Read These In School - Would Have Preferred A Root Canal
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Tra-Kay
(last edited Jul 29, 2013 10:58AM)
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Oct 15, 2008 07:31PM
"Where The Red Fern Grows" on this list?! SICK.
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Most of these I liked altho I was required to read some of them too but Heart of Darkness was the pits to me. Several here I still hope to read someday.
Well, I tried the Mill on the Floss and it may get better but I cannot go on any longer with her boring childhood.
90% of these books are AWESOME
You guys are lame
Like... who was reading Ulysses in school?!
Sounds like a cool school to me
You guys are lame
Like... who was reading Ulysses in school?!
Sounds like a cool school to me
Jim Trelease makes the point in The Read Aloud Handbook that many classics are not appropriate teen reading. Forcing them down the throats of teens can turn them off classics permanently. Though i love to read, I'm still struggling to wrap my head around the notion that some or even many of these books that I hated as a teen might have something to offer me now.
I am stumped as to why many of these titles are on this list, ie. Red Fern, Island of Blue Dolphins, Number the Stars ?? The only thing I can think is that the reader was given the book when he/she was not mature enough to appreciate it. I hated The Grapes of Wrath in high school, but appreciated it later as an adult.
I read the Island of the Blue Dolphins in fourth grade (but by my choice) and thought it was amazing. I can't believe it is on this list. I read a lot of classics even though I'm only 13 and I love them. Maybe if teachers just let us pick up the books in our own time we'll learn to appreciate them.
My teacher is forcing my class to read the narnia series and it's driving me nuts. Like group one gets book one and so on. I tried reading those books a few years ago but they were just too confusing and now I have to read book five without any clue what is going on.
With me is not the book itself... is that they make me analyze them and try to find meaning and essays and homeworks and horrible class discussion...
My teacher force The Rape of the Lock down my throat! It was horrible... and he kept laughing ... and then he made us analyze it and write in the style of it. Oh goody!
Then he move on with the poems and so we got Andrew Marvell and thus my hatred for him began. I just didn't understand them and then writing in his style and analyze them was just a pain. His poems are so long and have so much to do with his time period that it just ....
As for the English Teacher and Great Expectations... I just didn't like them for selfish, none school related reasons: since the analyzing was fairly simple what annoy me was the characters in them!
I am sure that I will soon have a book for my fifth, but for now I would have preferred root canalS during the MONTHS we spend working on those books.
My teacher force The Rape of the Lock down my throat! It was horrible... and he kept laughing ... and then he made us analyze it and write in the style of it. Oh goody!
Then he move on with the poems and so we got Andrew Marvell and thus my hatred for him began. I just didn't understand them and then writing in his style and analyze them was just a pain. His poems are so long and have so much to do with his time period that it just ....
As for the English Teacher and Great Expectations... I just didn't like them for selfish, none school related reasons: since the analyzing was fairly simple what annoy me was the characters in them!
I am sure that I will soon have a book for my fifth, but for now I would have preferred root canalS during the MONTHS we spend working on those books.
I actually sort of enjoyed The Scarlet Letter, though that might have been because it was the first time that I really understood the symbolism of a book instead of just thinking that the teacher was making it up (I swear some of my teachers did). I also just enjoyed the discussion we had. I also really enjoyed The Crucible. It had a lot of good points to it.
I hated A Separate Peace though. I think that is my least favorite book ever.
I hated A Separate Peace though. I think that is my least favorite book ever.
Hilarious list title :D
Some of these books are just not meant for teen readers like some others have said. Have to wonder what the teachers were thinking when they decided to add these to their course. There are so many others that teens could relate too, but then again if it's taught well they just may like it :)
Some of these books are just not meant for teen readers like some others have said. Have to wonder what the teachers were thinking when they decided to add these to their course. There are so many others that teens could relate too, but then again if it's taught well they just may like it :)
I 100% second what Max @ 02/25/2009 10:03PM had to say. You'd prefer root canal over something like Crime and Punishment?? Maybe it's not the books, it's you.
This list disappoints me.
I'll admit that there are a few clunkers listed here, but there are also some amazing books on here as well.
I'll admit that there are a few clunkers listed here, but there are also some amazing books on here as well.
hmmm.. some I agree with such as Great Expectations and Heart of Darkness.. but I really liked some of the other books on here like Catch-22, Wuthering Heights, To Kill a Mockingbird, Brave New World... The Scarlet Letter wasn't TOO bad.. it had it's moments...
This is a horrifying list. Tess of the D'Urbervilles is the only one that I've read which I'll admit I wasn't moved by. Many of these I read in school, but I loved them!
I didn't see Albert Camus' The Plague (I don't know how to turn on or off the italics). Actually we didn't read it. We read maybe a quarter of it and the girls voted that we didn't want to read a book with a bunch of rats in it!
I hated The Scarlet Letter. And I was, oh, so glad that they changed their mind about our having to read Silas Marner - after having made everyone buy it.
I enjoyed The Grapes of Wrath and Animal Farm.
But, oooooooooh, The Rape of the Lock. Ruined Pope for me forever.
I hated The Scarlet Letter. And I was, oh, so glad that they changed their mind about our having to read Silas Marner - after having made everyone buy it.
I enjoyed The Grapes of Wrath and Animal Farm.
But, oooooooooh, The Rape of the Lock. Ruined Pope for me forever.
I deleted my votes from this list when i realised how dumb it was. Maybe i'm being too pedantic here, but I would happily read this entire list of largely decent books rather than have a root canal. Perhaps i'm unusual in that respect.
I have had a root canal treatment and as horrible as it was I do prefer that than to have read the 2 books I listed. I really, really hated those books. The memory of them will always be there, whereas the pain of dentistry fades fairly quickly.
I disagree with this list entirely. I disagree with the whole IDEA of this list.
A great majority of this list are books I fell in love with at school. This list is mocking literature. Period.
Half of these books made me want to be an English major! This list really needs to be rethought.
A great majority of this list are books I fell in love with at school. This list is mocking literature. Period.
Half of these books made me want to be an English major! This list really needs to be rethought.
Hmm, I agree with a lot of the comments here. What are you even voting on, which were 'most terrible', or which of the terrible were slightly ok?
I have to say, people's hatred of these books must stem from just being forced to read them by an incredibly mediocre teacher, or associating them with some other terrible school experience. As an assignment, I had to note every instance of metaphor, simile, or personification in The Scarlet Letter, which everyone knows is pretty much rewriting the whole book verbatim. So I hated it - but in retrospect I really like the story.
Also, I was forced to read David Baldacci's Wish You Well, FOR SCHOOL, the following year, because box upon box of it was donated to my high school. That cliche piece of garbage had to be the worst waste of my education I've experienced, period. I transfered high schools shortly after that.
Lastly, I can never get why Heart of Darkness is so reviled. I love it!!! I can understand, it's like watching a movie that goes on and on and on and seems to go nowhere, then suddenly climaxes. But again, I'd blame horrible teachers more than the book itself.
I have to say, people's hatred of these books must stem from just being forced to read them by an incredibly mediocre teacher, or associating them with some other terrible school experience. As an assignment, I had to note every instance of metaphor, simile, or personification in The Scarlet Letter, which everyone knows is pretty much rewriting the whole book verbatim. So I hated it - but in retrospect I really like the story.
Also, I was forced to read David Baldacci's Wish You Well, FOR SCHOOL, the following year, because box upon box of it was donated to my high school. That cliche piece of garbage had to be the worst waste of my education I've experienced, period. I transfered high schools shortly after that.
Lastly, I can never get why Heart of Darkness is so reviled. I love it!!! I can understand, it's like watching a movie that goes on and on and on and seems to go nowhere, then suddenly climaxes. But again, I'd blame horrible teachers more than the book itself.
Rachael wrote: "My teacher is forcing my class to read the narnia series and it's driving me nuts. Like group one gets book one and so on. I tried reading those books a few years ago but they were just too confusing"
No, noo!!!!! I hope school doesn't ruin them for you - you should pick them up later when you're not forced to. I read them first at your age and they're still my favorite books, ever.
No, noo!!!!! I hope school doesn't ruin them for you - you should pick them up later when you're not forced to. I read them first at your age and they're still my favorite books, ever.
Silas Marner is top of the list for me, as we were made to diagram sentences from it. Bleh!
Michael - on the matter of Heart of Darkness, it may be a gender difference. I've met a lot of women who didn't like it (including myself), and a lot of men who did.
Michael - on the matter of Heart of Darkness, it may be a gender difference. I've met a lot of women who didn't like it (including myself), and a lot of men who did.
I created this list and put five books on it, the rest have been added by the community....
I am so amused by the commenters who are offended by this...jeez, get a sense of humor will ya? No one is mocking literature, no one is casting aspersions at anything! You'd think I was supporting book burning.
This is fun...nothing else. I agree with many of the commenters that it was more the school expereince in relation to the book than the book itself that made me recoil.
Please, people...have some fun....
I am so amused by the commenters who are offended by this...jeez, get a sense of humor will ya? No one is mocking literature, no one is casting aspersions at anything! You'd think I was supporting book burning.
This is fun...nothing else. I agree with many of the commenters that it was more the school expereince in relation to the book than the book itself that made me recoil.
Please, people...have some fun....
While some of these books are wonderful, such as Hamlet, most of them do belong on this list. Finally, an entertaining list, with even more entertaining comments :] Reading 1984 and Atonement were terrible experiences for me...
To Kill A Mockingbird?!? WHAT?!? That is an AMAZING book! I loved it so much I sat through the black and white movie that was also brlliant!
This list is so sad! How could anyone hate where the red fern grows? And The Catcher in the Rye, Jane Eyre, and The Giver are some of the best books I've read.
I agree, most of these books definitley don't deserve to be on this list.
Although The Scarlet Letter is pretty lame.
Although The Scarlet Letter is pretty lame.
I like the Scarlet Letter also.
I never read The Plague but would probably like it since I love to read about disease.
This is Albert Camus's The Plague. We read the beginning but then we took a vote on not reading the rest of it. None of the girls (including me) were comfortable reading about all of the rats.
I don't really believe it is "about" disease per se. I probably would still have trouble reading it because of the rats. But it is my understanding that he wrote it in Le Chambon, France, and it was more about the rise of fascism.
I don't really believe it is "about" disease per se. I probably would still have trouble reading it because of the rats. But it is my understanding that he wrote it in Le Chambon, France, and it was more about the rise of fascism.
I almost shredded Animal Farm while reading it. Drove me nuts! Read A Tale of Two Cities for extra credit. I wasn't into it until the end, I'd still rather read it then get a root canal. How many people who have added to this list have actually had a root canal? A Northern Light should be on this list, that book was awful!
I'm glad I found this list. It gave me a bunch of books to add to my "to read" list.
Helenn wrote: "With me is not the book itself... is that they make me analyze them and try to find meaning and essays and homeworks and horrible class discussion..."
I completely agree. Most of the books I read in school I probably would have enjoyed if I had read them on my own time. Like I HATE Pride and Prejudice, but I bet it's not really that horrible of a book..
I completely agree. Most of the books I read in school I probably would have enjoyed if I had read them on my own time. Like I HATE Pride and Prejudice, but I bet it's not really that horrible of a book..
i do not plan for a root canal- but i would look up many of these books. perhaps because i read them by choice. perhaps everyone should be allowed to read by choice- if your teacher offers you say a list of possible reads, though this might require too much flexibility and reading by that teacher. a book is a gift to each reader: readers have the last choice on whether to enjoy them, not the writers, the teachers, the entire culture industry. a book is a gift, not a punishment, not something to suffer.
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