# whats the worst "classic " book/author you read or tried to read **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 24, 2019, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-classic-book-author-you-read-or-tried-to-read/831440 "2019-03-24T04:37:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![Snake\_Plissken\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bc79bd/32.png) [@Snake\_Plissken\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snake_Plissken_1)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2019, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-classic-book-author-you-read-or-tried-to-read/831440/121 "2019-03-25T16:58:31Z")
Wise Blood by Flannery O’Connor. Oooof, marone! ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2019, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-classic-book-author-you-read-or-tried-to-read/831440/122 "2019-03-25T17:04:42Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > The only book I never got through on a school assignment was Lord of the Flies. Too bad - it seems quite relevant these days. ---
**Author:** ![furryman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/furryman/32/99_2.png) [@furryman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/furryman)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2019, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-classic-book-author-you-read-or-tried-to-read/831440/123 "2019-03-25T18:23:48Z")
Tried to read the unabridged edition of _The Three Musketeers_. After finding out everything you never wanted to know about the Spanish telegraph system during the 1700’s I gave up. I can see the dislike of _Moby Dick._ I liked it, but I found the best way to read it is to skim through the middle. Re: The Iliad. There’s a prose adaptation for children called _Black Ships Before Troy_ which I thought was very good if you’re interested. ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2019, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-classic-book-author-you-read-or-tried-to-read/831440/124 "2019-03-25T18:32:53Z")
Victor Hugo. The poetry’s really good, but _Notre Dame de Paris_ really illustrates why paying authors by the word is not a good idea. I gave up after realizing I was twenty pages into a description of the cathedral’s door and there was no indication I was coming close to the end of that bullshit. ---
**Author:** ![Dead\_Cat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9fc29f/32.png) [@Dead\_Cat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dead_Cat)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2019, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-classic-book-author-you-read-or-tried-to-read/831440/125 "2019-03-25T18:44:17Z")
> [@RTFirefly](#): > > I’ve read all of the above. I thought _Grapes_ was worth the read, but it _is_ long, and given the subject matter, I can see how it would be a slog for a lot of readers. > > But when did _Cannery Row_ become _long_? I don’t expect everyone to like it as much as I did, but it’s quite short - IIRC it’s about the same length as _Of Mice and Men_. My bad - I think I was confusing it with East of Eden, thank you for the correction. I must confess I have read neither - I read (and enjoyed) The Grapes of Wrath but it was hard work and I think when I saw East of Eden was a similar size, decided to leave it on the shelf. > [@Colibri](#): > > **Catch-22** is one of my favorite books, but I think it benefited from being read during the 1960s/Vietnam War/Cold War, when the never-ending absurdity resonated more. (Not that things are less absurd now, its just a different kind of absurdity.) I first read it aged about 18, 15 years ago. Not to disagree with your theory, but I am one counterexample to it. > [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > The only book I never got through on a school assignment was Lord of the Flies. This surprises me - as I recall (though it’s been a while), the plot moves along fairly fast, and indeed is quite gripping towards the end. But I suppose there is a fair bit of exposition/description/poetry that gets in the way. ---
**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:** [March 25, 2019, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-classic-book-author-you-read-or-tried-to-read/831440/126 "2019-03-25T19:11:11Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > > [@](#): > > > > Originally Posted by **Chronos** > > For the Iliad, at least, it depends enormously on the translation. … I expect that this is probably also true of most other translated works. > > That’s a good point. I’ve often wished for a website or other reference that would spell out the pros and cons of the different translations available for a book I’m interested in reading. Some Amazon reviewers do this. Unfortunately, the reviews sometimes get mixed up when a new edition, or worse, a new translation comes out. It can get really confusing at times, but it’s a start. As for _The Iliad_, I read it in a French translation, which will be of limited interest here. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2019, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-classic-book-author-you-read-or-tried-to-read/831440/127 "2019-03-25T19:17:39Z")
> [@dorvann](#): > > … > > I think I would list _Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas_ by Hunter S. Thompson as one of the worst books I’ve ever tried to read. … I very much enjoyed parts of that book. You very rarely get to go on such a great drug trip without taking any drugs. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2019, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-classic-book-author-you-read-or-tried-to-read/831440/128 "2019-03-25T19:22:23Z")
> [@minor7flat5](#): > > … > > And since we are talking about “classic” books with scare quotes, I ought to mention the Aubrey-Maturin series of swashbuckler books by Patrick O’Brian. They are treated with almost as much reverence as C. S. Forester’s Hornblower series, but when I started working my way through them, I got stuck in the middle of book 2. It starts out well enough, but suddenly changes from a sailing adventure to a Jane Austen novel, complete with the intricate interplay of women in high society. If I wanted to read Jane Austen, I would be reading “Pride and Prejudice.” > > I really do want to get over the hump in that book because I’m certain the rest of the series is good. The whole series can be summarized as Hornblower with quadruple the page count. Still, I enjoy it greatly, but yeah, there are slow bits. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2019, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-classic-book-author-you-read-or-tried-to-read/831440/129 "2019-03-25T19:25:26Z")
> [@Dead\_Cat](#): > > … > > For those who dislike Steinbeck, I assume this stems from The Grapes of Wrath and Cannery Row (both of which are long, hard slogs) - if you haven’t read Of Mice and Men, do. … _Cannery Row_ and \*Sweet Thursday \*are both a series of rather short vignettes , and are the antithesis of long, hard slogs. Which indeed, _Grapes of Wrath_ can be. Perhaps you are thinking of _East of Eden?_ ---
**Author:** ![Wheelz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wheelz/32/5718_2.png) [@Wheelz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wheelz)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2019, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-classic-book-author-you-read-or-tried-to-read/831440/130 "2019-03-25T20:49:21Z")
> [@pendgwen](#): > > The Great Gatsby. I know people who love that book. And people love the movie adaptations. I had to read it in highschool and I hated it. The characters were miserable people that I despised and when bad things happened to them I felt like they had it coming. > [@elbows](#): > > Well, since you put quotes around ‘classic’, I’m going to stretch the interpretation to include “Catch-22”. Ugh, how I loathed that book, it was awful to try and read I had no patience for it. It was assigned for a book report, during high school. \ > Fast forward about 20 yrs, (90’s) I’m travelling through South America, English language books are hard to find and three times the cost of at home, grrr. I’ve finished the double helix book hubs brought, ugh, and have been carrying it around hoping to find a swap. We’re riding a train in Peru and a young man, fellow backpacker, comes down the aisle looking for a book swap! I’m all about it, only to be crushingly disappointed that it was, indeed, ‘Catch-22’ ! Ugh. (No, I did not swap, and I turned away so, so bummed!) I, too, hated The Great Gatsby in high school. When I revisited it a decade or so later, I actually quite enjoyed it. It seems to me that high school English classes are designed to suck any pleasure you might get from reading a book right out of it. So, **elbows** , I wonder if you’d have felt any differently about Catch-22 if you had taken that backpacker up on his offer? (I read it as an adult; didn’t love it, but didn’t hate it either.) For me, in the “tried to read” category: The Bible. Ugh. What a miserable slog. How is this garbage the basis of an entire religion? ---
**Author:** ![jonesj2205](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ecc23a/32.png) [@jonesj2205](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jonesj2205)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2019, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-classic-book-author-you-read-or-tried-to-read/831440/131 "2019-03-25T21:03:11Z")
Lord of the Flies was my other pain-inducing classic. I ran into the English teacher who made me read both that and Catcher in the Rye at least a decade later and registered my complaint. She said yeah, they’re both awful but if you think it’s bad for you I have to talk about them every year. ---
**Author:** ![Airk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9de053/32.png) [@Airk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Airk)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2019, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-classic-book-author-you-read-or-tried-to-read/831440/132 "2019-03-25T21:03:23Z")
Put me down for another voice saying “read _Catcher in the Rye_ in high school and LOATHED Caulfield”. Ugh. Actually, basically hated everything I read for English class that year, which included The Scarlet Letter as well. I also distinctly did not enjoy Great Expectations, which was also high school, albeit a different year. For classics that I read in adulthood, I found that most of them weren’t very compelling, but the ones I failed to finish out of my random scattering of free eBooks were _White Fang_ and, embarrassingly enough, _The Three Musketeers_. How I soldiered through _Robinson Crusoe_ and _Last of the Mohicans_ to fail there, I cannot say. Gonna be the anti-voite for the Hornblower lobby though. I read all the Aubrey Maturin novels with good cheer (Though to be fair, yes, the start of _Post Captain_ is kindof a chore) but the one Hornblower I ever read was…ok? Like, I basically can’t remember anything about it, and it was just a few years ago. I just didn’t form any sort of emotional engagement with it. ---
**Author:** ![Yorkshire\_Pudding](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/59ef9b/32.png) [@Yorkshire\_Pudding](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yorkshire_Pudding)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2019, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-classic-book-author-you-read-or-tried-to-read/831440/133 "2019-03-25T21:04:14Z")
Reactions to Catch 22 keep surprising me. In my late teens, I was aware of the fact that its title had entered popular parlance, and that it was regarded as a classic, and so bought it. I had a quick look…then read it as I walked home. Seriously, I walked home from the bookshop, reading as I walked. Got home, lay on my bed, kept reading. Loved it. A year or two later, as a literature student, I was obviously really pleased to discover it on the American Fiction Since 1945 syllabus, and was amazed to discover that my best friend despised it. Like, really really hated it. I was surprised that _anyone_ did, but a lit student who loved the whole post-war American fiction thing we were doing? It didn’t compute. I still find it weird. I loved it so much it felt like it would be impossible to dislike it as much as that, if at all. My wife eventually read it (because her Dad hated it and she hoped to disagree); she finds it utterly, utterly loathsome too. And then I discover that they aren’t alone! It’s completely at odds with my entire reckoning of the world. Honestly, it’s like discovering that huge swathes of the population hate comfortable beds or being well fed. ---
**Author:** ![Barkis\_is\_Willin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a183cd/32.png) [@Barkis\_is\_Willin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barkis_is_Willin)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2019, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-classic-book-author-you-read-or-tried-to-read/831440/134 "2019-03-25T21:17:05Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > **Barkis is Willin’** , my only gripe (and it’s not a small one) with _The Dying Earth_ is that nobody in those books seems to be good or heroic. Oh, there are a few, but certainly not Cugel, who gets an entire two novels devoted to him. Maybe it was just way too overhyped by the time I picked it up, but I didn’t think the writing was anything spectacular. Combine that with not really caring about the characters and yeah, it’s just not very good. ---
**Author:** ![Doubticus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e56c9b/32.png) [@Doubticus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doubticus)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2019, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-classic-book-author-you-read-or-tried-to-read/831440/135 "2019-03-25T21:19:00Z")
“Moby Dick” was my white whale. I tried, I really tried, but torturous prose all to describe every random character in the book was too much. Even though I consider “Tommyknockers” King’s weakest work, I still finished it. While I agree that “Fahrenheit 451” wasn’t quite science fiction, I thought it engaging from beginning to end. ---
**Author:** ![Dendarii\_Dame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbce88/32.png) [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2019, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-classic-book-author-you-read-or-tried-to-read/831440/136 "2019-03-25T21:24:39Z")
_As I Lay Dying_ by William Faulkner, with _Sanctuary_ by William Faulkner a close second. ---
**Author:** ![Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slow_moving_vehicle/32/291_2.png) [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slow_Moving_Vehicle)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2019, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-classic-book-author-you-read-or-tried-to-read/831440/137 "2019-03-25T21:33:27Z")
> [@Dead\_Cat](#): > > I find it so strange that I agree with your summary of the book while totally disagreeing with your opinion of it. You are kind of right about there being a big reveal at the end, too. Although that is not the best part of the book, for me - I just really enjoy the sheer absurdity and how Yossarian creates and reacts to it. > (snip) Same with me. I read _Catch-22_ when I was a teenager, and was instantly hooked. The absurdity and the irregular chronology can be a bit to get used to (Pro tip: Heller used the number of missions the men had to fly before being rotated home as the book’s clock), but the absurdity gradually morphs into horror; Yossarian’s nighttime walk through Rome at the end of the book is one of the most harrowing passages of literature I’ve ever read. > [@bump](#): > > Funny you should mention that; I’m somewhere in my third (fourth?) reading of the series, and that’s where I got hung up this time around. I can confidently say that the first half of “Post Captain” is the most tedious and boring part of all 20 books. > > If you can grind through to the point where they get to Toulon, it gets better from there. You can easily skip _Post Captain_, without missing too much of the story, though you miss a bit of the history of Jack, Maturin, Sophie and Diana. Another vote for _Moby-Dick_. I tried to read it again as an adult, twenty years ago, and I completely agree with the earlier comment that each page is good, but the whole is a miserable slog. I was surprised to discover that Melville was capable of lively writing; the scene in which Ishmael describes the cod and clam chowder served at the Try Pots is almost food porn. Still, the interminable prosing on the minutiae of whales, whaling, misconceptions about whales is tedious in the extreme. I can’t read more than about twenty chapters before giving up in despair. ---
**Author:** ![minor7flat5](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/minor7flat5/32/258_2.png) [@minor7flat5](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/minor7flat5)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2019, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-classic-book-author-you-read-or-tried-to-read/831440/138 "2019-03-25T21:46:47Z")
> [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](#): > > Same with me. I read _Catch-22_ when I was a teenager, and was instantly hooked. The absurdity and the irregular chronology can be a bit to get used to (Pro tip: Heller used the number of missions the men had to fly before being rotated home as the book’s clock), but the absurdity gradually morphs into horror; Yossarian’s nighttime walk through Rome at the end of the book is one of the most harrowing passages of literature I’ve ever read. I don’t know why I dislike the book so intensely. It’s probably just that the writer’s style doesn’t work for me. In sharp contrast, I found Kurt Vonnegut’s “Slaughterhouse-Five” to be an excellent read, though one could definitely describe it as “absurdity gradually morphs into horror” as well. They even share the feature of hyphenated titles. Maybe it’s because of all of the hype surrounding “Catch-22”…as well as it’s _bulk_. I tried reading it multiple times as an adult and never made it past a hundred pages. ---
**Author:** ![Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slow_moving_vehicle/32/291_2.png) [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slow_Moving_Vehicle)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2019, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-classic-book-author-you-read-or-tried-to-read/831440/139 "2019-03-25T21:55:45Z")
> [@minor7flat5](#): > > I don’t know why I dislike the book so intensely. It’s probably just that the writer’s style doesn’t work for me. > In sharp contrast, I found Kurt Vonnegut’s “Slaughterhouse-Five” to be an excellent read, though one could definitely describe it as “absurdity gradually morphs into horror” as well. They even share the feature of hyphenated titles. > > Maybe it’s because of all of the hype surrounding “Catch-22”…as well as it’s _bulk_. I tried reading it multiple times as an adult and never made it past a hundred pages. Life’s too short to read literature you despise. But if you’ve never gotten past the first hundred pages, you might have missed the steady drumbeat of horror as the various characters die, or as other, seemingly goofy characters reveal themselves as monsters. But, _de gustibus non disputantum est_. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2019, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-classic-book-author-you-read-or-tried-to-read/831440/140 "2019-03-25T21:58:27Z")
Speaking of George Eliot… We had to read _Silas Marner_ in middle school. OMFG, I’m surprised I ever opened another book after forcing myself to wade through that dreck. But I’m not saying a word about _Atlas Shrugged._ 😉 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-classic-book-author-you-read-or-tried-to-read/831440.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-classic-book-author-you-read-or-tried-to-read/831440.md?page=8)