# What was the most boring book you were ever forced to read for a class? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 22, 2013, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-boring-book-you-were-ever-forced-to-read-for-a-class/656373 "2013-04-22T02:35:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![koeeoaddi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/koeeoaddi/32/408_2.png) [@koeeoaddi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/koeeoaddi)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2013, 4:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-boring-book-you-were-ever-forced-to-read-for-a-class/656373/21 "2013-04-22T04:57:01Z")
**Billy** (fucking) **Budd** **Old Man and the Sea** **On the Origin of Species** Sorry Mr. Darwin, I’m glad you wrote it and I’m glad I read it, but Jebus, what a slog. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2013, 5:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-boring-book-you-were-ever-forced-to-read-for-a-class/656373/22 "2013-04-22T05:08:40Z")
I was going to nominate **Ethan Frome** but read the noms for **Heart of Darkness** and realized that Conrad took the gold. ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2013, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-boring-book-you-were-ever-forced-to-read-for-a-class/656373/23 "2013-04-22T05:17:35Z")
> [@apollonia](#): > > Dear God, yes, **Heart of Darkness**. I never got anything below an A in English class except for the two weeks in which we read Heart of Darkness, and I got so bogged down in it that I simply gave up, accepted my D- on the test with pleasure, and waited til the next unit. Were we in the same class? My whole class flunked that one. Cruel and unusual punishment! I imagine reluctant readers became non-readers after that one. ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2013, 6:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-boring-book-you-were-ever-forced-to-read-for-a-class/656373/24 "2013-04-22T06:20:52Z")
I don’t like Charles Dickens. Or Jane Austen. I know that a lot of people absolutely love one or both of those authors, but I just can’t get into them. Now, I haven’t read any Dickens since I was in high school, but an Austen came as a free book with my nook, and I decided to give it a try, maybe I’ve matured enough to appreciate her. Nope. Just as boring as ever. ---
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2013, 7:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-boring-book-you-were-ever-forced-to-read-for-a-class/656373/25 "2013-04-22T07:39:35Z")
Ethan Frome. ---
**Author:** ![tavalla](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tavalla/32/89_2.png) [@tavalla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tavalla)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2013, 8:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-boring-book-you-were-ever-forced-to-read-for-a-class/656373/26 "2013-04-22T08:45:13Z")
Patrick White, _Tree of Man_. ---
**Author:** ![ryan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a8b319/32.png) [@ryan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ryan)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2013, 8:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-boring-book-you-were-ever-forced-to-read-for-a-class/656373/27 "2013-04-22T08:52:49Z")
High School - anything by Emerson or Thoreau literally made me fall asleep in class. College - Love Medicine by Louise Erdrich for a Contemporary Novel class. Took the F and hoped I could pull out a decent grade with the remaining 6 novels. One of the only books I just couldn’t finish. ---
**Author:** ![AboutAsWeirdAsYouCanGet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/22d042/32.png) [@AboutAsWeirdAsYouCanGet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AboutAsWeirdAsYouCanGet)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2013, 8:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-boring-book-you-were-ever-forced-to-read-for-a-class/656373/28 "2013-04-22T08:56:46Z")
Red Badge of Courage Great Expectations. ---
**Author:** ![Les\_Espaces\_Du\_Sommeil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/les_espaces_du_sommeil/32/308_2.png) [@Les\_Espaces\_Du\_Sommeil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Les_Espaces_Du_Sommeil)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2013, 9:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-boring-book-you-were-ever-forced-to-read-for-a-class/656373/29 "2013-04-22T09:58:01Z")
> [@Reyemile](#): > > _Le Morte D’Arthur_. It’s possible my teacher just assigned us terrible sections, but I remember literally paragraphs listing what random knights went on what random quests. Dry as a textbook. I was never assigned this book for a class but I read it for “fun”. It’s one of my biggest literary disappointments: dozens of extremely repetitive and formulaic adventures. I’ve read quite a few other medieval works. Some were OK, some were great but _Le Morte D’Arthur_ was just terrible. Side question: with this in mind, should I read **Monmouth** ’s _Historia Regum Britanniae_ (_The History of the Kings of Britain_)? To answer the OP, I was forced to read **André Dhôtel** ’s _Le Pays où l’on n’arrive jamais_ when I was 12. A couple of pages each day was the most I could take. It almost disgusted me from ever reading a book again. I retitled it : _La Fin où l’on n’arrive jamais_. ---
**Author:** ![Claverhouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/13edae/32.png) [@Claverhouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Claverhouse)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2013, 10:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-boring-book-you-were-ever-forced-to-read-for-a-class/656373/30 "2013-04-22T10:25:11Z")
A triology of plays by Arnold Wesker, an English jewish socialist 1960s playwright. One of them was called, _The Apple Doesn’t Fall Far From The Tree_. The mercy of Lethe has blanked out everything else. However it created a strong distaste for the morbid details of the humours and warmth of jewish family life extolled and expanded upon by jewish authors. Despite the fact I like jewish humorists from Israel Zangwill to ‘Potash and Perlemutter’, either of which I would have welcomed in place, and my love of Clinton-era sitcoms; some of which had jewish writers. ---
**Author:** ![Antigen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/848f3c/32.png) [@Antigen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antigen)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2013, 10:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-boring-book-you-were-ever-forced-to-read-for-a-class/656373/31 "2013-04-22T10:34:25Z")
The Great Gatsby. _Christ_, but I hated that novel. ---
**Author:** ![drewtwo99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d07c76/32.png) [@drewtwo99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewtwo99)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2013, 10:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-boring-book-you-were-ever-forced-to-read-for-a-class/656373/32 "2013-04-22T10:38:17Z")
\*One Day In The Life of Ivan Denisovich \*was one of the most boring books I ever read. However, this was pretty much the point of the book, and at the end, it hit me how meaningful the boringness of the book actually was. In fact, if one had found the book entertaining and exciting all the way through, the ending would have very little impact on you, I would assume. For me, it was profound and thus the only book where being bored through it was actually enjoyable (but only in retrospect at the terrific ending). Can’t really think of many other books I found actively boring. I pretty much liked everything I had to read for school. And the ones I didn’t like, it wasn’t because they were boring, but because they were awful (Lord Of The Flies). ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2013, 10:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-boring-book-you-were-ever-forced-to-read-for-a-class/656373/33 "2013-04-22T10:41:32Z")
_The Return of the Native_ by Thomas Hardy. Dull, dull, dull. ---
**Author:** ![FairyChatMom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fairychatmom/32/21906_2.png) [@FairyChatMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyChatMom)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2013, 10:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-boring-book-you-were-ever-forced-to-read-for-a-class/656373/34 "2013-04-22T10:50:27Z")
_The Sound and the Fury_. Not only did we have to read the stupid thing - we had to \*BUY \*it ourselves. I was rather proud of my smart-ass self when the instructor asked what we thought the title meant, and I said the sound was a yawn and the fury was having to pay $6.95 for the book. (This was in the mid-70s when that was a significant chunk of change.) ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2013, 10:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-boring-book-you-were-ever-forced-to-read-for-a-class/656373/35 "2013-04-22T10:53:38Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > Yes. For example, my answer to the OP would be “a novel with the word ‘Owl’ in the title”, because that (and how boring it was) is precisely all I remember about it. Possibly “[I Heard the Owl Call My Name](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Heard_the_Owl_Call_My_Name)”? For me, it would be _Sons and Lovers_ by D.H. Lawrence. Pity, really, I think I might appreciate it better as an adult. Surprised by some of the answers - _Heart of Darkness_, for instance, was way too short for me to get bored. Although it could be condensed even further, I suppose - “Guy goes up a river, he meets this other guy who says “The Horror! The Horror!” and then dies” was how we characterised it. ---
**Author:** ![SanVito](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sanvito/32/2805_2.png) [@SanVito](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SanVito)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2013, 10:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-boring-book-you-were-ever-forced-to-read-for-a-class/656373/36 "2013-04-22T10:55:15Z")
**Tess of the Durbevilles**. But I think it was my incredibly boring teacher’s fault. Analysing every single word completely ripped any joy to be had from the prose. ---
**Author:** ![SeaDragonTattoo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df705f/32.png) [@SeaDragonTattoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SeaDragonTattoo)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2013, 11:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-boring-book-you-were-ever-forced-to-read-for-a-class/656373/37 "2013-04-22T11:07:05Z")
The only book I can remember not reading, I did the first-chapter, last-chapter deal with that one, was _The House of the Seven Gables_. I’m pretty sure I gave it a scathing review in my book report, too. I was at just the right point in my teenagery impatience that I just couldn’t be soused to pay attention to it and hated it from the first paragraph. I don’t remember why, I don’t remember anything about it other than it’s the only book I didn’t read. I should probably pick it up sometime and find out what I missed. I’ll probably like it. ---
**Author:** ![Biggirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biggirl/32/3294_2.png) [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2013, 11:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-boring-book-you-were-ever-forced-to-read-for-a-class/656373/38 "2013-04-22T11:40:54Z")
Wow, I like a great many of the books mentioned, and I am not a person into scholarly reading. The one book I could not stand that I had to read for school whas The Pilgrim’s Progress. What a boring, boring allegory. If you’re gonna make us read an allegory, how 'bout Gulliver’s Travels? ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2013, 11:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-boring-book-you-were-ever-forced-to-read-for-a-class/656373/39 "2013-04-22T11:48:57Z")
_ **Imperialism: The Highest Stage of Capitalism** _, by Vladimir Lenin. **BOR-ING!!!** I also intensely disliked Dostoevskii’s _ **Crime and Punishment** _ and _ **The Brothers Karamazov** _ (from the way they’re padded, you can tell the guy was being paid per installment) and I **loathe** _ **Anna Kerenina** _ (I don’t give a damn about who was “vexed,” or about Levin’s plans for land reform). Chernyshevskii’s _ **What is to Be Done?** _ is also a tedious, tedious read. I see a pattern emerging here… :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2013, 11:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-boring-book-you-were-ever-forced-to-read-for-a-class/656373/40 "2013-04-22T11:57:31Z")
I forgot about **Heart of Darkness** , but that would take a third place behind my previously nominated books, because even though I had to only skim due to the immense boredom of having to read it all, I could tell that in theory there was a good story behind there somewhere. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-boring-book-you-were-ever-forced-to-read-for-a-class/656373.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-boring-book-you-were-ever-forced-to-read-for-a-class/656373.md?page=3)