Classic books that you HATED

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  • Crochetluvr
    Crochetluvr Posts: 3,143 Member
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    Anything Tolkien...

    I know I'll probably be flamed for that...but I did an extensive Tolkien/Lewis class and Lewis won hands down...

    i just can't force myself to read or enjoy Tolkien...

    Bwahahaha

    I'm re-reading the Hobbit right now!

    I DID like The Hobbit. I got through Fellowship of the Ring but only tot about 1/3rd of the way through The Two Towers before I gave up. :)
  • DominoFrost
    DominoFrost Posts: 68
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    The only classic I have problems with no matter how often I pick it up is Pride & Prejudice. Usually if I'm having problems with a novel, I'll use Sparknotes (I know, I know!) chapter summaries to reiterate what I've been reading in the text. But even Sparknotes chapter summaries make me zone out and I just can't get into it. Elizabeth Bennett. We get it. You're feminist theory. Get out of my novel and give me some Wuthering Heights.
  • rchupka87
    rchupka87 Posts: 543 Member
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    Beowulf. Complete and utter torture.
  • helenzback
    helenzback Posts: 51 Member
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    Tess of the durbervilles, hate it!

    Same here...
  • Alex_is_Hawks
    Alex_is_Hawks Posts: 3,499 Member
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    Anything Tolkien...

    I know I'll probably be flamed for that...but I did an extensive Tolkien/Lewis class and Lewis won hands down...

    i just can't force myself to read or enjoy Tolkien...

    Bwahahaha

    I'm re-reading the Hobbit right now!

    Ditto! I love Tolkien, but I also love CS Lewis. As a casual observer, they have similar writing styles.

    they were co professors at the same school, best friends, both fellow Christians who felt it was very important to embed Christianity into their arcing themes...and often critiqued/edited each others work...

    so it would stand to reason they would read similarly...
  • strangewebby
    strangewebby Posts: 72
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    Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne. I tried so hard to like this book but it read more of a geography lesson on Iceland or a textbook on rocks. I had to force myself to finish it.
  • VictorianJade
    VictorianJade Posts: 705 Member
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    Okay. I love Jane Austen, I loved anything by Orwell, I totally loved Shakespeare, and a lot of the other ones mentioned. I read those ones for fun.

    *snickers* But then, I'm a nerd.
  • johnhowson
    johnhowson Posts: 73 Member
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    Love reading and I have very broad tastes but could not abide Henry James and Portrait of a Lady. Thomas Hardy so depressing - read Return of the Native just about. Agree with the above love Jane Austin
  • Krissy366
    Krissy366 Posts: 458 Member
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    Little Women :yawn: - Got through maybe half, and then just decided it wasn't worth my time as I was taking ZERO enjoyment from it.
  • hypallage
    hypallage Posts: 624 Member
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    Pretty much anything I was forced to read in school. I love reading but English Lit at school stopped me reading anything for about three years.
    I must say though, I have since read some of the books we did at school and enjoyed them. It was more the 'what did the author think when they wrote this' kind of questions that annoyed me.
  • LorinaLynn
    LorinaLynn Posts: 13,247 Member
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    Old Man and the Sea. I wanted to hit that damn old man with an oar and knock him overboard.

    And I loved The Hobbit, Lord of the Rings, and the Two Towers, but I was ready to let Saron have the damn ring by the middle of the Return of the King. Just to make it all stop.
  • penrbrown
    penrbrown Posts: 2,685 Member
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    All of them except The Three Musketeers.

    I even hate Shakespeare.

    Wait. Define "Classic"?
  • rawfitness
    rawfitness Posts: 68 Member
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    moby d ick. i HATED that book. its about whaling. i mean come on. really?

    This be mine!
  • skinnybearlyndsay
    skinnybearlyndsay Posts: 798 Member
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    The Catcher in the Rye by J D Salinger......hated every second!

    I hated it too. It's about the only book I hate with the fire of a thousand burning suns.
  • UpEarly
    UpEarly Posts: 2,555 Member
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    What? No Fyodor Dostoyevsky or Leo Tolstoy. Most classic Russian lit makes me almost want to hate reading... almost.
  • Becoming_A_Butterfly
    Becoming_A_Butterfly Posts: 2,534 Member
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    I thoroughly hated "Romeo and Juliet" and still do. Two dingbat teenagers who barely knew each other and having no problem-solving skills or backbones screw up a hare-brained plan to be together, and that is supposed to be the height of romance? I was just glad they were both dead in the end, but then, almost of Shakespeare's characters are, aren't they?
  • senyosmom
    senyosmom Posts: 613 Member
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    Lord of the Flies. It's disturbing and they're all turds. Yeah, I know it's supposed to be that way.

    Now I enjoyed Lord of the Flies. I cried when they smashed Piggie's glasses.
    I too liked Lord of the Flies ---- but it really was weird
  • DawnieB1977
    DawnieB1977 Posts: 4,248 Member
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    I can't stand Jane Austen. I hate romance novels to begin with but her's are vomit inducing. Mr Darcy is an a**hole.

    Haha I did my A Level English Lit coursework on Jane Austen novels. The most irritating was Sense And Sensibility. If the characters in that had come to life I'd have given them a slap!

    The most dull book (well, play) I read was The Winter's Tale. Of all the Shakespeare plays we could've studied, why choose that one??

    As someone else said, I really enjoyed To Kill a Mockingbird. The best play we studied was Dr Faustus.
  • mandersatx
    mandersatx Posts: 86
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    I hated everything but "A Christmas Carol" by ****ens, all of the Bronte sisters' works, and Heart of Darkness. Gah, all of them were just awful. My BA's in English, and I find it frustrating from a (former) teacher's perspective that students are forced to read that crap. People wonder why kids don't like to read. There are so many more wonderful books that are interesting to kids/teenagers that have literary merit.
  • rlmadrid
    rlmadrid Posts: 694 Member
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    Lord of the Flies. It's disturbing and they're all turds. Yeah, I know it's supposed to be that way.

    Now I enjoyed Lord of the Flies. I cried when they smashed Piggie's glasses.

    I fricken loved that book!

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