# What's the worst book you had to read for school? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [December 11, 2003, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-book-you-had-to-read-for-school/218427 "2003-12-11T20:28:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Cub\_Mistress](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ea666f/32.png) [@Cub\_Mistress](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cub_Mistress)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2003, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-book-you-had-to-read-for-school/218427/41 "2003-12-12T01:10:55Z")
It’s a toss-up for me: Tobacco Road by Erskine Caldwell: I kept reading, telling myself “it’s won a Pulitzer Prize (or whatever), it has to have some redeeming feature!” But, no, it doesn’t; it is unadulterated crap. Tristam Shandy by Laurence Sterne: I absolutely cannot stand that rambling style for pages and pages. I have relatives that talk like this and they do so for hours at a time. It’s almost enough to make one go postal. ---
**Author:** ![saramamalana](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/74df32/32.png) [@saramamalana](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/saramamalana)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2003, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-book-you-had-to-read-for-school/218427/42 "2003-12-12T01:36:24Z")
OMG **Baker** , I’d totally forgotten about _The Pearl._ Read that in 8th grade, the whole class was irritated by it. On the upside tho, Fleming & John, one of my favorite bands, wrote a song about it called “The Pearl” (go figure) and it was a long time before I found out the connection. Silly me. ---
**Author:** ![Sternvogel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bc79bd/32.png) [@Sternvogel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sternvogel)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2003, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-book-you-had-to-read-for-school/218427/43 "2003-12-12T01:39:47Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by GMRyujin \* > \*\*_A Thousand Years of Solitude_ by Marquez. What a steaming pile of crap that was. \*\* So terrible, apparently, that you didn’t even remember the title correctly. 😃 It’s actually only One Hundred Years of Solitude, though it might indeed have seemed to take a millennium to slog through it. ---
**Author:** ![Bren\_Cameron\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@Bren\_Cameron\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bren_Cameron_1)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2003, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-book-you-had-to-read-for-school/218427/44 "2003-12-12T01:45:05Z")
I generally enjoyed whatever I was assigned in English class, but to this day, the thought of _A Separate Peace_ makes me want to bang my head on the desk until the pain of the memory stops. That was high school. In college, there was _Madame Bovary_, which I see has already been mentioned. I actually had a lot of trouble reading Dickens in high school, didn’t read him in college, but a year or two ago I made another try, and quite enjoyed him, including _David Copperfield_. I’ll mention, though, that I was never, ever assigned any Dickens to read, except A Christmas Carol in grade school. An old roommate of mine loved _Daniel Deronda_ to distraction, but it didn’t do much for me, even though I loved _Middlemarch_. I voluntarily subjected myself to _Mill on the Floss_ on the strength of _Middlemarch_, and boy, did I ever regret it. ---
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2003, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-book-you-had-to-read-for-school/218427/45 "2003-12-12T01:46:46Z")
Moby Dick Silas Mariner ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2003, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-book-you-had-to-read-for-school/218427/46 "2003-12-12T01:57:57Z")
I have a few. The Scarlett Letter was a horrible expierence. There was a book in Sci-Fi class called Alas Babylon that I thought was extremly tedious. But one of the worst expierences was with The Merchant of Venice. Now in retrospect with this one, it was not the material that was the problem but the way it was presented to me. It wasn’t until years later that I suddenly realized that MoV is a COMEDY! I was dumbstruck when I found out. ---
**Author:** ![wolf\_meister](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolf_meister/32/15202_2.png) [@wolf\_meister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolf_meister)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2003, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-book-you-had-to-read-for-school/218427/47 "2003-12-12T02:07:51Z")
There have been about 2 dozen postings since the last mention of **Charles Dickens**. Well, let’s not let Chuck get away that easily. I’ll agreee with previous posters that _anything_ by Charles Dickens is a good bet to be a boring, tedious, depressing, long-winded turd !!! With that in mind, it is a daunting task to choose the book that stands out among the rest. But if the ghost of Chuck came back from the dead and put a loaded gun to my head, I would have to tell him that **“Great Expectations”** earns the “Execrable Excrement Award” hands down. I had to read that weighty tome for the first book in my 9th grade English class. I was naive enough to think that we would have moved on quickly to another book that might actually be interesting. BUT NO !!! For that first term, there were all kinds of “Great Expectations” projects to do. Writing a term paper; a take-home test of about 20 questions that had to be answered in full with several well-developed paragraphs for _each_ answer; acting out a scene in front of the class; etc. So, I guess that scarred me for life as far as ever appreciating Charles Dickens. I guess the only good thing I can say about him is that he’s dead and therefore can no longer foist that crap upon the public. Oh and since it is the “Holiday Season” let me tell all of the Message Board ‘Dopers’ “God bless us everyone” ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Carrot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f0a364/32.png) [@Captain\_Carrot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Carrot)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2003, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-book-you-had-to-read-for-school/218427/48 "2003-12-12T02:08:40Z")
I din’t really dislike _The Scarlet Letter_, but that may have been because I read it in 5th grade, and wasn’t reading most of it, just skimming. I read a book in 8th grade whose title I cannot remember, but _everyone_ who had to read it agreed that it was the worst book in the world. I believe it consisted of telphone conversations, documented exchanges at school, and articles. It was about some guy who wanted to sing along to the Star Spangled Banner and got suspended for it. Around 150 pages of pure drivel. ---
**Author:** ![Krisfer\_the\_Cat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Krisfer\_the\_Cat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Krisfer_the_Cat)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2003, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-book-you-had-to-read-for-school/218427/49 "2003-12-12T02:11:48Z")
Well I LIKE Dickens, Brave New World and Frankenstein:D However I have to second John Steinbeck… I threatened my teacher with a book burning if she EVER gave me his dreck again. For me it has to be **Flowers for Algernon** also known as Charly. I felt that its ultimate message was that a person is only worth anything if they are super smart and very good looking. At the end when Charley lost his intelligence he returned to his old dead end job, his sexy girl friend had dumped him and his rat was dead. I literally screamed and threw the book across the room. ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2003, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-book-you-had-to-read-for-school/218427/50 "2003-12-12T02:12:22Z")
I love both _Dhalgren_ and _Heart of Darkness_ (they’re the same story, as is _Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man),_ but am willing to say that I think _Macbeth_ is poorly structured and stupid. ---
**Author:** ![amarone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e0b2c6/32.png) [@amarone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarone)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2003, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-book-you-had-to-read-for-school/218427/51 "2003-12-12T02:15:12Z")
Henry IV Part 1. Followed by anything else by Shakespeare. ---
**Author:** ![wolf\_meister](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolf_meister/32/15202_2.png) [@wolf\_meister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolf_meister)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2003, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-book-you-had-to-read-for-school/218427/52 "2003-12-12T02:15:32Z")
Wow it took me so long to post that Dickens’ diatribe, someone made another posting before mine. Since that posting was somewhat complimentary, I’m glad mine gave it to Chuck with both barrels. ---
**Author:** ![Quintas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/48db29/32.png) [@Quintas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quintas)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2003, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-book-you-had-to-read-for-school/218427/53 "2003-12-12T02:17:18Z")
Scarlett letter. Basically all of Hawthorne. In college, I had to read it again for Am Lit. and write a paper on it. I hate puritans. I hate stories about puritans. ---
**Author:** ![Quintas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/48db29/32.png) [@Quintas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quintas)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2003, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-book-you-had-to-read-for-school/218427/54 "2003-12-12T02:20:05Z")
Whenever I’ve had discussions with friends or on message boards regarding books we like or dislike, Scarlett Letter is always in the top 1 or 2 most hated by everyone. Perhaps they keep assigning it so people will know what others are talking about when they say they hate it. ---
**Author:** ![skeptic\_ev](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@skeptic\_ev](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/skeptic_ev)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2003, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-book-you-had-to-read-for-school/218427/55 "2003-12-12T02:22:33Z")
Hmm … I like _Huckleberry Finn_ (though _Tom Sawyer_ is better, IIRC), _Tale of Two Cities_ (but not everything by Dickens, certainly), _I Am the Cheese_, _Pride and Prejudice_, and _Jane Eyre_. (Disclaimer: Not all of those books were assigned. Some I read on my own.) However, I’ve never been able to get through _Moby Dick_, even though it has a good opening sentence. (I like books with sparkly opening sentences. For example, check out _Scaramouche_ by Rafael Sabatini and _The Haunting of Hill House_ by Shirley Jackson. But I digress.) I like Hemingway, too, but _The Old Man and the Sea_? Not so much. But the worst book I think I ever read all the way through was _Gulliver’s Travels_. The symbolism was a more than a tad heavy-handed. For any dopers currently in school and reading this thread: the secret for not hating your assigned books is not to read them along with your class. You read them right away, and then follow along (or write notes, or daydream) as the rest of the class reads them. It’s much better that way. It also helps to realize that these weren’t actually written to torment you; most of them were written, first and foremost, to entertain their contemporary audiences. Of course, what appealed to audiences of the time may not appeal to us. ---
**Author:** ![Naz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/e99b99/32.png) [@Naz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Naz)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2003, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-book-you-had-to-read-for-school/218427/56 "2003-12-12T02:24:12Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Sweetums \* > \*\* The other book that this teacher ruined for me was “The Great Gadsby” any mention of either book causes me to cringe. > \*\* You needed somebody to ruin _The Great Gatsby_\* for you? I read it without my grades on the line, and it still sucked. Worst book I ever had to read for a class was _Frankenstein_. Great story idea, but like **Innanna** says, the woman needed an editor. 😃 Can’t read anything Tolkien wrote, either. Go figure. ---
**Author:** ![chaoticbear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f07891/32.png) [@chaoticbear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chaoticbear)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2003, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-book-you-had-to-read-for-school/218427/57 "2003-12-12T02:24:36Z")
Crime and punishment. Uugh. ---
**Author:** ![tanookie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/48db29/32.png) [@tanookie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tanookie)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2003, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-book-you-had-to-read-for-school/218427/58 "2003-12-12T02:32:06Z")
Aaah the horrid memories! I had blocked out reading The Heart of Darkness I had to do a 20 page final for a class on Pride and Prejudice. I was thankfully spared Dickens 🙂 I am not a Hemmingway fan at all… big pretentious tough guy outdoors… I’d rather read Jack Londen. I liked his stuff as a kid. ---
**Author:** ![Lando\_Griffin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f17d59/32.png) [@Lando\_Griffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lando_Griffin)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2003, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-book-you-had-to-read-for-school/218427/59 "2003-12-12T02:34:42Z")
I’d really have to agree with _I Am the Cheese_. The book progresses with a bland plot rife with tedious flashback scenes, only to culimate in the revelation that the entire story is the result of a drugged-out trip through an insane asylum. Christ. I’d rather wash my eyes with bleach than read that beast of a novel again. Not to mention the obligatory 3-week discussion that followed :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Uvula\_Donor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/e19adc/32.png) [@Uvula\_Donor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uvula_Donor)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2003, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-book-you-had-to-read-for-school/218427/60 "2003-12-12T03:07:12Z")
_House of the Seven Gables_ Actually, I loathe nearly all 19th-century American “literature.” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-book-you-had-to-read-for-school/218427.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-book-you-had-to-read-for-school/218427.md?page=4)