Classic books that you HATED

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  • misskerouac
    misskerouac Posts: 2,242 Member
    I loved The Metamorphosis AND Catcher In The Rye AND Of Mice and Men lol


    I agree with Tale of Two Cities though. That was one of those books that I searched for the answers in the book and never actually finished reading.
  • ScottCadi
    ScottCadi Posts: 56
    austen, bronte, most ****ens, Great Gatsby, most of the stuff that is older classics....

    oddly enough, Tolkien absolutely captivated me, I read him in 3rd grade and have loved him ever since!
  • ShreddedTweet
    ShreddedTweet Posts: 1,326 Member
    Waiting for Godot...actually just about anything by Samuel Beckett....shoot me, shoot me now...

    *Yes, I know Godot is technically a play but it's an awful read!*
  • leejayem
    leejayem Posts: 120 Member
    Anything Shakespeare - sorry folks. I blame the teacher actually!! I was in the "enrichment class" for Year 11 English & according to my teacher every single line of every Shakespeare book every written had a sexual undertone. I suspect she just enjoyed talking about male anatomy & used every opportunity to do so. Put me off Shakespeare completely.
  • lauraleeearle
    lauraleeearle Posts: 6
    Were they really that bad? Personally I can find something enjoyable about almost every piece of literature that I read. I am faced with the daunting task of teaching these novels. Trying to make the classics remotely interesting or entertaining to a group of teenagers who couldn't care less is a task indeed.

    My favorite: "Lord of the Flies"
    Least favorite: "Animal Farm"
  • Koshkaxo
    Koshkaxo Posts: 332 Member
    The second half of 1984: how effing depressing and hopeless!
    Every Shakespeare play: we read them out loud and listening to my classmates mis and over pronounce every word drove me nuts.

    Summary of my feelings lol: most books we did as a class I ended up disliking. I had a much higher reading comprehension than the majority of my peers and it was agony to listen to every detail be explained for them... I guess I was a book snob :p
  • iRebel
    iRebel Posts: 378 Member
    Walden.

    ugh. I have called Emmerson 'Bean Boy' ever since.

    I think Emmerson wrote it... I always just called him Bean Boy, so If I'm wrong, sorry

    'Walden' was actually Henry David Thoreau. He was a contemporary of Emerson's, though, and they were both considered part of the Transcendentalist movement, so it's an easy mistake to make. (Emerson is best known for 'Nature,' which is often assigned alongside 'Walden.')
    Oh, yeah, it was Thoreau. :blushing: And I passed a college lit class...
  • firesoforion
    firesoforion Posts: 1,017 Member
    Were they really that bad? Personally I can find something enjoyable about almost every piece of literature that I read. I am faced with the daunting task of teaching these novels. Trying to make the classics remotely interesting or entertaining to a group of teenagers who couldn't care less is a task indeed.

    My favorite: "Lord of the Flies"
    Least favorite: "Animal Farm"

    I believe that if you teach it right, you can make most of these interesting. I used to HATE ****ens until I looked at where he fit in history (essentially a 19th century soap opera...), and now, well, he's long winded, but I at least find it interesting. Maybe the history angle won't work for everybody, but if you're conscious of the various ways that the books can be seen as interesting, and WHY various students might actually care about them, instead of just how they fit into the curriculum, you'll have a lot more success. Obviously not everyone will like every book, but I'd think that'd put the odds in your favor, and if you can find something enjoyable in almost everything you read, then that's a great thing.
  • smtillman2
    smtillman2 Posts: 756 Member
    I loved all the books I read in school and tend to go back and read classics when I'm between other books.

    The only one I can't remember loving was The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Loved The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and everything else I've read by Mark Twain. It just seemed to drag on forever.
  • ValerieMartini2Olives
    ValerieMartini2Olives Posts: 3,024 Member
    I listened to Crime and Punishment by Dostoyevsky on audiobook. Blah. Thought it was terrible. Could not get into it at all.
  • TheLittleVoice91
    TheLittleVoice91 Posts: 80
    Mansfield Park by Jane Austin.

    awful!:yawn:
  • iRebel
    iRebel Posts: 378 Member
    What? No Fyodor Dostoyevsky or Leo Tolstoy. Most classic Russian lit makes me almost want to hate reading... almost.
    OMG, I have the EXACT same opinion... All Russian lit makes me want to die. (not really, but you get my point)
  • DestroyTheOpposition
    DestroyTheOpposition Posts: 444 Member
    The Scarlet Letter. Freakin hated that.
  • WickedBean
    WickedBean Posts: 244 Member
    I don't think I have a book I have ever hated.

    Seriously I took a classics class just to read some classic books on the list lol I love reading.
  • Nightelyn
    Nightelyn Posts: 31
    A Separate Peace - John Knowles
  • nmwhitney12
    nmwhitney12 Posts: 239 Member
    Wuthering Heights! UGH!
  • mynameiscarrie
    mynameiscarrie Posts: 963 Member
    Idk if these have been said (haven't read all the pages yet) but:

    Animal Farm-- I had to read it in 8th grade.... 8th graders don't understand symbolism like that lol

    Jane Eyre---- what the what. Seriously. So boring, I didn't even finish the book and accepted a voluntary failure on that test freshman year of high school. I cant even...
  • dbevisjr
    dbevisjr Posts: 183
    As much as I enjoyed most of Hemingway's "Islands in the Stream" the ending of the book was so sad that it made me want to drink heavily.
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  • Ashley_Panda
    Ashley_Panda Posts: 1,404 Member
    I love them all. Swoon.
  • nmwhitney12
    nmwhitney12 Posts: 239 Member
    Summary of my feelings lol: most books we did as a class I ended up disliking. I had a much higher reading comprehension than the majority of my peers and it was agony to listen to every detail be explained for them... I guess I was a book snob :p


    I had the same experiences! I would get called on and not know where we were because I was so ahead! I would get in trouble almost every day for reading ahead...
  • foxfirekenzie
    foxfirekenzie Posts: 244 Member
    The Heart of Darkness. I still have no idea what it was about. Odd thing is, I still own it, 13 years later. No, I haven't cracked it open to give it a second go.

    One of my all time favorites that we had to read was Fahrenheit 451. LOVED THAT BOOK! I have read it several times. I also dug Banner In The Sky.

    The End.
  • iRebel
    iRebel Posts: 378 Member
    The Scarlet Letter. Freakin hated that.
    haha me too... it fostered a deep resentment of puritans for me.
  • saraann4
    saraann4 Posts: 1,296 Member
    I really don't remember because I was usually to busy flirting or being flirted with during English class especially if it had anything to do with Shakespeare.

    I actually enjoyed To Kill a Mocking Bird. Both the book and the movie. We always did both. Don't really remember reading the book, but loved the movie.

    I feel like a bimbo saying all that, but I really love reading books now. I'll read a whole novel in a day if it's really good.
  • bonniecarbs
    bonniecarbs Posts: 446 Member
    Lord of the Flies (I didn't know what the heck was going on) and Moby **** (WTF)
  • Mr_Bad_Example
    Mr_Bad_Example Posts: 2,403 Member
    The Bible.

    I'll second that. I also have deep, seething hatred for "Heart of Darkness", "The Scarlet Letter", and "O Pioneers!".

    But I'm also the weirdo who liked reading James Joyce in high school, so... yeah.
  • NCchar130
    NCchar130 Posts: 955 Member
    Stuart Little.

    I got a 3 pack of EB White books for my 8th birthday (I think) - Trumpet of the Swan, Charlotte's Web, and Stuart Little. LOVED the first two....but I was so grossed out by the idea of a woman giving birth to a mouse (that was the impression I got from the first few chapters) I never finished it, and still don't know if that was the gist of it or not, haha.
  • Shrinking_Xtina
    Shrinking_Xtina Posts: 478 Member
    Death of a Salesman

    The Color Purple

    I am the Cheese
  • blondie0942
    blondie0942 Posts: 146 Member
    A classic I hated- David Copperfield by Charles D'ickens. I actually couldn't bring myself to read it though, so I can't say if the book was actually bad, just slow... maybe I'll give it another chance later.

    With that said, I honestly can't believe everyone is listing some of my favorite books... Great Gatsby was awesome if you paid attention, and Animal Farm was brilliant if you knew the back story! of Mice and Men was another great read. 1984 is amazing too, IMO. Everyone's entitled to their opinions and I'm not trying to offend anyone. I just wanted to share my perspective, since it was so much different from everyone else's!

    :flowerforyou:
  • jerber160
    jerber160 Posts: 2,607 Member


    Les Miserables. The longest boringest book in history.


    [Old Man and the Sea. I wanted to hit that damn old man with an oar and knock him overboard. ] his baseball fixation just bored me.. i thought it would be great to read on a caribbean vacation. wrooong....

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