Crap books that you were forced to read at school

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Reading A Passage To India was a horrible experience. I wish I could find my annotated copy, just to see how my personal notes degenerate from functional, concise bits of relevant info into venom-filled rants on how awful the book was... dear Zod, I hated it.

Given the fact that I ended up doing the GCSE syllabus twice (my teacher in the two years before I did the two-year exam course decided it would be in our best interests to prepare us for it by actually doing it, without getting the certificates at the end. I still find this incredibly infuriating, even sixteen years after the fact), I have had all love for Animal Farm leeched out of me. Studying it four years in a row was about as much fun as chewing glass.

Tess Of The D'Urbervilles made me want to claw my own eyes out, it was so bad (and melodramatic, too). As with A Passage To India, my copy comes complete with notes that get progressively more viciously disparaging as the book goes on.

Maybe I was too hasty in listing Moby Dick as one of the worst books. The truth was that there were so many books I had to read that term that I wasn't able to read it in full. I could not get past the first five pages. Maybe now, under considerably less pressure, I could read it through.

I would have to agree with you, Mr. Sinister. Any book that you have to read four years in row, or over and over for more than one class, can get pretty tedious.

All the stuff for primary school children. . .
Made me hate literature until I was in my teens. . .
I liked writing stories - it's just that the stuff I was given to read was sometimes so dull; I found it insulting.
I had the same issue with bad TV shows and TV ads for kids - I'd be standing up, shouting and bitching. . .

The Pearl by Steinbeck.
Ugh, utterly painful.

Jacob Have I Loved --Katherine Paterson --- No one with a penis could possibly like this book, so much absolute drama, it was like reading the box on some Feminine Hygene product. I'm not some misogynistic creep either; I actaully LIKE Jane Austin, but if you want to get little boys to read, then don't give them a book about a little girl who already loves to read.
Tess of the D'urbervilles --old, tedious, far-fetched, drawn out, from a time when novelists were paid by the word, then hackishly comes to a screaming halt at every chapter break.
Scarlet Letter ---see above
Walden bleh. Just bleh.
Ceremony --Leslie Marmon Slilko -- Like one long, bad, peyote trip.

haha...

I usually made my own books up

haha... thats when we had to write book reviews etc characters. plot etc..
I would create an author, title and characters (and just to safe guard myself sometimes used a cousins name.. If questioned would say... its a family written book lol

but yea wasnt asked made it all the way through until one year in highschool where my teacher was also a libarian so I read some of those easier books etc... haha...

but yea most books we had to read were like "lord of the flies" etc which all had movies with them so that was all good...

I usually read nonfiction eh.. haha but dont mind creating my own story

Anyone else done this?

Walden - Henry David Thoreau, so you ran into the woods to stare at a pond and be a hippie, big deal
Leaves of Grass - Walt Whitman, waste of paper
Song of Solomon - Toni Morrison, this stinker is in Oprah's book club for a reason

I'm glad that I wasn't the only person who hated Shakespeare back in high school. Such Byzantine trite should be outlawed with extreme prejudice. I mean, I literally had no idea what was being said, nevermind the message that is supposedly conveyed to the audience. Additionally, I had a terrible time trying to sort out all the personal intrigues and motives behind the characters as it was all so confusing.

Anyone else have a hard time following some of the more complex relationships in fiction, such as Shakespeare?

Oh God, I love Shakespeare... his works are generally completely hilarious, I love them. He was so witty and dirty and silly, even in the midst of his tragedies.
Though I do take issue with King Lear, but I guess even Shakespeare can't get it right all the time...


I hated Heart Of Darkness. That's the most ridiculous waste of time book ever - there is no plot! It's just 130 pages of tripe! I didn't finish it, I gave up after about page 10, read the last few pages, and then still got a 96% score on the key essay we did related to it purely because nothing happens so you just bang on about atmosphere, throw in a few choice quotes, and you're sorted.

I am kind of double on The Catcher in the Rye. In highschool I was forced to read it and hated it. Later on (maybe not by coincidence in my depressed period) I read it again and actually read all night through. That is a sign I liked it a lot more then. Probably I was just to young in School.

But there are still books I have never finished:
Pride and Prejudice (I have no connection with all the social stuff)
Lucky Jim
A Good Man in Africa

My biggest dissapointment is the Lord of the Flies by William Golding. I like the idea of the book and thought I would like it. In the end I finished it, but that was it.

However, everyone abroad: be thankful you are not forced to read dutch literature. On average it is much less interesting than their english counterparts. Even if Simon Vestdijk is a genius .

I found Thoreau boring, too.

I must have had to read The Pearl by John Steinbeck and The Stranger by Albert Camus about five times each in my school career. After the second time, they both got really old. Neither were particularly difficult reading in terms of mental effort, but both were grim.