# 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:** 4
**Author:** ![Early\_Out](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Early\_Out](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Early_Out)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2003, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-book-you-had-to-read-for-school/218427/61 "2003-12-12T03:11:39Z")
I’m surprised at the number of people who hated _Heart of Darkness_. That’s one that I’ve actually reread several times, voluntarily. It also contains a couple of my favorite lines. “The horror, the horror,” is a wonderful all-occasion response. “Exterminate all the brutes” can also be trotted out often, when discussing, for example, the Bush administration. Now, if you want some Conrad that will confuse the daylights out of you, try _The Secret Agent_, which is not told chronologically. Good luck figuring out what’s going on the first time you read it! ---
**Author:** ![Flowerchild](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/858c86/32.png) [@Flowerchild](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flowerchild)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2003, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-book-you-had-to-read-for-school/218427/62 "2003-12-12T03:17:06Z")
Jesus christ, (Pardon my french) but I hated The Pearl so much. I though Steinbeck was so pretentious and full of hot air, I made it a point to avoid Steinbeck at all costs, I still get a headache thinking of that book. ---
**Author:** ![Taran](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/edb3f5/32.png) [@Taran](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Taran)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2003, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-book-you-had-to-read-for-school/218427/63 "2003-12-12T03:19:01Z")
_The Catcher in the Rye_ It tried so hard to be relevant to teenage life that reading it made me embarassed for Mr. Salinger. If it had been less about Being an Angstful Teenager and more about actual teenagers, it would have been much better. ---
**Author:** ![Kakofonous](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e9a140/32.png) [@Kakofonous](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kakofonous)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2003, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-book-you-had-to-read-for-school/218427/64 "2003-12-12T03:31:12Z")
The god-damn Bunny Book. Errr … **Watership Down**. The only one that I ever hurled across the room was **A Natural History of the Senses**. I had to read it for a non-science majors class on sensory biology. The prof did a really good just with the discussions on it, but I really _really_ disliked the book. ---
**Author:** ![Flowerchild](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/858c86/32.png) [@Flowerchild](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flowerchild)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2003, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-book-you-had-to-read-for-school/218427/65 "2003-12-12T03:39:21Z")
Tarzan, really? I loved Catcher in the Rye, loved it. Hell, all my crazy gifted student oversexed friends loved it. I lent that books to so many people that the cover was starting to wear down, I still have that old funked up dirty copy of it somewhere too i bet. ---
**Author:** ![HomerIU](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a88e4f/32.png) [@HomerIU](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HomerIU)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2003, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-book-you-had-to-read-for-school/218427/66 "2003-12-12T03:50:19Z")
I never had to read them for class, but I second what everyone has said about Frankenstein and Heart of Darkness. Frankenstein is tediousness at its worst. It goes on and on and on about pointless details that just don’t matter in the end. You could EASILY edit the book down to about half its original size and be left with a decent story. I tried to read Heart of Darkness and by GOD, I just can’t get through a paragraph. ANd I mean now, as a 30 year old, not when I was a teenager. ``` Most of the stuff I actually had to read in school was pretty good. However, as a high school senior I had to read Goethe's Faust. Its not that it was not interesting. It was just over my head at the time. I personally also am not a big fan of the Iliad and the Oddysey either. Similar to Frankenstein. All I remember is them going on for pages about "ANd then we had a feast with chicken and OX and wine and bread and then the entertain came and..." As George Costanza would say, they needed to yada, yada, yada about half that stuff. I have read Catcher in the Rye and found it to be a very good book, but I think it may not be as ground breaking or original as it probably was 50 years ago. ``` ---
**Author:** ![Petrichor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e19adc/32.png) [@Petrichor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Petrichor)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2003, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-book-you-had-to-read-for-school/218427/67 "2003-12-12T04:07:35Z")
**Stone Angel** by Margaret Laurence. It was one of the books that we had to read in school because it was written by a Canadian. Canadian’s have written many fine novels, IMHO **Stone Angel** is not one of them. ---
**Author:** ![Doomtrain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/0ea827/32.png) [@Doomtrain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doomtrain)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2003, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-book-you-had-to-read-for-school/218427/68 "2003-12-12T04:12:08Z")
And I forgot Hemingway. _The Sun Also Rises_, what a bunch of crappy crap crap. We’re a bunch of disaffected Americans wandering around Europe drinking and whining. At least the hippies had decent clothes and music. ---
**Author:** ![Gamaliel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b487fb/32.png) [@Gamaliel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gamaliel)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2003, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-book-you-had-to-read-for-school/218427/69 "2003-12-12T04:19:56Z")
High school: A Seperate Peace. I’m surprised it hasn’t come up earlier, but I guess it’s not as commonly assigned as I thought. College: Henry James. I’ve heard it said that the walls of hell are lined with bookshelves, and all the books are by Henry James. ---
**Author:** ![Super\_Gnat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e274bd/32.png) [@Super\_Gnat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Super_Gnat)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2003, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-book-you-had-to-read-for-school/218427/70 "2003-12-12T04:20:17Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Shoshana \* > **I love both _Dhalgren_ and _Heart of Darkness_ (they’re the same story, as is _Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man),_** [hijack] You made a little lightbulb go off in my head. Thanks. [/hijack] I was pretty fortunate in the Reading List Lottery, but I still think _The Giver_ (6th grade) is oversentimental dreck. ---
**Author:** ![Lady\_Ice](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f1d935/32.png) [@Lady\_Ice](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lady_Ice)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2003, 4:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-book-you-had-to-read-for-school/218427/71 "2003-12-12T04:51:27Z")
I pretty much read _good books_ in school. To Kill a Mockingbird, Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, The Outsiders and **a lot** of Poe. I loved them all. That said, I love Dickens. By the 10th grade I had read just about everything already on my own. Then for 10th grade Lit, we had to read _Great Expectations_. I was looking forward to reading it. I hated it. With a passion. The only assigned reading in high school or college that I did not finish. Ick. ---
**Author:** ![Call\_me\_Frank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/90ced4/32.png) [@Call\_me\_Frank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Call_me_Frank)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2003, 5:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-book-you-had-to-read-for-school/218427/72 "2003-12-12T05:08:55Z")
Ah wow, I’m surprised and delighted to see the great number of people denouncing Great Expectations. We had to read that in my sr year…I read the first quarter of it before I decided that I valued my time more than _that_…as a result I got a 50% on the test. Personally, I think that was a pretty good return on my investment. I read 25% of the book and got 50% of the test right… The other literary louse that we had to read was The Mayor of Casterbridge. I actually did read the majority of this book, but I did skip over some sections. It just wasn’t my thing, so I don’t reserve for it the same circle of hell that I keep for Great Expectations. In case you haven’t read it yet and don’t want to know what happens, I’ll spoiler this: The thing that got me was the introduction to the book that said something about the main character being a man of honor. Man of honor?! He gets loaded and sells his wife and infant!!! ---
**Author:** ![Odinoneeye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/97f17d/32.png) [@Odinoneeye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odinoneeye)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2003, 5:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-book-you-had-to-read-for-school/218427/73 "2003-12-12T05:47:24Z")
I would have to say Incident at Hawk’s Hill stands out in my memory. Everyone in my high school had to read it (in fact, my friend had it assigned in two different classes) and everyone had to write another chapter. The story is about a kid raised by a badger. At the end, he is rescued by his parents who also take the badger in. The badger gets shot by a neighbor. End of story. Write what happens next. If it weren’t for my friend’s chapter about Li Ching, Kung Fu Badger, that story would be worthless. ---
**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, 5:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-book-you-had-to-read-for-school/218427/74 "2003-12-12T05:49:50Z")
**Lady Ice and Call Me Frank** All right !!! Death to **“Great Expectations”**. You’ve probably read my post so I think you’ll agree I had a very harrowing experience with that loathsome literature. Geez, my teacher was quite the sadist to turn that into a first term 2-month project. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Babbington](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d6d6ee/32.png) [@Mr.Babbington](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Babbington)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2003, 6:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-book-you-had-to-read-for-school/218427/75 "2003-12-12T06:44:16Z")
**The Awakening** by Kate Chopin. Good lord that was a piece of crap. And her short stories “The Story of an Hour,” and “The Storm.” Just awful. She should have stayed in the dustbin of history. ---
**Author:** ![karomon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f07891/32.png) [@karomon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/karomon)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2003, 7:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-book-you-had-to-read-for-school/218427/76 "2003-12-12T07:08:59Z")
I get this right now. I’m rereading **The King Must Die** , a book that, I had always supposed, was probably brilliant but went over my head because I was stupid and young. Well, either I’ve gotten stupider and younger over the years or this book is even worse than I thought. Why am I even reading this again? ---
**Author:** ![PucksRaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ecd19e/32.png) [@PucksRaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PucksRaven)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2003, 7:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-book-you-had-to-read-for-school/218427/77 "2003-12-12T07:47:54Z")
I was an English major. This may take a while. Some of these have been said but they bear repeating. **The Awakening** : Kate Chopin. Please stop narrating. Please? **The Scarlet Letter** : Hawthorne I have never met anyone who liked this book. No one. **The Pearl** : Steinbeck. The most bleak and depressing piece of tripe I’ve ever forced myself to finish. If not for a fantastic teacher who made **Of Mice and Men** come alive it would have turned me off Steinbeck forever. **The Catcher in the Rye** Salinger. Goes against everything I think books are for. Unlikable people doing unlikable things for no discernable reason. **Lord of the Flies** Goldman. Like so many things I think this is badly taught and has potential but teachers need to listen and write this down: It is not a representation of society. Why? Because there are NO WOMEN on the island and women make up over 50% of society. **The Glass Bead Game** author forgotten. Just. . . huh? So incomprehensible my eyes bled. There’s more, I’m sure of it, but I’m tired and blanking. It got better in college, I could pick what classes I took and carefully chose ones with material I found interesting. But it drives me crazy that our school system manages to produce so many people that dislike reading or find it a chore because their reading lists are out of date. I love books and it makes me sad to think there are people out that who can’t find the pleasure in curling up with a cup of tea and a good novel. ---
**Author:** ![Nightime](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/e9c0ed/32.png) [@Nightime](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nightime)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2003, 8:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-book-you-had-to-read-for-school/218427/78 "2003-12-12T08:11:32Z")
> [@](#): > > Crime and punishment. Uugh. I always feel compelled to post in threads like these, in case someone reads that a book is bad and decides not to read it based on that. **Crime and Punishment** is one of the best books ever written. Perhaps a better title would be “books that you hated reading”, rather than “worst books”, because it isn’t fair to judge a book based on the circumstances in which you read it. As for **Catcher in the Rye** , I know people always get defensive when someone suggests they didn’t “get” a book, but despite that I suggest reading some other Salinger. Reading **Franny and Zooey** , for example, will make it more clear. Actually, **Catcher** is my least favorite of his books, although it’s style was very influential. ---
**Author:** ![Ms2001](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ms2001/32/18463_2.png) [@Ms2001](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ms2001)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2003, 9:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-book-you-had-to-read-for-school/218427/79 "2003-12-12T09:00:07Z")
So many choices… **A Separate Peace** **The Grapes of Wrath** **The Great Gatsby** **Watership Down** I don’t think I can narrow it down to one; they were all terrible. ---
**Author:** ![KarlGrenze](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/dbc845/32.png) [@KarlGrenze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGrenze)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2003, 10:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-book-you-had-to-read-for-school/218427/80 "2003-12-12T10:36:41Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Rabid Child \* > \*\*_Old Man and the Sea_. I can’t believe that this book is seen as one of Hemmingway’s greatest. I used to hate the man until I had to read one of his short stories for my Intro to Fiction class in college. The story was good, but _Old Man_ was a horrible book. I think that’s why I loved _Animal Farm_ so much. We read it after _Old Man and the Sea_. I’d rather read the back of a cereal box than _Old Man…_ again. It’s only saving grace is that it’s really short. \*\* Yea, _Old Man and the Sea_ was bad, too. And like you, I believe Hemingway does better with short stories than with novels. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-book-you-had-to-read-for-school/218427.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-book-you-had-to-read-for-school/218427.md?page=5)