The worst book you ever had to read for School

[Werthead]

A collection of rambling essays by some guy called Emerson for my American Studies module. WTF? Dull beyond all belief.

Actually, most of the books we had to read were pretty good: Great Expectations, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Metamorphosis (Ovid rocks!), Antigone, Hamlet, MacBeth and a few others. Plus my English Lit. teacher recommended me The Gormenghast Trilogy, so that worked out well.

[Faceless Man]

Actually, since 8th grade, any time I get assigned a book to read, I download the book-on-tape, and put it on my iPod. Much easier. I do my reading homework doing English class by putting a headphone wire running up my back, through my hair, and curved around the top of my ear. My hair is long enough to cover it, and I listen to the homework chapters while they are discussing the previous chapters.

But the worst book would probably have to be Of Mice and Men. I detest that book. The movie is much better.

SPOILER: Of Mice and Men

In the book, George slowly brings the gun up, and humanely puts Lenny down Old Yeller style. In the movie, he stands up, holds the gun at arms length, and executes him. Much more interesting.

[Asa]

But the worst book would probably have to be Of Mice and Men. I detest that book. The movie is much better.

Awh, what's wrong with Of Mice and Men? I thought the characters were all well done, and the story had a good pace. I loved the ending, personally.

[Mauvka]

I like Of Mice and Men... Sound and the Fury was good too, hard to get through, but the class discussions of it really made me appreciate it more.

The one book I truly despised was A Separate Peace. Pointlessly dull tripe about a private school in the 1940's. The only part i found remotely interesting was when one of the characters went schizo and started rambling about the halucinogenic thoughts in his head.

[Faceless Man]

I loved the ending, personally.

Well so do I. It's the best part of the book. But I think we enjoy it for different reasons...

[roeh61]

ah! i remeber a worse one, William Faulkner's the sound and the fury!

[Dornishman]

Theres no contest:

Effi Briest, by Theodor Fontane. There CANT be a duller book. Its physically impossible. A work of 19thc entury realism,a nd I know I needed it Abitur... for your british A-levels, for your Americans: finals - but not for the year, but THE finals for 13 years school! I know it would come there, but STILL I couldnt get myself through it for the sheer mind-numbling dullness of it all. I bought a learning help about it then, and only employed that then. Did well then, generally. But geez, that book could really kill the joy of reading.

[williamjm]

The only one I remember not finishing was "Sunset Song" by Lewis Grassick Gibbon (can't remember if I got the author's name right). It's a fairly turgid story about a young woman's life on a rural farm in early-20th Century Scotland. It was one of the three 'set texts' we studied for our Higher [1] English exam. In the exam we could chose two out of the three texts to answer questions on. Since it was so dull, and much longer than the other texts, I didn't bother finishing reading it, deciding that I'd just concentrate on the other two texts - namely some play about women living through the Troubles in Northern Ireland that I'm still baffled made it onto the course since it seemed to have no literary merit or depth whatsoever and the poetry of Philip Larkin which was probably about the only worthwhile thing we read that year.

This plan would have worked well, except when I got to the exam paper I realised that the big 20-mark question for the play didn't make any sense to me so I had to try and answer the Sunset Song questions having only read half the book. Fortunately, during the class we'd also watched the (also quite dull) TV adaptation of the book, so I knew what the plot was meant to be, and I ended up getting a reasonable grade.

[1] A 'Higher' is the Scottish equivalent of the English A-Level.

[Doom of Valyria]

my most hated assignment was to read The Stranger by Camus - this horribly dull and depressing book about existentialism.

and also (covers head for inevitable counter-attack ) some Shakespeare plays, Julius Caesar and King Lear, specifically, I think. The stories are great, don't get me wrong, but I just cannot get past the language.

[Bronn Stone]

I thought that calling Xray "He" was worse than anything else Bastress said....

On topic, I didn't care one bit for War and Peace. Loved Dostoyevsky though.

Also have to add Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. I like the idea of Joyce, but the fact is that reading his work is an exercise in pain.

[Nate]

I remember Portrait of the Artist being one of my favorite books I read in High School. I can't really explain why exactly.

The worst I read would have to be Atlas Shrugged. I kind of like the idea that I got through it without much difficulties, but it's probably the one book that I would never, ever think about picking up again. Hundred page long diatribes really ain't my cup of tea.

[DanteGabriel]

I took a class on the Romantic poets in my freshman year of college. We spent three weeks on worthless Wordsworth and only two days on Coleridge. Fuck Wordsworth, and fuck the commie professor (he was literally inviting us to International Socialist Organization meetings) who had such a hard-on for him.

[BLU-RAY]

A Passage to India. I really couldn't stand this book. Gatsby was readable. Emerson was dense, but ultimately pretty good (Walden by Thoreau is more difficult). Haven't read The Sound and the Fury, though I'm now a tad frightened to. But man, A Passage to India was just... godawful.

[Xanrn]

Never read anything remotely decent in any English Class that was given out by the Teacher.

Of Mice and Men is -ing crap, who the hell wants to read about the great depressions affect on -ing American farmers, if the Jon Malkovich chracter had shot a few more people (like half the cast) it would have been midly entertaining.

Shakespear's Macbeth uuuh god almighty.

[Xray the Enforcer]

I thought that calling Xray "He" was worse than anything else Bastress said....

thank you Bronn, darling. *neckbite*

(although...it ain't the first time someone's misassigned my gender)

[Bastress of Winterfell]

You seemed masculine, my bad.....wait are you a lesbian?

(If this is offensive to anyone let me know)

[DJ Dawn]

Xray is actually married to Mr. X. She's just a baddass

[emberling]

The Scarlet Letter. Ugh.

I personally found Gatsby to be quite a quick and painless read, though entirely uninteresting and unenlightening.

Mention of Joyce reminds me of the time my high school english teacher began discussion of the concept of marking and annotating while reading. He passed out a printout of two pages from the middle of Finnegan's Wake and asked the class to annotate while reading, paying particular example to symbolism.

Sadistic bastard. Eventually he started cracking up watching us try to figure out what the fuck this gibberish was.

[nutinhoney]

hmm... I can't think of any bad ones from high school. Most of the ones y'all listed I've read and found quite enjoyable...

favourite novel... "War and Peace"... the first half!! (50 pts to anyone who gets the reference!)

[Scuba Steve]

Count me as another hater of Catcher in the Rye. I also depised A Tale of Two Cities. That is the most f-ing boring book I have ever had to read in my entire life. I thought Of Mice and Men was okay when I first read it, but now I just find it boring. Romeo and Juliet is the worst Shakespeare Other than that I found the books I've had to read fairly enjoyable.