# 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:** 9
**Author:** ![Aji\_de\_Gallina](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aji_de_gallina/32/260_2.png) [@Aji\_de\_Gallina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aji_de_Gallina)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2013, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-boring-book-you-were-ever-forced-to-read-for-a-class/656373/161 "2013-04-24T16:09:00Z")
La Ciencia y su Método by Mario Bunge in college. It’s not that long, but I could only read about 10 pages before collapsing. They most dedicated of the class managed to go halfway through pure willpower. Slow, repetitive, uniformative. ---
**Author:** ![Gangster\_Octopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a8b319/32.png) [@Gangster\_Octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gangster_Octopus)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2013, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-boring-book-you-were-ever-forced-to-read-for-a-class/656373/162 "2013-04-24T16:34:55Z")
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**Author:** ![Daylate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9dc877/32.png) [@Daylate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Daylate)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2013, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-boring-book-you-were-ever-forced-to-read-for-a-class/656373/163 "2013-04-24T16:55:52Z")
Another vote for _ **Silas Marner** _. So dull that I now remember exactly NOTHING about what it was about. Ugh! And a book that I decided was dull and unreadable solely on its title alone was _ **Jude the Obscure** _. Now that’s a real grabber of a title! ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2013, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-boring-book-you-were-ever-forced-to-read-for-a-class/656373/164 "2013-04-24T17:44:41Z")
Regarding Thomas Hardy: very hard to read…that is why the movie version of “Tess of the D’Urbervilles” was much better than the book. ---
**Author:** ![Dogzilla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e480ec/32.png) [@Dogzilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dogzilla)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2013, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-boring-book-you-were-ever-forced-to-read-for-a-class/656373/165 "2013-04-24T18:04:36Z")
> [@Daylate](#): > > Another vote for _ **Silas Marner** _. So dull that I now remember exactly NOTHING about what it was about. Ugh! > > And a book that I decided was dull and unreadable solely on its title alone was _ **Jude the Obscure** _. Now that’s a real grabber of a title! Silas Marner: Something about a weird, twitchy single man adopting an orphan girl. I _think_. ---
**Author:** ![jsc1953](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5daacb/32.png) [@jsc1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsc1953)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2013, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-boring-book-you-were-ever-forced-to-read-for-a-class/656373/166 "2013-04-24T19:16:33Z")
Another vote for Crime and Punishment. I distinctly remember a hellish Sunday, when I needed to have finished it by the next day. Every few pages that I’d read, I’d count the number of pages remaining. On the other hand: I had a fantastic AP English class my senior year; we read Scarlet Letter, Wuthering Heights and Great Expectations (among others) and the class discussions were so great that I remember them all fondly. (I think I’d have liked G.E. even without the class). ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2013, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-boring-book-you-were-ever-forced-to-read-for-a-class/656373/167 "2013-04-24T20:36:50Z")
> [@ralph124c](#): > > Regarding Thomas Hardy: very hard to read..that is why the movie version of “Tess of the D’Urbervilles” was much better than the book. One Sunday afternoon a few years back PBS was showing a version of “Jude the Obscure” starring Kate Winslet! It was rivetting, and frustrating as hell, wanted to reach through the screen and grab her around the neck and shake her. I cried buckets at the end, it stayed with me for days. (I loved “Tess”, both book and movie.) ---
**Author:** ![Poysyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f4b2a3/32.png) [@Poysyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Poysyn)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2013, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-boring-book-you-were-ever-forced-to-read-for-a-class/656373/168 "2013-04-24T22:57:29Z")
> [@Heart\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > **Heart of** motherfucking **Darkness**. > > I’ve managed to slog through or even enjoy almost everything else in this list. But fuck me running. I was assigned that bastard no less than four different times, in both high school and college, and I tried, I _really_ tried, every time… still haven’t been able to finish it. > > And yes, username/post combo. Make of it what you will. I read every book assigned with glee. I was a voracious reader, until I got to **Heart of Darkness**. Omigod! For AP English, we were given a stack of boat, \* Old Man and The Sea, Crime and Punishment, A Separate Peace, Lord of the Flies…\* none compared to Conrad. How can such a short book be SO tedious?! ---
**Author:** ![alfonzos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4bbf92/32.png) [@alfonzos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alfonzos)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2013, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-boring-book-you-were-ever-forced-to-read-for-a-class/656373/169 "2013-04-25T00:31:50Z")
_Young Fu of the Upper Yangtze_. I was already miserable in the sixth grade and this book was a major cause of my mood. Nothing happened to this kid. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2013, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-boring-book-you-were-ever-forced-to-read-for-a-class/656373/170 "2013-04-25T02:59:19Z")
> [@salinqmind](#): > > One Sunday afternoon a few years back PBS was showing a version of “Jude the Obscure” starring Kate Winslet! It was rivetting, and frustrating as hell, wanted to reach through the screen and grab her around the neck and shake her. I cried buckets at the end, it stayed with me for days. > > (I loved “Tess”, both book and movie.) I didn’t find Jude the Obscure boring. I did however give it the prize for most depressing book ever. ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Lendervedder](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/happy_lendervedder/32/8488_2.png) [@Happy\_Lendervedder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Lendervedder)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2013, 5:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-boring-book-you-were-ever-forced-to-read-for-a-class/656373/171 "2013-04-25T05:29:24Z")
Y’all are crazy. Poe? Hemmingway? Fitzgerald? Shakespeare? Dickens? Phenomenal writers, every one, compared to the hack that calls herself George Eliot. I see a few votes for **Silas Marner** , but I have to go with **The Mill on the Floss**. Absolute coma-inducing garbage. I would read Samuel Johnson forward and back before I ever read that road apple again. And I’m not even talking Boswell’s **Life of Samuel Johnson** – I’m talking Sam’s dictionary. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Second\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2013, 6:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-boring-book-you-were-ever-forced-to-read-for-a-class/656373/172 "2013-04-25T06:33:03Z")
For Whom The Bell Tolls. Only assigned book I ever read that I disliked. But nobody ever assigned me Catcher In The Rye or The Great Gatsby. Choose to find out what the fuss was about for those two. Catcher is unreadable dreck about a hateful boy. Gatsby is beautiful prose about a fellow in love with the idea of being in love with his cousin and even moreso with the man who has a doomed fixation on her. I loved Heart of Darkness. Loved Moby Dick. Loved anything Faulkner. Did not care for Ulysses, except for wonderful prose in parts. ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2013, 6:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-boring-book-you-were-ever-forced-to-read-for-a-class/656373/173 "2013-04-25T06:53:15Z")
Yet another vote for _Wuthering Heights_. Close runners-up for me would be _The Scarlet Letter_ and _Doctor Zhivago_. I did make it through those two, boring as I found them, but I never made it through _Wuthering Heights_. There were far more exciting things to do, like watching grass grow or paint dry. ---
**Author:** ![listedmia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e0b2c6/32.png) [@listedmia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/listedmia)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2013, 7:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-boring-book-you-were-ever-forced-to-read-for-a-class/656373/174 "2013-04-25T07:21:16Z")
**The Catcher in the Rye** is one of my least favorite books of all time. I can’t say it was boring, so much, because it’s fairly short, but nothing exciting happens and the protagonist is repugnant to me. There’s nothing funny or philosophically deep.However, I know so many people who would still say it’s their favorite book, perhaps because they don’t read very much and it’s the last one they ever finished. I guess I’m lucky. I always loved reading, but did not much care for doing homework, especially anything involving essays. Thus, I got put into the regular English classes in high school and did not have to read anything hard. I never took an English class in my abortive college career. I’ve read a bunch of these books on my own as a teenager and some more as an adult. I liked **Tess of the Durbervilles, Of Mice and Men** and \*\*Les Miserables \*\* among others, but I probably would have hated them if I had to read them in a certain timeframe, let alone write papers about them. eta: Guess I never learned to type very well either. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2013, 8:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-boring-book-you-were-ever-forced-to-read-for-a-class/656373/175 "2013-04-25T08:55:35Z")
Another, um, “fan” of _Silas Marner_ here. _Silas Marner_ is **The Wicker Man** (the remade film version) of literature, but without Nicholas Cage in a bear suit punching out little girls to add any laughs. ---
**Author:** ![drewtwo99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d07c76/32.png) [@drewtwo99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewtwo99)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2013, 10:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-boring-book-you-were-ever-forced-to-read-for-a-class/656373/176 "2013-04-25T10:46:24Z")
You guys are really making me want to read Silas Marner just because I refuse to believe it could be as boring as you all are saying it is, and oddly enough, I’ve never even heard of it until this thread. I always kind of wanted to read Wuthering Heights too. Maybe I’m a masochist? ---
**Author:** ![Blackberry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ecd19e/32.png) [@Blackberry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blackberry)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2013, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-boring-book-you-were-ever-forced-to-read-for-a-class/656373/177 "2013-04-25T15:55:26Z")
Frankenstein was incredibly boring to me. And whatever Shakespeare we read was boring too. If that’s how people talked back then, I’m really glad I wasn’t around to hear it. ---
**Author:** ![amarinth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3be4f8/32.png) [@amarinth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarinth)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2013, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-boring-book-you-were-ever-forced-to-read-for-a-class/656373/178 "2013-04-25T19:22:36Z")
“The Red Badge of Courage” Many of the others were just books I didn’t like (“Catcher in the Rye”) or books that I was not in the right place to understand and/or enjoy (high school me wasn’t ready for “The Great Gatsby”). But that one just was awful with no redeeming features that I could find at all. “Ethan Frome” gets an honorable mention ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2013, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-boring-book-you-were-ever-forced-to-read-for-a-class/656373/179 "2013-04-25T19:59:30Z")
Definitely **The Great Gatsby**. And I do mean boring, and not just some other reason for hating it. What other book takes the final climactic scene and puts it entirely off-page, showing only the results and making you have to figure out what happened? And that’s the only time when anything actually happens. I always cite that book as an example of bad literature, one where the symbolism was more important than the plot. **The Old Man and the Sea** is boring, sure, but at least there’s an actual climax. I find it funny that I think Animal Farm was the best and Gatsby the worst, the exact opposite of many Dopers estimations of those books. ---
**Author:** ![Balance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ccd318/32.png) [@Balance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balance)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2013, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-most-boring-book-you-were-ever-forced-to-read-for-a-class/656373/180 "2013-04-25T20:13:23Z")
> [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](#): > > Has anybody mentioned William ('scuse me while I stifle a yawn) Faulkner? I think so. Perhaps we slept through it. It’s a common effect of Faulkner. _The Reivers_ is the only Faulkner I was required to read, and it is way up my boring list. Despite being a voracious reader, I ended up skipping every other chapter…and my teacher couldn’t tell the difference. When I was done with it, I held it up to her and said, “If I wrote like this, you’d flunk me.” She sighed and admitted that I was probably right. As for _Heart of Darkness_, it gave us humorous, overwrought repetitions of “The horror! The horror!” and…well, no that’s about [it](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PIi3Xvh5i14). [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=8) [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=10)