# Which assigned books did you love/hate? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 6, 2001, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-assigned-books-did-you-love-hate/64508 "2001-05-06T03:39:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Outrider](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/9d8465/32.png) [@Outrider](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Outrider)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2001, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-assigned-books-did-you-love-hate/64508/1 "2001-05-06T03:39:40Z")
Reading [What book changed you?](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=69687) led me to think about the books that I was forced to read in school. Which assigned books did you most loathe or love? The ones that I detested were Tess of the D’Urbervilles, Ethan Frome, and My Antonia. Something about all that heavy-handed sentimentality made me violently ill. The ones I loved were Slaughterhouse Five, Catcher in the Rye (though most of my classmates didn’t care for it), and the Great Gatsby. How about you guys? -Outrider ---
**Author:** ![VitrolicBump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/a587f6/32.png) [@VitrolicBump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VitrolicBump)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2001, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-assigned-books-did-you-love-hate/64508/2 "2001-05-06T03:49:40Z")
I hated almost anything that my teachers assigned. I hated _Old Man and the Sea, Of Mice and Men_, Shakespearean plays and many others given me to read in school, be it during elementary, junior high, or high school. I loved _Watership Down_, though. I read many other books that should have been on our reading list. Right now I can’t recall any but they should come to me. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2001, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-assigned-books-did-you-love-hate/64508/3 "2001-05-06T04:09:10Z")
Didn’t read them. (I achieved heights of underachieving previously undreamed.) Then I went through a classics phase. Never thought I would enjoy Charles Dickens. Couldn’t read Victor Hugo enough times. But still won’t consider F. Scot. Now, if only I could erase the memory of some books that I did read in school. By the way, two books already mentioned in this thread were on the school board’s banned list. ---
**Author:** ![Kayeby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9de0a6/32.png) [@Kayeby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kayeby)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2001, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-assigned-books-did-you-love-hate/64508/4 "2001-05-06T04:31:24Z")
Margaret Atwood’s **Cat’s Eye**. I ended up reading almost her entire backlist. I was never really into Greek plays such as **Antigone** or **The Bacchae** , but I wouldn’t say that I hated them … ---
**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:** [May 6, 2001, 5:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-assigned-books-did-you-love-hate/64508/5 "2001-05-06T05:12:38Z")
I was always a voracious reader. I’d read 2 or 3 books a week of stuff that _I_ liked. None of those stuff boring classics for me. Thank god for crazy Ms Jastry, my high school freshman English teacher. The first book she assigned us was _The Red Badge of Courage_. It totally redefined the meaning of the word “classic” to me. Next she assigned a few Edgar Allen Poe and H.P. Lovecraft short stories. Wow! This stuff is good, I think to myself. Then she whammied us all with _The Scarlet Letter_. Freshman college gave me _The Pilgrim’s Progress_. It may be a great allegorical story of man’s struggles with. . . I dunno. I finished it because I had to, but don’t ask me to remember it. Yeah, I’m a potboiler type of girl. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2001, 5:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-assigned-books-did-you-love-hate/64508/6 "2001-05-06T05:52:28Z")
I hated: The Scarlet Letter Pride and Predjudice Summer of My German Soldier The Perfect Storm I Am The Cheese The Outsiders Weliend Notes From the Underground Don Quixote Corregidora (one of the most disturbing things I’ve **ever** read) The Adventures of Huck Finn (2 classes the same semester!) virtually all the Victorian and Romantic poems I was assigned to read I Loved: “The Yellow Wallpaper” The Awakening ; “Desiree’s Baby” Jane Eyre The Kindred The Giver To Kill A Mocking Bird One Flew Over The Cukoo’s Nest Night MacBeth Diary of A Mad Man The White Hotel (a college assignment, obviously) Death of a Saleman (seriously, I _like_ Miller) Oleanna Triffles “A Good Man is Hard to Find” most of the modern/post-modern poetry I was assigned to read ---
**Author:** ![Bosstone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/22d042/32.png) [@Bosstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosstone)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2001, 5:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-assigned-books-did-you-love-hate/64508/7 "2001-05-06T05:56:21Z")
I hate, hate, _hated Metamorphosis_. I don’t care if it’s Franz Kafka’s masterpiece. I want a story with some semblance of plot, durnit! Metamorphosis’ plot was thinner than the book itself, which was thankfully short. I enjoyed _Animal Farm_ (Orson Welles), because I have an interest in the Russian Revolution. I liked _Julius Caesar_ and _Romeo and Juliet_. Shakespeare had some very fine puns and jokes. This semester we also got to read _The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe_ (C.S. Lewis), which was already an absolute favorite of mine before it was assigned. One thing that annoyed me was when I found out _Lord of the Rings_ (J.R.R. Tolkien) used to be part of the curriculum for our high school in the '70’s! Now _that_ would have been excellent to read and discuss in class! ---
**Author:** ![AwSnappity](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a3d4f5/32.png) [@AwSnappity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AwSnappity)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2001, 6:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-assigned-books-did-you-love-hate/64508/8 "2001-05-06T06:05:00Z")
I liked Crime and Punishment, A Tale of Two Cities, Hamlet, Lord of the Flies, The Odyssey, There’s a Boy in the Girl’s Bathroom (I cry every time!), The Westing Game, Animal Farm, Maniac Magee, and The Once and Future King. I hated Romeo and Juliet, Les Miserables (it seemed exactly like A Tale of Two Cities but worse), The Grapes of Wrath, some stupid book in 7th grade about a girl who lives in Manhattan and she shaves her unibrow with a razor and cuts her face up and has to wear sunglasses on the first day of school, Julius Caesar, 1984 (too hyped). ---
**Author:** ![AwSnappity](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a3d4f5/32.png) [@AwSnappity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AwSnappity)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2001, 6:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-assigned-books-did-you-love-hate/64508/9 "2001-05-06T06:10:00Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by BayleDomon \* > **I hate, hate, _hated Metamorphosis_. I don’t care if it’s Franz Kafka’s masterpiece. I want a story with some semblance of plot, durnit! Metamorphosis’ plot was thinner than the book itself, which was thankfully short.** Ick…I hated it too. [quote] **I enjoyed _Animal Farm_ (Orson Welles), because I have an interest in the Russian Revolution.** [quote] Animal Farm was written by George Orwell. ---
**Author:** ![AwSnappity](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a3d4f5/32.png) [@AwSnappity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AwSnappity)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2001, 6:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-assigned-books-did-you-love-hate/64508/10 "2001-05-06T06:14:12Z")
I simply _must_ learn to preview… ---
**Author:** ![Emperor\_Penguin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/c2a13f/32.png) [@Emperor\_Penguin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Emperor_Penguin)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2001, 6:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-assigned-books-did-you-love-hate/64508/11 "2001-05-06T06:16:29Z")
I have to second “The Yellow Wallpaper”. Very good story. I also enjoyed “The Birthmark” by Hawthorne. I didn’t like James Joyce’s “Araby” though. I also couldn’t get into “Their Eyes Were Watching God” by Zora Neale Hurston. As far as poetry went though, I greatly prefered the romantic works. ---
**Author:** ![gadgetgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c5a1d2/32.png) [@gadgetgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gadgetgirl)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2001, 6:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-assigned-books-did-you-love-hate/64508/12 "2001-05-06T06:55:10Z")
I loved Watership Down too. And Animal Farm. And To Kill a Mockingbird. And Handmaid’s Tale by Atwood, love her. I HATED Heart of Darkness. Conrad can kiss my lily white ass, I’ll show you the horror. And I couldn’t get into The House of Seven Gables, yawn. ---
**Author:** ![Kat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b19c9b/32.png) [@Kat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kat)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2001, 6:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-assigned-books-did-you-love-hate/64508/13 "2001-05-06T06:55:14Z")
The ones I really disliked were _Return of the Native_ and _Northanger Abbey_. Best ones were probably _To Kill a Mockingbird_, _The Bean Trees_ and _Pride and Prejudice_. ---
**Author:** ![ITR\_champion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c67d28/32.png) [@ITR\_champion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ITR_champion)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2001, 7:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-assigned-books-did-you-love-hate/64508/14 "2001-05-06T07:05:31Z")
Enjoyed:\* Tess of the D’Urbervilles Their Eyes Were Watching God The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Flowers for Algernon Great Expectations MacBeth Hamlet As I Lay Dying\* Disliked:\* Henry IV Romeo and Juliet Scarlet Letter A Separate Peace Antigone Beloved\* ---
**Author:** ![Bosstone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/22d042/32.png) [@Bosstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosstone)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2001, 7:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-assigned-books-did-you-love-hate/64508/15 "2001-05-06T07:31:34Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by FireUnderpantsBoobs \* > \*\*Animal Farm was written by George Orwell. \*\* D’oh! I even did a quick search on Google to make sure I’d gotten the author right! I fell victim to a common misconception, apparently. Bleh. Thanks. While we’re at it, I also enjoyed _To Kill A Mockingbird_, and _The Stranger_ by Albert Camus was so eerie in its blandness that it’s just a neat book. I couldn’t get _Tale of Two Cities_, unfortunately. The plot is interesting, I suppose, but I can’t get into Dickens’ style of writing. The biggest reason I enjoyed it was that it provided a basis for a lot of jokes in Mel Brooks’ _History of the World, Part I_. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Rosebud](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ea666f/32.png) [@Rosebud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rosebud)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2001, 8:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-assigned-books-did-you-love-hate/64508/16 "2001-05-06T08:18:31Z")
I, too, hated **Heart of Darkness**. In fact, let’s just say I hated Conrad. And guess which author I got randomly assigned when we had to do a major project in that particular class? Whee, Conrad! Loved **The Once and Future King** , which I had already read a couple of years before it was assigned in one of my lit classes. Also loved **The Neverending Story** , assigned for a class on fairy tales (taught by the same guy)-- nowhere near as easy as some of the folks in it thought it would be, and probably one of the best classes I ever took. ---
**Author:** ![Nimue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/d26b3c/32.png) [@Nimue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nimue)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2001, 10:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-assigned-books-did-you-love-hate/64508/17 "2001-05-06T10:06:14Z")
Uck, count me in as hating Heart of Darkness and The Scarlet Letter. I also disliked the Oedipus trilogy, not for the writing, but for the general plot. It has been a while, but IIRC the Gods dealt Oedipus an unavoidable fate, and when he met that fate, the Gods punished him for it. Was I the only one who found this infuriating?! I enjoyed reading, among many other things, Black Boy and Native Son. I often got well ahead of the assigned chapters because I couldn’t put them down. Someone mentioned Kindred – are you referring to the one by Octavia Butler? If so, I also loved that book. It wasn’t assigned but I did it for a book report in middle school, and continue to read it every so often. And my first semester of college we were assigned this absolutely wonderful African book, but sadly I can’t remember what it was called or who wrote it. Hmm, I’m sensing a trend here. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![hardygrrl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a3d4f5/32.png) [@hardygrrl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hardygrrl)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2001, 12:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-assigned-books-did-you-love-hate/64508/18 "2001-05-06T12:21:25Z")
Another Conrad hater checking in… Back in high school,being on the honors program meant you were assigned three books minimum to read over the summer break. So I had to read Heart of Darkness while on vacation…arrggghhhh.☹ I loved Animal Farm,Beloved,the Oedipus Trilogy,the Divine Comedy… and still reread them to this day. ---
**Author:** ![Home\_of\_the\_Braves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/85e7bf/32.png) [@Home\_of\_the\_Braves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Home_of_the_Braves)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2001, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-assigned-books-did-you-love-hate/64508/19 "2001-05-06T12:59:57Z")
Hated: Beloved Dante’s Inferno Most Shakespeare Jane Eyre Pride and Prejudice Wuthering Heights A Separate Peace Beowulf All The Kings Men The Crucible Loved: Something Wicked This Way Comes A Prayer For Owen Meany The Scarlet Letter Tess of the D’Urbervilles Frankenstein Huck Finn… most Twain Gatsby Romeo and Juliet The Giver Anne Frank Animal Farm Most Poe ---
**Author:** ![racinchikki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/eada6e/32.png) [@racinchikki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/racinchikki)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2001, 1:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-assigned-books-did-you-love-hate/64508/20 "2001-05-06T13:18:39Z")
Liked: Watership Down Animal Farm To Kill A Mockingbird One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest Most of the short stories Hated: All the Dickens Ethan Frome The Great Gatsby The Scarlet Letter (actually, in my end-of-quarter essay on that book, I wrote four scathing pages about how Nathaniel Hawthorne managed to screw up one of the best and most interesting premises in the world by writing the dryest piece of dreck I’d read to date) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-assigned-books-did-you-love-hate/64508.md?page=2)