What is the worst book you were forced to read in high school?

[AshyPhoenix]

For me, Catcher in the Rye. Catcher in the Rye. Catcher in the Rye.

Holden Caulfield needed to grow the fuck up and get the fuck over himself. I hated every single whiny diatribe in that entire book. FUCK him with a rake.

How about you?

[refujiunderground]

to me, i would say any shakespeare book or anything related to his works with that stupid ass victorian language. i couldn't understand a single word that was written and boy, it was annoying as hell too. i will never understand the praise his writings gets especially when they're hard as hell to understand and basically is outdated english. there's nothing special or fundamental about his shit at all. english class was okay until shakespeare popped up, then everything would just go downhill from there. it just didn't end in high school either. had the misfortune of having to read shakespeare in college. needless to say, i didn't bother to read that sheit at all. i'll read anything but shakespeare.

[reone]

Heart of Darkness. I enjoyed certain aspects of the book but hated the actual story.

I enjoyed Invisible Man the most, despite how much I loathe racially charged material (part of the reason why I disliked Heart of Darkness). I actually cut the book up for a project that I completed at the end of the year...

So far in college my least favorite book has been about mimicking the style of this famous portrait artist. Blegh.
My favorite book is one that I'm currently reading on digital lighting and rendering.

[zoltanspawn]

I never felt violated.

Well, until college, and Love of Worker Bees was part of the curriculum.

Man, fuck Alexandra Kollantai.

[thatgirl]

A Tale of Two Cities. I don't understand how this book managed to be such a snoozefest, especially considering the subject matter (it is set during the French Revolution). It was such a chore to read, I remember just looking stuff up online to ace the tests.

Generally, I used to love English class. I'd even read the books in advance. Favorite thing I read in high school was Hamlet.

[The_Reaper]

The worst thing I ever read was a Canadian staple; The Stone Angel. It's basically the story of a woman near the end of her life and how her family is trying to put her into a care home which she then runs away from. I think it might have been a 'wrong audience' kind of book, given that no teenager is going to understand that viewpoint...But also, the book wasn't enjoyable to read. Never before have I had to read about a woman's seize bowels and how she wants the constipation to pass...

Also, I hated the hell out of Lord of the Flies.

[justsimon]

Catcher in the Rye is actually my all-time favorite book, but I can understand why others don't like it.

[gamestarp]

Has anyone ever actually read all of Moby Dick? I love to read, always have, and I still can't get through the third chapter.

[Saybrooke]

I loved every book they made us read except one... Tess of the D'urbervilles... Ugh...

[G-Lexington]

I remember hating Hard Times (for These Times) by Charles Dickens. I had TWO classes that assigned it, and I still never managed to get through it. Then a year later, I saw in bed sick with nothing to read. I picked it up.. and actually liked it. No idea what happened there.

Lex

[Beachguyj]

Anything Shakespeare. I didn't know what the fuck language I was reading.

[Thynight]

I liked all the books I had to read for school. A couple of them are still my favorites.

Has anyone ever actually read all of Moby Dick? I love to read, always have, and I still can't get through the third chapter.

I bought myself a copy and made myself read it all. It took me over two years though. I kept falling asleep.

[animalius]

Demons by that mother fucker Dostoevsky.

I don't know why the hell I signed up for creative writing.

[bankside]

Shakespeare spoke English - it was easy to read but better to watch. I have an "I only watch Shakespeare" policy because I think his plays are really scripts meant to be seen in performance, not read. I doubt reading the script for any modern film would respect the producer's intent…

Chaucer was very difficult but you could sort of get the hang of it and improve over time. It really is a different language, which seems like broken English. Imagine entire books written in sloppinese.

And Beowulf is not just a different language but a foreign one. Might as well try your hand at reading icelandic or danish.

Most of all though, I hate reading non-positivist post-modernist drivel.

[reone]

I took a creative writing class last year. We read plays instead of novels, though. I don't think we read one happy piece the entire class...everything was depressing .

[Boredd]

Omg Catcher in the Rye was THE fucking worse. First, I wanted to stab Holden and then I just wanted to stab myself.

Heart of Darkness is a close second.

[cgymike]

Thirtieth Retrospect...truly dismal.....

[Telstra]

.
All books because my eyes hurts when i read.

[ravenstar]

Lord of the Flies made me want to poke myself in the eyes with a compass

[goldenmoth]

Galaxarena. Dreadful crap but because it was written by an Australian our teachers called it a 'classic'. Basically it was about a bunch of kids who join a circus and then it tends out their aliens. Yeah that bad.

Why do they make everyone read the same book anyway? There's absolutely no way anyone will be inspired to read by doing that. Let them choose their own book or at least give them a list and say 'pick the one that interests you'.

[Pianist]

I skipped out a lot, so didn't have to read anything.

[xbuzzerx]

Anything where the primary narrative of the book involves overdressed British people taking tea in a huge mansion.

Which probably covers close to 50% of "classic English literature" in American schools. :/

[8tomtoms8]

Galaxarena. Dreadful crap but because it was written by an Australian our teachers called it a 'classic'. Basically it was about a bunch of kids who join a circus and then it tends out their aliens. Yeah that bad.

Why do they make everyone read the same book anyway? There's absolutely no way anyone will be inspired to read by doing that. Let them choose their own book or at least give them a list and say 'pick the one that interests you'.

Because it's easier for the instructor. It's kind of the "one size fits all" teaching method.

[jft245]

I'm with Gamestarp, it has to be Moby Dick. A close second is what I am reading now, Les Miserables, I'm determined that I am going to finish it but it is a tough read.

[LeicsDom]

It wasn't in school but I forced myself to read Bridget Jones and found it was the most self indulgent load of crap

[rareboy]

OMG.

Catcher. Stone Angel. Moby Dick.

These all come flooding back like dreary nightmares.

Even re-reading them as an adult showed them to be annoying and joyless.

[Pianist]

Oh wait.. I picked up my GED back in my early 30's and I DID have to read Stone Angel. I don't remember much about it as it was in a genre not to my liking. I did have to write an essay on it, and received an A... that may or may not be an impressive thing but given that it was only a GED, I'll assume it carried little weight other than to allow me to pass the course with an A-. *shrug*

[lambdaboy]

Shakespeare lived long before the Victoria Era how any one could think that listening to a play by him sounded Victorian is absurd. The Victorian Era is names after Queen Victoria who ruled for 64 years and died in the early 1900's. That's why during the U.S. Revolution England was in The Georgian Era George the 3rd see how it works

[ozguy]

The Old Man and the Sea was soooooooooooo friggin' boring!!! Hated it. Loved Lord of the Flies, though.

[oakpope]

'Les Dieux ont soif' by Anatole France. I loath the entire book. I dislike vehemently books whose hero is a anti-hero. But in this book, it adds the insult of being a anti-hero who does nothing the entire length.

Shakespeare is beautiful ! I don't enjoy much modern spoken English, but hearing his plays is real beautiful music to my ears

[Fuzzy1]

Thomas Hardy's, Tess of the D'urbervilles was the worst book we had to read in high school, I've read Moby Dick and liked it, my teachers did a pretty good job of explaining Shakespear's language use to us so I appreciated the plays and still like watching an occasional play.

[QuakrBoi]

The Scarlet Letter................I couldn't even get through the cliff notes it was so boring to me!

[Nishin]

Les fourberies de Scapin - Molière. Boooooooooooooooooooooooooring

Best book (imposed by school) though : Barjavel's ashes, ashes

[palbert]

Catcher in the Rye the clear worst by me. Lord of the Flies second.

[Axxess]

My high school English classes focused more on writing essays than reading, which is probably why I've grown to detest English classes.

It's a toss up between Lord of the Flies and Frankenstein. I know the latter is a considered to be a classic, but it was so boring. Also, I guess I've been desensitized, but I didn't find it at all scary, or otherwise a "horror" story.

Lord of the Flies started out pretty slow, and I actually got two of the characters mixed up since both their names started with the same letter. Although, to be fair, I was really lazy and didn't feel like doing the assignments in the class, so I didn't really give the book a fair shot.

[MoufOfKhaos]

Silas Marner. It's only book deserving of a fire i've ever read.

[Keeland]

The Miserables. Had to take it in Grade 10 French. Boring POS, though it would take first prize if up against anything by that colossal fraud and plagiarist, Bill Shakestaffe.

[comefood]

too many to remember

[animalius]

The problems with these old literatures that students are forced to read is people back then spoke and wrote differently than we do. Our modern language has evolved to speaking and writing in a linear fashion. Most of the time, the most direct way to say or write something is the best way. Minimalism!

People in the old days spoke more to themselves than to each other. Take Emanuelle Kant, for example. Any one who claims to understand what the hell that bastard was talking about is a damn liar. Sokal proved this by getting a gibberish paper that he wrote published in a very "reputable" post modern institution. Look up Sokal Affair on google to read about this.

So, if a scientist could crank out a whole paper of gibberish and get it published by post modernists, then it proves without a doubt that even post modernists don't understand what the hell each other is talking about.

Take any of the old classics like the Scarlet Letter and Frankenstein. The authors of these novels wrote the books more for themselves than for others. That's why nowadays we have so much trouble understanding them.

[oakpope]

too many to remember

You see, I'm terribly dumb. Would you do me the favor of explaining to me what pushed you to write such an informative post ? What gains do you think we can have from such an exposure from yourself ?

Sorry if I'm blunt, but the psychology of such moves interests me.

[oakpope]

People in the old days spoke more to themselves than to each other.
The authors of these novels wrote the books more for themselves than for others. That's why nowadays we have so much trouble understanding them.

I disagree with you. I have found memories of talking about Kant's works (among other philosophers) with a Hypokhâgne student (google it). That it takes mental work to understand his writings doesn't mean it has no value.

Old authors wrote for their public. Novelists in 19th century often wrote in newspapers and were paid by the amount of lines. So naturally they were prompt to digress.
But people's genius like Balzac was that such digressions were in fact ways to understand more deeply their characters and the contexts of their thoughts, times, surroundings.

[Esquire0399]

Henry V, hands down. Not only wasn't I all but incapable of understanding it, it was so hideously boring that I stopped trying. To be honest I take issue with pretty much all Shakespeare being required reading in schools (unless it's for creative writing courses), mostly because it does nothing to teach students of modern English and is most likely just a part of the average curriculum because it's "supposed to be," with no true justification. It's pointless because very few students even attempt to understand it and then it becomes a completely pointless exercise. That said, I did not actually hate Macbeth or A Midsummer Night's Dream.

[Keeland]

To be honest I take issue with pretty much all Shakespeare being required reading in schools (unless it's for creative writing courses), mostly because it does nothing to teach students of modern English and is most likely just a part of the average curriculum because it's "supposed to be," with no true justification.

Hear, hear! Even here, here!

Hearken thou: Werd!

[rareboy]

Catcher in the Rye the clear worst by me. Lord of the Flies second.

I have to come to the defense of Lord of the Flies.

I did an analysis of the work based on the structure of Id, Ego and Super-ego and in the context of the various theories of psychoanalysis current at the time it was written.

It made the book come alive and for that reason I have never travelled on a plane full of boys.

[jasoncrew03]

The Sun Also Rises. I loathe Ernest Hemingway.

I disliked the Scarlet Letter as well, but it is a distant second compared to my hatred of The Sun Also Rises.

[AlmondMilk]

I didn't like "Song of Solomon" by Toni Morrison.... maybe I'll get a better appreciation for it now o.o

[MoufOfKhaos]

The problems with these old literatures that students are forced to read is people back then spoke and wrote differently than we do. Our modern language has evolved to speaking and writing in a linear fashion. Most of the time, the most direct way to say or write something is the best way. Minimalism!

Absolute total bullshit. Minimalism is why we have tabloids and tabloid fodder books - and short attention spans, because we no longer HAVE to pay attention.

The problem with some old literature is that it's written in such a bogging fashion that it becomes incidentally hard to follow, as was the case with Silas Marner, which is a classic example of muddling muttering droning. I can appreciate classic prose and soliloquies and all of that.. just don't go on and on about the nothingness of your dis-interesting psychosis.

Seriously, I hated that book - I read Lisa, Bright & Dark with more anticipation. If I could find my lighter right now...

[loki81]

The Bible?

my high school lit teachers were actually great... I didn't read a lot of the "standards" like Hemingway, Updike, and all them.

instead, we read a lot of Stephen King.

[thatgirl]

Honestly, I'm not surprised that many people disliked having to read Shakespeare and found it unnecessary.

But I really learned a lot from reading the Shakespeare plays that were assigned each year in high school. I enjoyed how the teacher would always discuss the psychological complexities of the characters and the different themes about human nature which are still relevant to us today. That's why I enjoyed Hamlet so much. He is probably the most fascinating character I've ever come across in any work and reading Hamlet left a strong impression on me- I still dwell on that whole "action vs inaction" thing and the duality of human nature.

[legend145]

Red Badge of Courage and Atlas Shrugged