what was assigned in 11th grade english, and I really think that's where I stopped actively reading for pleasure.

This is my most hated too. Like my normally straight As, finish everything self gave up and was okay with a C for that project because it was so bad.

Ugh. I like A Christmas Carol but otherwise hate Dickens so much. I know he wasn't paid by the word but you'd think he was with how he prattles on.

[atexan]

Oct 17, 2024 10:09:50 GMT -5 waverly said:

Oct 17, 2024 9:49:13 GMT -5 aurora said:

I loved this book so much. I read it many times and bawled so hard each time. I'd be afraid to try it again as an adult

I don't actually love sobbing that much ha ha.  Speaking of classic literature, I cried so hard when Beth died in Little Women, and now I avoid that book. 

Is it in your freezer?

[sugarbear1]

I had a subpar education, and even then, was black-listed from all honors and AP-ELA classes. I still harbor deep resentment for the teacher who did that to me, who now lives up the street from me (and I became an ELA teacher).

Anyway. Hated Lord of the Flies and all Shakespeare. The book that got me kicked out of ELA was about a town's gravestones. I thought of the title the other day and now I can't remember it.

ETA: Spoon River Anthology!

[glw]

I was not assigned any of the books mentioned so far, except Beowulf and The Old Man and the Sea. Apparently the English teachers at my tiny rural high school were rebels!

I hated the Hemmingway that we read in school, but for some reason I read Garden of Eden on my own later and really loved it. It's so unlike his other works (and published posthumously); I questioned if someone else had actually written it lol.

[glw]

Oct 17, 2024 9:48:51 GMT -5 abs said:

I feel pretty vindicated in this thread with all the Beauwolf/old English lit hate. All these years I thought it was just me!

I feel like Beowulf is very much a "broccoli" book. Like, kids hate it, but you need to eat it because it's "good for you"-- I didn't appreciate it at all until my jr. year of college (Eng. major).

[CurlyQ284]

I really hated most of what I was forced to read in school but love to read. Like walking while reading in between classes. I think To Kill a Mockingbird was the only one I actually finished. I would usually get 60% through it, and then just could not go on and read the cliffs notes so I could write the papers/book reports.

[twilightmv]

Middlemarch is my favorite book ever!!

The only school assigned book I’ve never been able to finish was Absalom, Absalom.

[EvieEthelGarland]

Also hated Great Expectations (but appreciate that I get references to it, of which there are a lot in pop culture)
Hobbit/Lord of the Rings (couldn't care less about getting refences)
Canterbury Tales
Silas Marner

But I loved Rebecca.

As I read these and remember reading many of them, I am dismayed about the lack of reading requirements at DS's high school. I know the department has fought to include more diverse authors (love this!) but the quantity is not where it was for me when I was in high school.

[erbear]

Oct 17, 2024 10:45:59 GMT -5 wise_rita said:

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

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

I'm listening to this right now and enjoying it.

I'm surprised by all the Animal Farm hate! I just reread it a year or two ago and it held up for me.

Same. I read it with my 8th graders and they generally really like it. There are a few that don't but the discussions are terrific.

[basilosaurus]

Oct 17, 2024 9:37:08 GMT -5 cville said:

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

This was published after I was in school, but we read a similar style translation and only excerpts of the original olde english which I think is a pretty decent way of going about teaching it. I was pretty ambivalent about it, but I distinctly remember a scene of eating with knives. I was into various camelot books at the time, so maybe I was in a mindset of ye merry olde england.

A few I see listed here by multiple people I actually enjoyed or at least didn't hate.

I do think we read things too early. Romeo and Juliet in 8th grade, and I'm supposed to relate to this love so strong they kill themselves because they're my age? Nope! I hadn't even gotten my period yet, and love was far beyond the horizon.

[basilosaurus]

Oct 17, 2024 12:38:39 GMT -5 StrawberryBlondie said:

Oct 17, 2024 11:51:08 GMT -5 Scout'sHonor said:

This is my most hated too. Like my normally straight As, finish everything self gave up and was okay with a C for that project because it was so bad.

Ugh. I like A Christmas Carol but otherwise hate Dickens so much. I know he wasn't paid by the word but you'd think he was with how he prattles on.

Wait. He wasn't? That was my teacher's explanation for how rambling it is. I think that was one in our lit book, unabridged, that we read in 8th grade. Man, what a heavy reading year. Hobbit, animal farm, romeo and juliet, great expectations, alas babylon... and that's just what I remember. There were at least 4 more.

[StrawberryBlondie]

Oct 17, 2024 16:50:50 GMT -5 basilosaurus said:

Oct 17, 2024 12:38:39 GMT -5 StrawberryBlondie said:

Ugh. I like A Christmas Carol but otherwise hate Dickens so much. I know he wasn't paid by the word but you'd think he was with how he prattles on.

Wait. He wasn't? That was my teacher's explanation for how rambling it is. I think that was one in our lit book, unabridged, that we read in 8th grade. Man, what a heavy reading year. Hobbit, animal farm, romeo and juliet, great expectations, alas babylon... and that's just what I remember. There were at least 4 more.

He was largely paid by installment.

[sonrisa]

Oct 17, 2024 16:43:59 GMT -5 basilosaurus said:

A few I see listed here by multiple people I actually enjoyed or at least didn't hate.
.

I see a number I read by choice as an adult and enjoyed. Lol. But I think it helps when you are choosing the book, pacing, and timing.

[lillaguma]

About ten years ago I went back and reread a lot of the stuff we had read in high school and loved a lot of it, there was a lot that I just wasn't ready for it able to relate to while in high school. However, I could not being myself to try A Separate Peace or The Grapes of Wrath again. I remember really hating those ones.


@@@ erbear my daughter read an excerpt from The Red Pony in a big book of horse stories and poems when she was 8 and wanted me to get her the full book to read. Fortunately I read some reviews of it first and told her she wasn't ready for it 😬

[estrellita]

I loved to read until about high school, then I was bored by everything. So I did a LOT of skimming and guessing to get by 😂 The one that sticks out is of course Lord of the Flies. Just why???

[StrawberryBlondie]

Oct 17, 2024 17:06:38 GMT -5 sonrisa said:

Oct 17, 2024 16:43:59 GMT -5 basilosaurus said:

A few I see listed here by multiple people I actually enjoyed or at least didn't hate.
.

I see a number I read by choice as an adult and enjoyed. Lol. But I think it helps when you are choosing the book, pacing, and timing.

Honestly, same. We had to read Their Eyes Were Watching God in high school and I was just not into it, but then I read it just a few years later in college and absolutely loved it.