Worst book you had to read in school?

Poster	Message
Charis Rank : 292	Posted : 4 months, 3 weeks ago at Aug 14 18:11 - I want to know what books you found to be the most excruciatingly painful to read during high school or college - and please state your reasoning. I can't say I found this painful to read, but being a 9th grader and having to read Great Expectations was a terrible experience. However, I have since picked it up again, and being older, I appreciate it all the more. Personally I think high school reading almost turns people off to classics - especially when most of the curriculum is taking tests where you had to memorize characters/setting. Rarely did I have a class that actually got to the heart of what I felt the book was about. Any other opinions?
Devious Phenomenon Rank : 108	Posted : 4 months, 3 weeks ago at Aug 14 18:19 - I'd have to agree with you on certain parts, it seems like school in genral is too test based, causing children to lose sight of what makes a book interesting, I had to read Seedfolks, and, since it was a part of the curriculum, it was boring because you never had the time to get into each charactars shoes or understand it, just memorize it, now I honestly can say I enjoy ANY book better when it is not school, and I typically don't even bother reading the books in school, because they'll just make it a hell zone instead of making it interesting... I've always been very anti test based curriculum, so I kinda slightly went into that more then books, but yeah, Seedfolks was the worst, mainly because we had to read it TWICE and never get to understand it or have fun with it -___-' I plan on reading some popular classics before I hit college so they don't shoot the books down and kick them Almost everyone I know hates reading, ironic how the class that is supposed to make you LIKE reading, turns you AWAY from it... anyways, I'll shut up before I rant on anymore X__X
Vincent Valentine Rank : 163	Posted : 4 months, 3 weeks ago at Aug 14 18:22 - I like reading cos I escaped the boring ass drone of the teacher. One I hated has to be Titanic a true story. The most annoying thing about it is we had 5 tests on it straight away afterwards so we had to memorise it and we had barely anytime to read it in screw that ruined the book for me.
Devious Phenomenon Rank : 108	Posted : 4 months, 3 weeks ago at Aug 14 18:30 - You are lucky Illusion, I may still like Non Fiction and Realistic Fiction if school hadn't butchered them, but I still enjoy almost any kind of fiction, and I also write fiction(well... not yet, I am still working on the plots, but thats my fault, I wrote down all my ideas so I wouldn't forget and it is like 58 plots and growing every week, I finally decided to work solely on JUST one for a few weeks though)
Devious Phenomenon	Posted : 4 months, 3 weeks ago at Aug 14 18:30 This message has been deleted. Reason: duplicate
Vincent Valentine Rank : 163	Posted : 4 months, 3 weeks ago at Aug 14 18:36 - I happen to write myself they sent it back though said it was too rich in swear words just because every sentence of dialogue in chapter 4 had swearing in it doesn't mean everything else did. I'm still editing it out.
Devious Phenomenon Rank : 108	Posted : 4 months, 3 weeks ago at Aug 14 18:52 - Lol, The one I am working on I honestly have no idea what goes where, I mean I got the idea and inspiration while listening to "Faint"(Linkin Park) but I really don't know if I should start with one thing or an entirely different thing... I suppose it should come later... but idk...
Vincent Valentine Rank : 163	Posted : 4 months, 3 weeks ago at Aug 14 18:53 - PM me I'll see if I can help ya out.
spiegalr Rank : 222	Posted : 4 months, 3 weeks ago at Aug 14 22:26 - The worst book I've read for school is definitely Deathwatch by Robb White. The main characters were laughably ridiculous, and it had to have the most deus ex machina plot devices out of any book I've read. I agree about high school study turning people off the classics - I'm sure I would've enjoyed Macbeth much more if I didn't have to write a 1500 word essay on Shakespeare's use of imagery. :P But that said, I don't completely disagree with analyzing literature in school. Otherwise, I probably wouldn't have been exposed to Dahl or Bradbury, and I definitely wouldn't have read Shakespeare on my own time.
chibiyusa Rank : 61	Posted : 4 months, 3 weeks ago at Aug 14 23:03 - In sixth grade we had to read The Man Who Was Poe. The book itself was okay. It was all the work I had to do while reading it and finding nonexistent symbolism ruined it. sodifjsdoifjsdkfjlkdsfj I really hated that book by the time we finished it. As far as books that are painful to read last year I had to read Native Son which by the end I just ended up skipping that thirty page monologue on why the black man can't get ahead in society. It was easy to read but it was just really annoying to read. For the weak of mind I won't talk about here but just read the first paragraph in the wiki article http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Native_Son I'd love to read more classics in school. All the emphasis on standardized testing essentially ruined most of classes. It gets less ridiculous I've noticed the more I advance in my schooling but it really bothered me back then. In ninth grade I read some book I can't even remember since it was generic and boring while kids in "gifted" were reading The Odyssey or something. So yeah. Non "gifted" kids shouldn't be shut out from reading the good stuff. The classics aren't called that for nothing.
silent killer Rank : 155	Posted : 4 months, 3 weeks ago at Aug 14 23:07 - The book I hated reading the most in high school had to have been Brave New World. I actually finished reading the book even though we didn't have to. Worst mistake I ever made. It was good nearing the end, but then it was one disaster after another. It just felt the author was trying too hard to make make us feel sympathy for an already sympathetic character, and then it turned into commie propaganda. Sucked. @ chibi yeah, I was in those advanced classes. We read some good books and we even got to the root of them. It was actually fun reading them once in awhile.
chibiyusa Rank : 61	Posted : 4 months, 3 weeks ago at Aug 14 23:37 - Well the only way you could get into gifted classes where I live is that you had to be tested in elementary school. Unfortunately I moved just in time for middle school and thus I was denied gifted status.
Charis Rank : 292	Posted : 4 months, 3 weeks ago at Aug 15 1:06 - But that said, I don't completely disagree with analyzing literature in school. Otherwise, I probably wouldn't have been exposed to Dahl or Bradbury, and I definitely wouldn't have read Shakespeare on my own time. I definitely think we should analyze literature in school, but I've found that in my 9th and 10th grade classes a lot of the "analysis" was merely memorization and learning really shallow ideas of plot/conflict. Only until my senior english class did I find we really dug deeper and I considerably enjoyed writing essays about it because what we were learning was thought-provoking - no matter what the book happened to be. That's how an English class should run, but I find that most schools, especially in the non AP/IB/honors classes, teach in such an elementary way that would turn anyone off to literature. I feel like it misses the whole point of a novel - how it applies to yourself and your life.
Elfflame Rank : 84	Posted : 4 months, 3 weeks ago at Aug 15 9:52 - We got a new teacher for English in my last year in High School, and the first book she gave us was "On the Beach." (I think? There was a movie made from it, about nuclear holocast.) We all categorically hated it, and dissed it and her the entire time. I can't say I finished it. Mostly, I didn't see what was so interesting about reading about a hopeless situation.
vince Rank : 742	Posted : 4 months, 3 weeks ago at Aug 17 6:14 - THE GREAT GATSBY WAS SO DISSAPOINTING. TOO DRAWN OUT, AND THERE WAS NEVER ANY PAY OFF.
pandora924 Rank : 763	Posted : 4 months, 3 weeks ago at Aug 17 19:52 - "A Separate Peace", I can't remember the author's name, I didn't like that one maybe I would appreciate it more now that I'm older, but I will probably never want to try to get through it again.
chibiyusa Rank : 61	Posted : 4 months, 3 weeks ago at Aug 17 22:03 - John Knowles is name of author in question. Gah! I can't believe I forgot that one. It really bothered me. I mean it's not that I hated it but I just couldn't sympathize with the protagonist. I kept seeing non-existent subtext and ended up very angry throughout the book.
silent killer Rank : 155	Posted : 4 months, 3 weeks ago at Aug 17 23:05 - It's only non-existant subtext if you don't see it. Atleast that's what I tell myself. I don't mean about that book but in general.
Tori♥ Rank : 473	Posted : 4 months, 3 weeks ago at Aug 18 1:37 - My worst book I read in school would have to be "Call of the Wild" It was so boring it put me to sleep. It just had no excitment to it.
Voxy Moderator Rank : 10	Posted : 4 months, 3 weeks ago at Aug 18 8:27 - Ditto on A Seperate Peace. I re-read it in the last year or so, still hated it.
AjaxLeRoy Rank : 805	Posted : 4 months, 3 weeks ago at Aug 18 13:14 - I read another of Knowles' books called "Phineas", a collection of 6 short stories, one of which being about Phineas (and further milking the singular success of A Seperate Peace). Anyway, beautiful prose, but such a downer. Why you gotta be so tragic all time, Knowles?
Grand Assault Rank : 7	Posted : 4 months, 3 weeks ago at Aug 18 14:18 - Kestrel for a Knave. It was such a horrible and uninteresting book. I know we're all supposed to care about the hardships of the heavily romanticized northern oiks during the closure of the mines, but I really find the whole era just utterly dull. Then we had to watch the film Kes as an aid, even more grim.
Charis Rank : 292	Posted : 4 months, 3 weeks ago at Aug 18 18:48 - THE GREAT GATSBY WAS SO DISSAPOINTING. TOO DRAWN OUT, AND THERE WAS NEVER ANY PAY OFF. ...seriously? I found this book incredibly engaging, and we had to read it in school. As for a non-fiction book, we had to read Nickel and Dimed. While the concept was good, I didn't see how a rich woman pretending to understand the hardships of working-class women earning minimum wage was worth reading - I would have rather had just the facts, and just the stories from the actual women.
vince Rank : 742	Posted : 4 months, 3 weeks ago at Aug 19 0:03 - sorry charis but the great gatsby could have been way better had gatsby not died, and if daisy wouldn't have been such an uncaring bitch, the ending was depressing there was no real closure for me. no one in my class liked the great gatsby either, sorry charis but it was disappointing.
Charis Rank : 292	Posted : 4 months, 3 weeks ago at Aug 19 0:48 - I don't mind your opinion :) But that was the whole point - materialism at its worst. Plus I love the idea of the billboard with the giant glasses on it, like a God watching down on them. Or the irony of the fact that there is no God in their lives so rich with material. Gatsby was a terrible person - he had to die. Oh, and not many people in my class liked it either.
Dionysian Child Rank : 88	Posted : 4 months, 3 weeks ago at Aug 19 6:30 - I loved every book we had to read in school, bar The Tempest. I do like Shakespeare's plays, I've just never got into that one. It's a shame its still working its way around the classroom when there are such better works he has done. I was in class with year 8's in May this year. They were reading 'Stormbreaker- Alex Rider' by Anthony Horowitz. The kids were definately more willing to read it and sit through the lessons. Unfortunately though, most had already seen the film and all of the answers they gave on comprehension came from that rather than the text. Bringing in modern texts is definately a good thing. As long as the teachers don't dumb down to appease the desires of the class.