Classic books that you HATED

WinWinGo

Most things by Nathaniel Hawthorne. I just couldn't get into his writing style at all.

Yes, this.

Friggin' Hawthrone.

Cameo530

I like most of the books people have posted here, but I absolutely hated (really, I cannot state the amount of hatred strongly enough) Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness and Lord Jim. And as much as I hated them, I hated Faulkner's As I Lay Dying even more. It was the first Faulkner I read and I have never been able to bring myself to pick up another Faulkner book.

On the other hand, a book that I loved that I don't think gets read nearly enough is Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes. I read and loved it in high school and was thrilled when I found out that Keyes was a professor at my college! Unfortunately, his classes filled up fast and I didn't have enough seniority to get into one my first couple of years there and then he retired or took sabbatical or something and I lost my chance.

tennisbabe94

The Great Gatsby, everyone loved it and I just couldn't get into it!

Edit: And Fahrenheit 451... no no no. I hated that book too!

chubbygirl253

MOBY **** by Herman Melville. Oh Lordy that book was tedious. I thought I'd get an F on a book report for AP Literature class in high school for saying honestly how much I detested it, lucky for me my teacher agreed though. I've seen it posted repeatedly on here that Charles ****ens' A TALE OF TWO CITIES is not popular. I loved that one though! I also loved THE GRAPES OF WRATH by John Steinbeck (although he takes the entire 3rd chapter to descibe dust. Dust. Other than Casey kicking a turtle on the side of the road nothing much happens except this rather long description of the dustbowl. So I would just skip chapter 3 since I just summed it up for you in 2 sentences.) Also I love ANNA KARENENA by Tolsoy. I can't for the life of me understand why WAR AND PEACE is his most famous/acclaimed work. Why? Because it's one of the longest freakin books ever? That doesn't make it good. ANNA KARENENA was so much better.

pucenavel

Hated:

Of Mice and Men
Old Man and the Sea
Anything Shakespeare
A Tale of Two Cities

Now, if you redefine 'Classic' as "Books that have a cultural significance to the culture I was actually alive to witness", my favorites are:

Hitchhikers' Guide (all 6 books of the trilogy)
Last Chance to See (non-fiction)
Dirk Gently's Holisti... well, hell - anything by Douglas Adams, but especially The Salmon of Doubt, his unfinished last book & collections of short essays

cherrybomb_77

And Colin Firth, La Sigh!!!!! Now with him in mind as Mr Darcy......pardon me while I wipe the drool off my keyboard......

Seriously!!! *swoon*

raven3lise

I feel so awkward, am I the only one that cried at the end of Of Mice and Men? And when the old man from the Old Man and the Sea died?

Oh God, Animal Farm! Add that to the list. As well written as it was, it was just so disturbing to read.

jerber160

I feel so awkward, am I the only one that cried at the end of Of Mice and Men? And when the old man from the Old Man and the Sea died?

Oh God, Animal Farm! Add that to the list. As well written as it was, it was just so disturbing to read.

don't feel awkward honey...everyone has their own tastes... the baseball irked me and made me not like him while he was alive and alone.... no big deal

twinmom14ek

I find it interesting that so many of the books people disliked are more somber, even depressing books. I know that many of those mentioned left a bad taste in my mouth (Animal Farm, Brave New World, Lord of the Flies, The Awakening, etc.), but I chalk that up to the fact that we've all been seasoned to expect and even demand happy endings. When we read books that lack that ending we desire, we tend to write them off as unappealing. Reading through this thread has actually made me interested in revisiting a lot of the books mentioned, since it's been years since I've read most of them. Hope it gives a few other people ideas too! :flowerforyou:

FionaNiConnor

I actually really love classic literature, unless it's written by anyone with the surname "Bronté" or "Eyre."
I have even read much of Tolstoy's works.

alias1001

Lolita

Got about half-way through, and gave up.

jcjsjones

Great Expectations...ZZZzzzzzzz.

LauraMacNCheese

I just want to say that I'm so glad I'm not alone in my hatred of Catcher in the Rye...

poshcouture

All Quiet on the Western Front - 9th grade read. Pure torture....couldn't even get through the Cliff Notes. LOL

wewon

Pretty much anything we had to read in high school.

Ditto. Although many I read later on my own terms and liked them.

There is definitely something to be said about being compelled to do something VS doing in because you want to.

But I still don't like the Scarlet Letter.

Carl01

Have not read through all 12 pages but "Lord of the Flies" is one for me.

Rubie81

Great Gatsby and Beowulf

EvgeniZyntx

I find it interesting that so many of the books people disliked are more somber, even depressing books. I know that many of those mentioned left a bad taste in my mouth (Animal Farm, Brave New World, Lord of the Flies, The Awakening, etc.), but I chalk that up to the fact that we've all been seasoned to expect and even demand happy endings. When we read books that lack that ending we desire, we tend to write them off as unappealing. Reading through this thread has actually made me interested in revisiting a lot of the books mentioned, since it's been years since I've read most of them. Hope it gives a few other people ideas too! :flowerforyou:

Thank you. This thread is a superb list of great books I've very much enjoyed. Faulkner's short stories are perfection, Canterbury Tales are funny, so many of the titles here just bring to mind scenes and images and complex feelings - such richness!

Perhaps an education in the classics is wasted on many; the absence of leverage to understand context, style, poetics or historical relevance just isn't enough and one must find a "happy" or "punchy" story. For me, my failure is James Joyce - I do not have the cultural references to read Ulysses from cover to cover despite having lived in the house of the first publication (and translation into French) in Paris. Or these books are thrown at students at the wrong age.
Enjoy your readings!

beckajw

I find it interesting that so many of the books people disliked are more somber, even depressing books. I know that many of those mentioned left a bad taste in my mouth (Animal Farm, Brave New World, Lord of the Flies, The Awakening, etc.), but I chalk that up to the fact that we've all been seasoned to expect and even demand happy endings. When we read books that lack that ending we desire, we tend to write them off as unappealing. Reading through this thread has actually made me interested in revisiting a lot of the books mentioned, since it's been years since I've read most of them. Hope it gives a few other people ideas too! :flowerforyou:

Thank you. This thread is a superb list of great books I've very much enjoyed. Faulkner's short stories are perfection, Canterbury Tales are funny, so many of the titles here just bring to mind scenes and images and complex feelings - such richness!

Perhaps an education in the classics is wasted on many; the absence of leverage to understand context, style, poetics or historical relevance just isn't enough and one must find a "happy" or "punchy" story. For me, my failure is James Joyce - I do not have the cultural references to read Ulysses from cover to cover despite having lived in the house of the first publication (and translation into French) in Paris. Or these books are thrown at students at the wrong age.
Enjoy your readings!

Wow, that's judgmental. Just because someone doesn't like a book you like doesn't mean the person was the wrong age or that the person doesn't understand what he read.

wewon

I find it interesting that so many of the books people disliked are more somber, even depressing books. I know that many of those mentioned left a bad taste in my mouth (Animal Farm, Brave New World, Lord of the Flies, The Awakening, etc.), but I chalk that up to the fact that we've all been seasoned to expect and even demand happy endings. When we read books that lack that ending we desire, we tend to write them off as unappealing. Reading through this thread has actually made me interested in revisiting a lot of the books mentioned, since it's been years since I've read most of them. Hope it gives a few other people ideas too! :flowerforyou:

I suspect that you have a good point, although I would challenge the notion that we have been seasons to expect happy endings. I think that its more of human nature to want to see a problem overcome and resolved.

I also suspect that most people turn to reading as an escape and less for being sobered up.

I know that in my case you are dead on, I won't read books or watch movies that leave me with an unresolved feeling for a protagonist that I may have started relating to or identifying with. I avoid the life time channel (AKA the "Me or Someone I love has cancer" channel) for that very reason. LOL!