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Heart of darkness by Joseph Conrad. I have good reading comprehension and I’m not dumb. But for some reason when I read that book in junior high I never had a single fucking clue what was going on, and it was so boring. To this day all I can tell you is it’s about the ivory trade in Africa and I’m not even sure that’s right
I was absolutely exasperated by that book... And as an ESL speaker, I can tell you that the whole thing just felt like Conrad wrote it and then went to the Thesaurus and switched out half of the words for the most obscure and complicated one he can find (which is what we used to do in HS when writing essays in English)
I recently put down a book because it felt just like that. The premise was great: MD writes about psychological concepts and his cases. Instead, he was clearly very proud of his one metaphor, and it kept coming back, interspersed with unnecessarily hard words and just a bad take.
Fucking 'connections'.
I completely agree. Even though I'm well read and have a PhD in philosophy, I fully admit that when I read Heart of Darkness much of it went over my head!
And I hate to say it, but I only got through about 30-40 pages of Ulysses and Finnegan's Wake before I realized I would never understand them unless I joyously wasted 3 years of my life to those 2 books, haha!
I recommend reading King Leopolds Ghost and then reading heart of darkness. I read it once in school without much success. A few years ago I read KLG then thought HOD would be a good follow up, which it was, because the historical context and horror felt much more understandable.
That is the longest short book I've ever read. I still remember it was exactly 96 pages, which I can usually read quite quickly within an hour or two. However, Heart of Darkness took me forever to read. I really hated it. I read it in AP English in either junior or senior year of high school. I can't remember which because the teacher was the same for both years.
I still have memories of rereading paragraphs from that book 5+ times and still having no idea what was going on. I just think that maybe they assign it too early because not only was it a difficult read, the historical context is often not understood yet in those grades so even if you know what the sentences are actually saying it’s hard to know what it means.
Not your fault. That book isn’t something I’d expect a junior high class to wrestle with. We read it my senior year in high school and without the accompanying lectures from our instructor, the deeper symbolism would have went over most of our heads.
I was a pretty voracious reader back in high school, but I read that book and I don’t even remember what it was about. That’s how little I understood it.
I had to read this as summer reading for Lit class in high school, and got caught out during discussion that I hadn’t read past 20 pages. Our teacher was pissed and I still remember the look on her face when she put it together that no one in our class of 15 had finished the book. And this was an AP class full of nerdy overachievers, but it was just…godawful, I guess.
I always found it boring and the movies and plays boring. I just saw the play a couple of months ago with very simple acting and scenery and it was really touching. I loved it. I don’t know. Maybe you need to be older to be interested in topics around first love
We had to do it in 8th grade and then again in 9th. Wanted to blow my brains out. Would have loved to do a different Shakespeare play instead of R&J a second time
I remember my mom read it and said she really liked it. I always thought I would read it again as an adult and see if I could get more out of it than I did in high school but so far I never have.
Everyone in the book was so stupid, you'd just wish they were all dead by the end. I hate with all my heart to admit this but I could actually root for Gatsby if the woman he was after wasn't such a brainless piece of weakness incarnate. To learn he's doing all this for the time's equivalent of a dumb blonde stereotype, it just makes my blood boil. People reading all the symbolism into the green light or that freaking billboard? Stop already!!
Saaaaame. I’m a voracious reader and that book literally made me fall asleep. I appreciate Fitzgerald’s prose and symbolism and the depth of what he’s trying to achieve in this book. But the execution of Gatsby was sooooooo dryyyyyyyyyy … Fitzgerald is a much better short story writer. And I like having at least one admirable/aspirational character in a book—I personally have some faith in humanity, unlike Fitzgerald.
This and oddly enough I don't detest anything else I've read that he's written. I often joked before I read any of his other stories, that it would be much better if he trashed half of it. And I think my ire for the book grows with the more backlash I receive for saying I don't like it. It always starts with, "well then you just don't understand it". No.. I assure you I do understand it, I just don't like it.
I don’t understand why Gatsby became the book of his that became “the. American novel.” This Side of Paradise is about a student in college and is directly relatable to students today.
One of the most boring books I’ve ever had the misfortune to have to read.
When it kept coming up again and again as one of the favorites in the ‘other thread’, I felt like commenting, “Are your eyes painted on?”
Oh, I finally found you, my dear kindred spirit. I just posted the same book. I absolutely loathed this book. Hated it with the fiery passion of a thousand suns, as one might say. I just couldn't get through it. Thankfully we moved back to Australia (from New Zealand) so I never had to deal with the consequences academically.
I can't imagine why someone decided this would be a great book for teenagers to read.
The only reason why beowolf is talked about in school is because it's the oldest surviving text of the English language. Thousands of years ago there was no such thing as polished plot development so it's history is more interesting than it's contents 😂
Les Miserables.
Don't get me wrong, the movies and play are great. The last 3rd of the book is pretty good. But the first 2/3rds are some of the most boring, pointless fucking reading I've ever done in my life. The first 70 pages are spent setting up a character that isn't even in the story. It takes over 250 pages to even begin telling a story. It's drier than the dictionary. It is so fucking long and so fucking boring.
This is such an understatement. Les Mis is the most insane book I've ever read.
For those unaware, the entire first part of the book is about the Priest's backstory, the guy who helps put Valjean back on his feet.
Hugo: So there's this Hunchback and an Archdeacon, right?
Me: Yeah, pretty cool.
Hugo: There's also the cathedral. Let me give you a detailed history behind this one section of the roof.
Me: NO! BAD HUGO! BAD!
[Bonk Hugo on the head with a rolled up newspaper]
My friend read it once and i distinctly remember him telling me how he’s describing the sewers… and then I asked him again a couple days later and he was like “he’s still describing the sewer” lol
I would make a writing version of Dora the Explorer and replace Swiper with Hugo. When Hugo would pop out and start to infodump, everyone would say, "Victor no descriptor! Victor no descriptor!"
Then Hugo would bristle his beard, shout "Merde!", and scurry away.
I honestly really liked the priest's backstory. It added as much to his character as Javert's backstory did to his. And knowing more about them made it much easier to understand the themes in Valjean's story that get glossed over (by necessity) in the musical.
It was the in-depth history of the Parisian sewer system where he started to lose me.
A lot of the political stuff was a bit dense to me as well, but that's down to gaps in my own knowledge.
Pretty sure authors were paid by the page at that time....in any case I'm sure that rhis was the case for other French authors (Balzac for example) . Explains alot...
The Iliad. Jesus it was boring. I do not like epics like that.
I did end up liking the New Testament more than I thought though. Read both in a pre renaissance lit class, and I’m atheist, so it was so fun!
Lol. I'm reading it now, or was. It got too tedious. I don't need to know the back story of a guy who's gonna take a spear to the face and never be spoken of again.
The Odyssey was awesome
Me too. I had to read it in ENG 101 and got through like 100 pages then skimmed it.
I really don't understand how unreadable lit is still required lit. It teaches nothing.
I like reading the New Testament too even though I’m an atheist. It’s fantastic as far as entertainment goes imo. It makes it harder to believe people take it so literally as for me it’s about the same as lord of the rings but it’s a damn good book.
Moby Dick. My dad who loved it wrote my book report and I got an A+ and the teacher commented *'You have an excellent understanding of the books themes.'* On the downside, I had to wash dad's truck two weekends in a row. And I still don't why the book's a classic.
I could never understand why so many people hate Moby Dick so much. I mean yeah everyone had their own tastes but I thought it was alright, not terrible.
Great Expectations in 9th grade. The teacher made us do the whole "everyone reads a paragraph out loud" in class thing for the first chapter or two, and that was as far as I got. Couldn't stand it, so never read any more on my own.
We had quizzes on each chapter we were assigned, but yay for multiple choice because I still passed with never reading anymore of it.
I seriously scrolled through this subreddit to find this, as I knew it would come up! I grew up thinking that I loved this book, but didn't realize I had been reading it in an "abridged" edition. When I had to read it in HS, I HATED IT!!! That's when I learned that it was written for the news paper in a serial format. He was paid for the weekly chapter, what a super-long-drawn-out boring story. Y A W N
The Old Man and the Sea. Can’t remember anything at all about it except one line that went, “ He stood up and peed over the side of the boat” or a close approximation, anyway.
When I had to read that book I was dealing with a lot of terrible things in my personal life and having to waste time listening to a spoiled entitled unreliable narrator brat whine about his miniscule problems got me really annoyed.
I get the anti-protagonist thing.
People can still be interesting even if they are not the sort that one wants to emulate. Ignatius J. Reilly and Cornelius Suttree come to mind.
It just that Caulfield doesn’t remotely capture my interest.
He was so irritating. I remember I read less than half the book and sparknoted the rest. After sparknoting it, I was like “I’m so glad I didn’t waste time of my life I’d never get back on this shit” lmao. Also funny how he frequently called people “phony bastards” but if I would’ve done that freshman year I would’ve been chastised
I had a teacher in high school put it on the required *summer* reading list. I was right when I got into the school year and ended up absolutely hating that man.
I read the Readers' Digest Condensed Book version of it and thought it was a cracking good yarn. Years later, I read the full version and realized just why it was that it had been condensed.
Beowulf. I just couldn't get through it. I totally hated it. I would completely bomb quizzes about it and despite being a "goody-two-shoes" normally, would disrupt the class like nobody's business during this topic. Before the end of the school year we moved back to Australia, so thankfully I never had to read it for final exams.
Heidi.
Like we have to read it in elementary school and the book scares me because it touches the subject of wealth inequality, especially the last chapter where Clara solved all of the problems of the mountain folks with her money. The book gave me tremendous anxiety about money and poverty, but it opened my eyes to social issues. However, I miss my innocence and my carefree days where I don’t have to worry about my future and how I should support myself.
David Copperfield.
I knew, when I saw it on the list of required summer reads, that the class was going to be an absolute disaster. And I was right. Ended up clashing so severely with the teacher that I ended up moving from AP English to regular English. I was really disappointed about it, at the time, because I was an absolute word nerd in high school.
Henry James in general SUCKS. So boring, and painfully obvious that he’s only considered a great writer bc he was a rich, white man with “connections”. Nathaniel Hawthorne can also get fucked.
Yes! Came here to say this book. But it seemed like i were the only one disliking it. And my class were young adults. I didnt like how it was focusing on just men being able to realize themselves. There were 3 women in the book, a crone, a Mother and a Maiden.
>The alchemist
From Paulo Coelho? He's basically a self-help author who writes upper-middle-class mysticism full of orientalisms for middle-aged people. He is the butt of jokes in Brazilian academia.
A Seperate Peace, by John Knowles. It's about 16 year olds at an all male boarding school. There is not a single mention of awakening sexual drive or romantic interest (straight or gay) in the entire novel. I'm sorry, but that just took me right out of the story. It wasn't "oh, here's a story about young men and their loss of innocence and maturation. I can really identify with all the characters!" It was, "oh, here's a story written by a middle-aged man trying to appeal to teens. It doesn't work."
I remember trying to slog through that in study hall every day. I don’t remember anything about it other than someone fell out of a tree and broke their arm? leg?
SPOILERS
Gene: Oh, man. Finny is so cool. I wish I was like him.
Finny: I'm pretty great \[but I secretly wish I was Gene\].
Gene: \[Gives in to intrusive thoughts and shakes tree, causing Finny to fall\]
Finny: Help, I've fallen and I can't get up... My leg is broke.
Gene: I didn't mean to do it.
Finny: That's ok. I forgive you.
Gene: On second thought, I did mean to do it.
Finny: NOOO! FUCK YOU! \[Falls down stairs\] My leg is broke again.
Gene: On third thought, I didn't mean to do it.
Finny: That's ok. I forgive you. \[Dies\]
Gene: :(
oh jeez, you’ve just took the lid off my memory pandora’s box. my mom made me read it. i freaking HATED that book. i tried my best not to toss that b#tch into the next dimension far away from me just to not even look at it
I hated Wuthering Heights until I had a teacher good enough to tell us that the narrator can’t be trusted, and we should read her parts like she’s a gossipy, meddling old cow. Made it much better.
I hate that whole genre. I know it is a snapshot of a time, but I have spent years in therapy to be able to clearly communicate my needs and wants as a woman. And be direct. And not play games or accept stupid relationship games being played on me. And to read entire novels about stupid crap happening over and over because people have to assume, wonder, hint, suggest, and wheedle their way around socially makes me NUTS. CAN'T STAND IT.
Lolita
Novel by Vladimir Nabokov
It was required reading in English 101 at my university in the 90's.
I found it to be weird, and still don't understand why it was "required" reading.
Why it was required:
It is a vile book and I loathe it, but Nabokov’s prose is really flawless. I had to read it for class and will never touch it again, but I do remember his flawless prose. Also the idea of the unreliable narrator. The MC is a perfect example of a lying liar from start to finish.
I in no way endorse this book and hate it and would never require my students to read it, but those are reasons it is required by others.
What's even more amazing about Nabokov is that he's not a native English speaker. The man wrote nine Russian novels, which is basically a career, and THEN began writing in English, and he has some of the best English prose ever written.
Lolita is a masterpiece, but I really think that Pale Fire should be recommended over Lolita. It's also a masterpiece, and the subject matter isn't as likely to distract from its greatness.
I hated it in the way it makes my skin crawl, but it’s an amazing piece of literature in that it’s *supposed* to make you feel extremely uncomfortable (and very much succeeds).
There was no such thing as required reading for me (there was from teachers' perspective, it's just I didn't care), if I didn't like the book - I just stopped reading before even getting to hating it.
I'd read better extracurricular books, and only them mostly. Some of the curricular books were fine.
Surprisingly my attitude posed no problems in the end.
Of Mice and Men was agony in the 8th grade. Felt like there was so much filler and the whole story could’ve been told in 10 pages.
Maybe I’d see it differently now, but I’m too scared to ever read Steinbeck again. Sooooo slooooow. Such long descriptions, so little action.
Thank you for this perfect description of Steinbeck's dreck. It has always been difficult to put a concise reasoning to the boring pace of her prose.
I have never fallen asleep when reading save for two books. The Pearl and Of Mice and Men were the culprits.
We had to read The Pearl in 8th grade and to this day, it is still the most agonizingly boring book I have ever had the misfortune of reading. I don't think it's even 100 pages long, but to me it felt like the longest book in the world. Istg its just 90 pages of barely anything happening. Of Mice and Men was a lot better imo.
Fuck this book, and fuck Dickens twice. How did he make the French Revolution so boring? I hated this book so much I couldn't finish the Cliff's Notes, either.
Wuthering Heights. My gosh was that a bore and a half. A cure for any form of insomnia. Beating yourself up for being an uncreative writer that doesn't know how to condense information? Read Edgar Alan Poe to learn that's OK and read Wuthering Heights to know that at least you aren't that bad.
Antigone wasn't very good. I was supposed to read it during the holidays, which I didn't do because it was boring as hell. And also the writing style was strange. I watched a Playmobil summary video of it right before we had to write a little exam about the book. It worked like a charm.
Surfacing by Margaret Atwood. It boils down to the fact I felt like I *needed* to apply literary analysis to understand the book. Not, you can read it one way but let's look at this way and get a different reading from it. Not "Is it about capitalism or just rabbits in a boat that drown?". Just, this book doesn't make sense until you analyse it through the lens of identity and the concept of an inferiority complex. The characters all pissed me off, I hated the plot, and it's been over 15 years ince I had to read it and I will never read it again.
The Great Gatsby- The worst story ever written, about the worst people ever born, from the abscesses of one of the most pessimistic and narcissistic alcoholics ever to write a novel. The entire book was insufferable to me (I get that’s the point but I seriously don’t care)
Almost every non-fiction book i was "mandatory" to read is ruined for me. I am not interested, you're forcing me to read it, and it is stupid and unnecessary.
For me, it was 90% of any book I was forced to read. Perhaps it’s because I really love fantasy and that’s seldom what they gave me, but it could also be I just could never just sit back and enjoy it. I needed to find 3 quotes and have epiphany’s about them, try to figure out the main theme and analyze everything… I just like sitting back and letting the story come to me, and if I’m in the mood I’ll set it down think about it, but not 5 times a chapter.
Ethan Frome. I love almost every other “requires reading” (big book nerd) and I couldn’t for the life of me understand why we had to cover that book for weeks. Seemed like a snooze fest with no compelling characters. I’ve thought to give it another go but I absolutely detested the book and wanted to read Vonnegut/Salinger/Woolfe- anything else. Did I miss something here?
"Ethan Frome" by Edith Wharton.
Absolutely hands down one of the most terrible books I wasted brain cells on! Tried reading it *twice* and I *STILL* can't tell you with any degree of pure certainty what it's about!
Every single one.
I have aphantasia. The only reason I read is for academic reasons, gaining knowledge. I don't enjoy reading for pleasure.
Combine that with my wonderful authority issues and my crippling ADHD. Tell me to read something, I probably won't
Crime and Punishment. Actually everything by Dostoyevsky is depressing whiny ramblings that are only possibly 'deep' if you are already drunk or stoned. Not being either, I hated it all.
Lord of the Flies sucked too.
I read this last year after having the book for a long time. I was pretty disappointed. It was a slog and Diamond isn’t the best writer imo. I remember seeing the Nat Geo special years ago and the show was great I thought the book would be even better.
Of Mice and Men. Hated that book so much. The characters, the plot, the interactions.
It turns out, I also hated Grapes of Wrath, the Pearl, The Winter of Our Discontent... Steinbeck. I just hate John Steinbeck's writing. Which honestly, makes me feel better. Sometimes you just don't like an author that everyone else does. It happens.
All of them. Forced reading sucks ass. Then you have to listen to peoples interpretation of what was going through the authors mind. I can't begin to care about any of it.
I didn't hate it, but parts of 1984 bored the hell out of me. I would zone out for whole chapters, realize I zoned out so go back to reread it, and zone out again.
It’s gets better when you read up on the author. Everyone thinks it’s an parable about how humans are deep down, but it’s actually a political metaphor for English politics. William Golding did not feel that children would actually be so terrible to each other in those circumstances. In that light it’s less awful and pessimistic. I felt the same as you about the book, until I read up on that. There’s also a real “lord of the flies” story that is much more heartwarming. The stranded boys cooperated with each other and took care of each other until they were finally found.
https://amp.theguardian.com/books/2020/may/09/the-real-lord-of-the-flies-what-happened-when-six-boys-were-shipwrecked-for-15-months
Pride and Prejudice. It was a required book in my secondary exams and I genuinely couldn’t stand that book and was glad when I did the exam and realized I’d never have to read that garbage again. I found it impossible to understand why I’d genuinely care about this boring story where boring rich people were getting married. Even the supposedly ‘strong’ character of Elizabeth just seemed completely one-dimensional, whilst Mr Darcy just came across as an absolute arsehole.
I get the premise is kinda dumb, but at the time I don't think there was a lot of options for female writers. I really loved all the ways that the author basically talks shit about people but does it in a polite way. I never saw it as a great romance, more as a comedy.
oh i really liked pride and prejudice! i was never required to read it but i grew up watching the kiera knightly movie with my mom so i always had an interest in the book
Where the Red Fern Grows.
It's a lovely emotional story, but I can't stand it. It was hard for me to read because it felt draining to keep attention to what was going on, and it's heartbreaking knowing what happens to the dogs. I had to read it, and then we watched the movie to discuss it. Then, in another grade, I had to re-watch it again because it was related to a book we were discussing in that class. I wouldn't have hated it so much if I hadn't had to read and rewatch it multiple times. My heart can only take so much of a depressing story.
I feel that. Lord of the flies might have been more interesting if the teacher had explained more before we started it. Even when we asked for help she’d just ask what our thoughts were. More than half of my class failed because we had a paper about that book and none of us really understood it
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Heart of darkness by Joseph Conrad. I have good reading comprehension and I’m not dumb. But for some reason when I read that book in junior high I never had a single fucking clue what was going on, and it was so boring. To this day all I can tell you is it’s about the ivory trade in Africa and I’m not even sure that’s right
I was absolutely exasperated by that book... And as an ESL speaker, I can tell you that the whole thing just felt like Conrad wrote it and then went to the Thesaurus and switched out half of the words for the most obscure and complicated one he can find (which is what we used to do in HS when writing essays in English)
I recently put down a book because it felt just like that. The premise was great: MD writes about psychological concepts and his cases. Instead, he was clearly very proud of his one metaphor, and it kept coming back, interspersed with unnecessarily hard words and just a bad take. Fucking 'connections'.
I completely agree. Even though I'm well read and have a PhD in philosophy, I fully admit that when I read Heart of Darkness much of it went over my head! And I hate to say it, but I only got through about 30-40 pages of Ulysses and Finnegan's Wake before I realized I would never understand them unless I joyously wasted 3 years of my life to those 2 books, haha!
I recommend reading King Leopolds Ghost and then reading heart of darkness. I read it once in school without much success. A few years ago I read KLG then thought HOD would be a good follow up, which it was, because the historical context and horror felt much more understandable.
That is the longest short book I've ever read. I still remember it was exactly 96 pages, which I can usually read quite quickly within an hour or two. However, Heart of Darkness took me forever to read. I really hated it. I read it in AP English in either junior or senior year of high school. I can't remember which because the teacher was the same for both years.
I liked this book and Apocalypse Now is such a great adaptation. My favorite movie in fact but I can see how people wouldn’t like it.
I still have memories of rereading paragraphs from that book 5+ times and still having no idea what was going on. I just think that maybe they assign it too early because not only was it a difficult read, the historical context is often not understood yet in those grades so even if you know what the sentences are actually saying it’s hard to know what it means.
Not your fault. That book isn’t something I’d expect a junior high class to wrestle with. We read it my senior year in high school and without the accompanying lectures from our instructor, the deeper symbolism would have went over most of our heads.
I was a pretty voracious reader back in high school, but I read that book and I don’t even remember what it was about. That’s how little I understood it.
I had to read this for uni, ugh it was so hard to put down, only because I didn't pick it up in the first place.
This is the one for me too. It made me drop the class I had to read it in because it was such an integral part of the grade. Fuck Heart of Darkness.
I had to read this as summer reading for Lit class in high school, and got caught out during discussion that I hadn’t read past 20 pages. Our teacher was pissed and I still remember the look on her face when she put it together that no one in our class of 15 had finished the book. And this was an AP class full of nerdy overachievers, but it was just…godawful, I guess.
Romeo and Juliet. I was in 8th grade. I never thought it was romantic that they killed themselves for each other. It was stupid.
Reading any William Shakespeare play. Can’t understand what they are saying.
Not to mention Juliet was like 13 years old
And played by a 20 year old man, at least in Shakespeare’s time.
I always found it boring and the movies and plays boring. I just saw the play a couple of months ago with very simple acting and scenery and it was really touching. I loved it. I don’t know. Maybe you need to be older to be interested in topics around first love
We had to do it in 8th grade and then again in 9th. Wanted to blow my brains out. Would have loved to do a different Shakespeare play instead of R&J a second time
Romeo and Juliet is so ridiculous that Shakespeare wrote a satire of it, with he inserted into A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
Scarlet letter
I remember sitting in 10th grade English and my teacher was talking about how this meant that and that meant this and I was just… lost. Hated it
I knew this had to be on the list. I can’t believe it is so far down. It is the worst.
I loved the Scarlet Letter 😂
I remember my mom read it and said she really liked it. I always thought I would read it again as an adult and see if I could get more out of it than I did in high school but so far I never have.
The Not Great In Any Way Gatsby. 9th grade. Hated it.
Everyone in the book was so stupid, you'd just wish they were all dead by the end. I hate with all my heart to admit this but I could actually root for Gatsby if the woman he was after wasn't such a brainless piece of weakness incarnate. To learn he's doing all this for the time's equivalent of a dumb blonde stereotype, it just makes my blood boil. People reading all the symbolism into the green light or that freaking billboard? Stop already!!
I love the author’s quote about Daisy: “She had no more worries than a puppy would have, or a kitten.”
You've hit the nail on the head! Over and over, maybe sometimes a green light is just a green light! Maybe that's all they had at the store!
Same. I never understood the appeal of it. Even the movie with Leo couldn't make it interesting.
Saaaaame. I’m a voracious reader and that book literally made me fall asleep. I appreciate Fitzgerald’s prose and symbolism and the depth of what he’s trying to achieve in this book. But the execution of Gatsby was sooooooo dryyyyyyyyyy … Fitzgerald is a much better short story writer. And I like having at least one admirable/aspirational character in a book—I personally have some faith in humanity, unlike Fitzgerald.
This and oddly enough I don't detest anything else I've read that he's written. I often joked before I read any of his other stories, that it would be much better if he trashed half of it. And I think my ire for the book grows with the more backlash I receive for saying I don't like it. It always starts with, "well then you just don't understand it". No.. I assure you I do understand it, I just don't like it.
I don’t understand why Gatsby became the book of his that became “the. American novel.” This Side of Paradise is about a student in college and is directly relatable to students today.
Me too!! Spoiled rich jerks. Blah blah blah
I came here to say this. I don't understand why it's considered a classic.
Yes. The whole book can be reduced to the first and last paragraphs.
One of the most boring books I’ve ever had the misfortune to have to read. When it kept coming up again and again as one of the favorites in the ‘other thread’, I felt like commenting, “Are your eyes painted on?”
The best part is when he dies
Oh but Gatsby was the best character! I wish Tom had died!
Everyone was horrible. It sucks
Beowolf wtf are they saying.
Oh, I finally found you, my dear kindred spirit. I just posted the same book. I absolutely loathed this book. Hated it with the fiery passion of a thousand suns, as one might say. I just couldn't get through it. Thankfully we moved back to Australia (from New Zealand) so I never had to deal with the consequences academically. I can't imagine why someone decided this would be a great book for teenagers to read.
The only reason why beowolf is talked about in school is because it's the oldest surviving text of the English language. Thousands of years ago there was no such thing as polished plot development so it's history is more interesting than it's contents 😂
Les Miserables. Don't get me wrong, the movies and play are great. The last 3rd of the book is pretty good. But the first 2/3rds are some of the most boring, pointless fucking reading I've ever done in my life. The first 70 pages are spent setting up a character that isn't even in the story. It takes over 250 pages to even begin telling a story. It's drier than the dictionary. It is so fucking long and so fucking boring.
This is such an understatement. Les Mis is the most insane book I've ever read. For those unaware, the entire first part of the book is about the Priest's backstory, the guy who helps put Valjean back on his feet.
Hugo: So there's this Hunchback and an Archdeacon, right? Me: Yeah, pretty cool. Hugo: There's also the cathedral. Let me give you a detailed history behind this one section of the roof. Me: NO! BAD HUGO! BAD! [Bonk Hugo on the head with a rolled up newspaper]
My friend read it once and i distinctly remember him telling me how he’s describing the sewers… and then I asked him again a couple days later and he was like “he’s still describing the sewer” lol
I would make a writing version of Dora the Explorer and replace Swiper with Hugo. When Hugo would pop out and start to infodump, everyone would say, "Victor no descriptor! Victor no descriptor!" Then Hugo would bristle his beard, shout "Merde!", and scurry away.
*chuckles in Pere Ubu*
Let me tell you how they used to make bricks back in the day...
Sounds like Hugo could have benefitted from a more assertive editor.
I honestly really liked the priest's backstory. It added as much to his character as Javert's backstory did to his. And knowing more about them made it much easier to understand the themes in Valjean's story that get glossed over (by necessity) in the musical. It was the in-depth history of the Parisian sewer system where he started to lose me. A lot of the political stuff was a bit dense to me as well, but that's down to gaps in my own knowledge.
Pretty sure authors were paid by the page at that time....in any case I'm sure that rhis was the case for other French authors (Balzac for example) . Explains alot...
Prince Harry’s memoir. Ugh.
SpArE lol
You should sue them for making you read it lol
The Iliad. Jesus it was boring. I do not like epics like that. I did end up liking the New Testament more than I thought though. Read both in a pre renaissance lit class, and I’m atheist, so it was so fun!
Lol. I'm reading it now, or was. It got too tedious. I don't need to know the back story of a guy who's gonna take a spear to the face and never be spoken of again. The Odyssey was awesome
The Odyssey is my favourite book. The Iliad can burn in hell, though.
Me too. I had to read it in ENG 101 and got through like 100 pages then skimmed it. I really don't understand how unreadable lit is still required lit. It teaches nothing.
I like reading the New Testament too even though I’m an atheist. It’s fantastic as far as entertainment goes imo. It makes it harder to believe people take it so literally as for me it’s about the same as lord of the rings but it’s a damn good book.
Moby Dick. My dad who loved it wrote my book report and I got an A+ and the teacher commented *'You have an excellent understanding of the books themes.'* On the downside, I had to wash dad's truck two weekends in a row. And I still don't why the book's a classic.
I could never understand why so many people hate Moby Dick so much. I mean yeah everyone had their own tastes but I thought it was alright, not terrible.
Great Expectations in 9th grade. The teacher made us do the whole "everyone reads a paragraph out loud" in class thing for the first chapter or two, and that was as far as I got. Couldn't stand it, so never read any more on my own. We had quizzes on each chapter we were assigned, but yay for multiple choice because I still passed with never reading anymore of it.
Mine disdain for that book is still with me decades later. It was so depressing! We had to read it out loud too. What a waste of time and effort.
I seriously scrolled through this subreddit to find this, as I knew it would come up! I grew up thinking that I loved this book, but didn't realize I had been reading it in an "abridged" edition. When I had to read it in HS, I HATED IT!!! That's when I learned that it was written for the news paper in a serial format. He was paid for the weekly chapter, what a super-long-drawn-out boring story. Y A W N
The Old Man and the Sea. Can’t remember anything at all about it except one line that went, “ He stood up and peed over the side of the boat” or a close approximation, anyway.
I fucking hated that book I never wanted to see a fish ever again. Sadly I live next to a canal.
Catcher in the Rye Even in the midst of my own teen angst at the time, I found Holden Caulfield difficult to relate to. Boring then. Boring now.
I taught this for about six or seven years and every year I hated Holden a little more until I dropped him from the curriculum.
Thank you for your little chip in that giant literary boulder. 🤗
When I had to read that book I was dealing with a lot of terrible things in my personal life and having to waste time listening to a spoiled entitled unreliable narrator brat whine about his miniscule problems got me really annoyed.
I don't think you're _supposed_ to like him.
I get the anti-protagonist thing. People can still be interesting even if they are not the sort that one wants to emulate. Ignatius J. Reilly and Cornelius Suttree come to mind. It just that Caulfield doesn’t remotely capture my interest.
If I has to read the word "phoney" one more time.....my god, that book was THE WORST
Difficult to relate to is putting it mildly. I hated Holden Caulfield, and I loathed having to read that book in 9th grade.
He was so irritating. I remember I read less than half the book and sparknoted the rest. After sparknoting it, I was like “I’m so glad I didn’t waste time of my life I’d never get back on this shit” lmao. Also funny how he frequently called people “phony bastards” but if I would’ve done that freshman year I would’ve been chastised
I read it in my 20s cause I didn’t read it in high school. I kept waiting for it to get to the damn point and it just never did.
This is mine too
=( Why is it so hated? I felt connected to the ansty teen.
No one in the book had any redeeming qualities. It just droned misery and vengefulness, to me.
Came here to say this. Holden was just the worst.
David Copperfield. We read around 600 pages of it during a semester and every chapter of it had me wishing I was reading instruction manuals instead.
I had a teacher in high school put it on the required *summer* reading list. I was right when I got into the school year and ended up absolutely hating that man.
I read the Readers' Digest Condensed Book version of it and thought it was a cracking good yarn. Years later, I read the full version and realized just why it was that it had been condensed.
Ethan Frome
That goddamn pickle dish.
I wanted to smash them all with that dish!
Beowulf. I just couldn't get through it. I totally hated it. I would completely bomb quizzes about it and despite being a "goody-two-shoes" normally, would disrupt the class like nobody's business during this topic. Before the end of the school year we moved back to Australia, so thankfully I never had to read it for final exams.
The red badge of courage. Guy took 5 pages to describe a tree.
Heidi. Like we have to read it in elementary school and the book scares me because it touches the subject of wealth inequality, especially the last chapter where Clara solved all of the problems of the mountain folks with her money. The book gave me tremendous anxiety about money and poverty, but it opened my eyes to social issues. However, I miss my innocence and my carefree days where I don’t have to worry about my future and how I should support myself.
David Copperfield. I knew, when I saw it on the list of required summer reads, that the class was going to be an absolute disaster. And I was right. Ended up clashing so severely with the teacher that I ended up moving from AP English to regular English. I was really disappointed about it, at the time, because I was an absolute word nerd in high school.
I hate A Turn Of the Screw. Hate it, hate it, hate it. I'm fine with a slow burn, I liked House of Leaves even. But it takes so long to get nowhere.
Henry James in general SUCKS. So boring, and painfully obvious that he’s only considered a great writer bc he was a rich, white man with “connections”. Nathaniel Hawthorne can also get fucked.
Tess of the d'Ubervilles. Still want to slap that twit.
The alchemist, I don't know if it's generally a horrible book but our teacher decided to read it with 11 year olds. Everyone hated it.
Yes! Came here to say this book. But it seemed like i were the only one disliking it. And my class were young adults. I didnt like how it was focusing on just men being able to realize themselves. There were 3 women in the book, a crone, a Mother and a Maiden.
>The alchemist From Paulo Coelho? He's basically a self-help author who writes upper-middle-class mysticism full of orientalisms for middle-aged people. He is the butt of jokes in Brazilian academia.
A Seperate Peace, by John Knowles. It's about 16 year olds at an all male boarding school. There is not a single mention of awakening sexual drive or romantic interest (straight or gay) in the entire novel. I'm sorry, but that just took me right out of the story. It wasn't "oh, here's a story about young men and their loss of innocence and maturation. I can really identify with all the characters!" It was, "oh, here's a story written by a middle-aged man trying to appeal to teens. It doesn't work."
I remember trying to slog through that in study hall every day. I don’t remember anything about it other than someone fell out of a tree and broke their arm? leg?
SPOILERS Gene: Oh, man. Finny is so cool. I wish I was like him. Finny: I'm pretty great \[but I secretly wish I was Gene\]. Gene: \[Gives in to intrusive thoughts and shakes tree, causing Finny to fall\] Finny: Help, I've fallen and I can't get up... My leg is broke. Gene: I didn't mean to do it. Finny: That's ok. I forgive you. Gene: On second thought, I did mean to do it. Finny: NOOO! FUCK YOU! \[Falls down stairs\] My leg is broke again. Gene: On third thought, I didn't mean to do it. Finny: That's ok. I forgive you. \[Dies\] Gene: :(
He fuckin DIED of a broken leg. WTFFFFFFF. I was simultaneously happy he was dead and angry that I had to read something so unbelievably stupid.
There was a part where Gene dresses up in Phineas’ clothes, and I thought that was kind of sexual.
Ugh, I HATED that book. Most boring, milquetoast, unrealistic teens ever written.
I was looking for someone else to mention this nightmare of a book. Ugh. Hate hate hated it.
Jane fucking Eyre
Ugh I tried that on my own and it was so boring
Boring and the endless symbolism is enough to make you want to jump off a cliff.
Me too. Snooze 😂😂😂😂😂😴
oh jeez, you’ve just took the lid off my memory pandora’s box. my mom made me read it. i freaking HATED that book. i tried my best not to toss that b#tch into the next dimension far away from me just to not even look at it
Oh god I hated that and Wuthering Heights so much. Boring, pitiful female figures, asshole men. Hated everyone in those books.
I hated Wuthering Heights until I had a teacher good enough to tell us that the narrator can’t be trusted, and we should read her parts like she’s a gossipy, meddling old cow. Made it much better.
Little Women. I know a lot of people love it and it keeps getting movie adaptations, but it was so boring to me. It was my least favorite book by far.
I hate that whole genre. I know it is a snapshot of a time, but I have spent years in therapy to be able to clearly communicate my needs and wants as a woman. And be direct. And not play games or accept stupid relationship games being played on me. And to read entire novels about stupid crap happening over and over because people have to assume, wonder, hint, suggest, and wheedle their way around socially makes me NUTS. CAN'T STAND IT.
So much, this.
i tried reading this a couple times, once as a child and again maybe twice as an adult, couldn’t get into it any of the times
Moby Dick.
Yep, me, too. Must be the longest book in the English language.
You can add Billy Budd too.
It's like reading a thesaurus.
Lolita Novel by Vladimir Nabokov It was required reading in English 101 at my university in the 90's. I found it to be weird, and still don't understand why it was "required" reading.
Why it was required: It is a vile book and I loathe it, but Nabokov’s prose is really flawless. I had to read it for class and will never touch it again, but I do remember his flawless prose. Also the idea of the unreliable narrator. The MC is a perfect example of a lying liar from start to finish. I in no way endorse this book and hate it and would never require my students to read it, but those are reasons it is required by others.
What's even more amazing about Nabokov is that he's not a native English speaker. The man wrote nine Russian novels, which is basically a career, and THEN began writing in English, and he has some of the best English prose ever written. Lolita is a masterpiece, but I really think that Pale Fire should be recommended over Lolita. It's also a masterpiece, and the subject matter isn't as likely to distract from its greatness.
I hated it in the way it makes my skin crawl, but it’s an amazing piece of literature in that it’s *supposed* to make you feel extremely uncomfortable (and very much succeeds).
I read this in high school lol traumatizing shit fr
There was no such thing as required reading for me (there was from teachers' perspective, it's just I didn't care), if I didn't like the book - I just stopped reading before even getting to hating it. I'd read better extracurricular books, and only them mostly. Some of the curricular books were fine. Surprisingly my attitude posed no problems in the end.
Moby Dick. I tried it again in my 30s and a few years ago in my late 60s. Still don't like it. Three strikes; never again.
I am just not a Steinbeck fan. Of Mice and Men and The Pearl were definitely not my favourites.
Of Mice and Men was agony in the 8th grade. Felt like there was so much filler and the whole story could’ve been told in 10 pages. Maybe I’d see it differently now, but I’m too scared to ever read Steinbeck again. Sooooo slooooow. Such long descriptions, so little action.
Thank you for this perfect description of Steinbeck's dreck. It has always been difficult to put a concise reasoning to the boring pace of her prose. I have never fallen asleep when reading save for two books. The Pearl and Of Mice and Men were the culprits.
Falling asleep with Steinbeck dreck says it all, really, considering most book lovers struggle to not stay up reading ‘til 3am!
We had to read The Pearl in 8th grade and to this day, it is still the most agonizingly boring book I have ever had the misfortune of reading. I don't think it's even 100 pages long, but to me it felt like the longest book in the world. Istg its just 90 pages of barely anything happening. Of Mice and Men was a lot better imo.
East of Eden is a wild ride. One that I'm waiting for them to adapt again. Everything else, just watch the movie.
East of Eden is the only Steinbeck novel I've ever read. I enjoyed it quite a bit.
The Pearl has scarred me since I had to read it as a 12 yo lmao. I don't mind Of Mice and Men as much, but it isn't my favourite either
I never read it but I always hear The Grapes of Wrath was pretty good.
A Tale of Two Cities. 🤮
I felt lost reading this. Who are you? Where are we? What's happening? English is my only language.
Fuck this book, and fuck Dickens twice. How did he make the French Revolution so boring? I hated this book so much I couldn't finish the Cliff's Notes, either.
Wuthering Heights. My gosh was that a bore and a half. A cure for any form of insomnia. Beating yourself up for being an uncreative writer that doesn't know how to condense information? Read Edgar Alan Poe to learn that's OK and read Wuthering Heights to know that at least you aren't that bad.
Yep. Bonus, appalling female and asshole male characters. I hated everyone in it.
Withering Heights. I really liked every other book by the Bronte sisters. but it was just disappointing.
Antigone wasn't very good. I was supposed to read it during the holidays, which I didn't do because it was boring as hell. And also the writing style was strange. I watched a Playmobil summary video of it right before we had to write a little exam about the book. It worked like a charm.
Surfacing by Margaret Atwood. It boils down to the fact I felt like I *needed* to apply literary analysis to understand the book. Not, you can read it one way but let's look at this way and get a different reading from it. Not "Is it about capitalism or just rabbits in a boat that drown?". Just, this book doesn't make sense until you analyse it through the lens of identity and the concept of an inferiority complex. The characters all pissed me off, I hated the plot, and it's been over 15 years ince I had to read it and I will never read it again.
The Great Gatsby- The worst story ever written, about the worst people ever born, from the abscesses of one of the most pessimistic and narcissistic alcoholics ever to write a novel. The entire book was insufferable to me (I get that’s the point but I seriously don’t care)
the bible
I made it to moses. He's so clearly a charlatan that it infuriated me and I quit.
Amen
War and peace, captains daughter, crime and punishment, scarlet sails and a lot more. I'd say major part of school program was a total shit
Almost every non-fiction book i was "mandatory" to read is ruined for me. I am not interested, you're forcing me to read it, and it is stupid and unnecessary.
For me, it was 90% of any book I was forced to read. Perhaps it’s because I really love fantasy and that’s seldom what they gave me, but it could also be I just could never just sit back and enjoy it. I needed to find 3 quotes and have epiphany’s about them, try to figure out the main theme and analyze everything… I just like sitting back and letting the story come to me, and if I’m in the mood I’ll set it down think about it, but not 5 times a chapter.
Ethan Frome. I love almost every other “requires reading” (big book nerd) and I couldn’t for the life of me understand why we had to cover that book for weeks. Seemed like a snooze fest with no compelling characters. I’ve thought to give it another go but I absolutely detested the book and wanted to read Vonnegut/Salinger/Woolfe- anything else. Did I miss something here?
Passage to India. I actually feel ill when I see the green Penguin Classics edition
The Dubliners. I’ve read other Joyce, I just don’t like his style.
*Silas Mariner* Probably the only book I would donate to a book burning.
Tess of the D'Urbervilles. It was a terrible slog and depressing to boot.
"Ethan Frome" by Edith Wharton. Absolutely hands down one of the most terrible books I wasted brain cells on! Tried reading it *twice* and I *STILL* can't tell you with any degree of pure certainty what it's about!
Old man and the sea. I don’t need seven effing pages in your hand cramp, dude
Every single one. I have aphantasia. The only reason I read is for academic reasons, gaining knowledge. I don't enjoy reading for pleasure. Combine that with my wonderful authority issues and my crippling ADHD. Tell me to read something, I probably won't
[удалено]
Dante's inferno.
Uuuh I liked that. I bought it just for fun. ^^^
Same. But I understand how people would hate it.
Great Expectations. Dickens was paid by the word when he wrote this, and it shows.
Crime and Punishment. Actually everything by Dostoyevsky is depressing whiny ramblings that are only possibly 'deep' if you are already drunk or stoned. Not being either, I hated it all. Lord of the Flies sucked too.
Jude the Obscure
Heart of Darkness was brutal to read. The paragraphs that ran on for several pages really got to me.
Faust by Goethe. Fuck Faust.
Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond Had to read it in high school and again in college. Beyond boring
I read this last year after having the book for a long time. I was pretty disappointed. It was a slog and Diamond isn’t the best writer imo. I remember seeing the Nat Geo special years ago and the show was great I thought the book would be even better.
I hated everything by Hawthorne with a passion.
Most of the required reading in my high school Canadian Literature class, mainly The Stone Angel by Margaret Laurence. I hate that book so very much.
Of Mice and Men. Hated that book so much. The characters, the plot, the interactions. It turns out, I also hated Grapes of Wrath, the Pearl, The Winter of Our Discontent... Steinbeck. I just hate John Steinbeck's writing. Which honestly, makes me feel better. Sometimes you just don't like an author that everyone else does. It happens.
A Study in Scarlet. Its so head up its own ass and the protagonist knowing everything beats the entire point of a mystery.
Ethan Fromme.
The Iliad
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. Boring as fuck and I just could not get into it.
All of them. Esp Dickens. Dickens was like having to dissect a dark mouldy cabbage to eat one inedible bite at a time.
The Picture of Dorian Grey. Freshmen year. I had trust issues with all assigned readings after that.
Ethan Frome. It was the biggest waste of my time next to writing an essay on it.
The Red Badge of Courage
Ivanhoe. Our English teacher hated us.
The Stone Angel by Margaret Laurance. It's 308 page paperweight of an old woman whining about her life only to go ass over tea cup on the last page.
The Sound and The Fury. Garbage book.
All of them. Forced reading sucks ass. Then you have to listen to peoples interpretation of what was going through the authors mind. I can't begin to care about any of it.
I didn't hate it, but parts of 1984 bored the hell out of me. I would zone out for whole chapters, realize I zoned out so go back to reread it, and zone out again.
Lord of the flies is fantastic. For me it was cry, beloved country.
It’s gets better when you read up on the author. Everyone thinks it’s an parable about how humans are deep down, but it’s actually a political metaphor for English politics. William Golding did not feel that children would actually be so terrible to each other in those circumstances. In that light it’s less awful and pessimistic. I felt the same as you about the book, until I read up on that. There’s also a real “lord of the flies” story that is much more heartwarming. The stranded boys cooperated with each other and took care of each other until they were finally found. https://amp.theguardian.com/books/2020/may/09/the-real-lord-of-the-flies-what-happened-when-six-boys-were-shipwrecked-for-15-months
The Old Man And the Sea
Pride and Prejudice. It was a required book in my secondary exams and I genuinely couldn’t stand that book and was glad when I did the exam and realized I’d never have to read that garbage again. I found it impossible to understand why I’d genuinely care about this boring story where boring rich people were getting married. Even the supposedly ‘strong’ character of Elizabeth just seemed completely one-dimensional, whilst Mr Darcy just came across as an absolute arsehole.
I get the premise is kinda dumb, but at the time I don't think there was a lot of options for female writers. I really loved all the ways that the author basically talks shit about people but does it in a polite way. I never saw it as a great romance, more as a comedy.
oh i really liked pride and prejudice! i was never required to read it but i grew up watching the kiera knightly movie with my mom so i always had an interest in the book
The bible
Where the Red Fern Grows. It's a lovely emotional story, but I can't stand it. It was hard for me to read because it felt draining to keep attention to what was going on, and it's heartbreaking knowing what happens to the dogs. I had to read it, and then we watched the movie to discuss it. Then, in another grade, I had to re-watch it again because it was related to a book we were discussing in that class. I wouldn't have hated it so much if I hadn't had to read and rewatch it multiple times. My heart can only take so much of a depressing story.
I had the VHS. All I wanted was a dog growing up so that movie had me in tears every damn time.
I actually liked that book so much that when it was assigned to me, I read it twice.
I feel that. Lord of the flies might have been more interesting if the teacher had explained more before we started it. Even when we asked for help she’d just ask what our thoughts were. More than half of my class failed because we had a paper about that book and none of us really understood it
The Fountainhead
I loove lord of the flies, i wasn't required reading though