# 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:** 2
**Author:** ![Albert\_Rose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9de053/32.png) [@Albert\_Rose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Albert_Rose)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2001, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-assigned-books-did-you-love-hate/64508/21 "2001-05-06T15:03:43Z")
I remember enjoying the following: **To Kill a Mockingbird A Tale of Two Cities Congo** (in the 9th grade) **Cry, the Beloved Country Huckleberry Finn Heart of Darkness** I did not particularly care for: **Frankenstein’s** any of the poetry. **A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man** ---
**Author:** ![ghandi5569](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/d26b3c/32.png) [@ghandi5569](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ghandi5569)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2001, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-assigned-books-did-you-love-hate/64508/22 "2001-05-06T15:44:50Z")
I hate Melville! All of it! THat is the only thing that I was ever assigned that I truly abhor. If Herman weren’t already dead, I would kill him. He is the only excuse ever to read Cliff’s Notes, and I suspect that the guy who wrote them only skimmed. Icky icky bad evil Melville. _shudder_ ---
**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, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-assigned-books-did-you-love-hate/64508/23 "2001-05-06T16:26:09Z")
Okay, so I forgot a few that you guys already mentioned…I should have waited. _Wuthering Heights_-I liked it. Romance is always good. Doomed romance is even better.Didn’t read all of it before the test, though. _To Kill a Mockingbird_-Love it. One of my fave books. Loved the movie too. _The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn_-It was during my sophomore year in high school; the worst possible teacher in the world. I just remember the movie with Elijah Wood. Ewww! _Scarlet Letter_- Didn’t read it all, it was so boring for me. Same teacher as above. _Death of a Salesman_ - There is a kinda funny story to this book. Over summer, our school made all the Juniors, soon to be seniors, read a list of books. The list was divided into Honors and Regular sections. It was clearly defined. So what do they do? They mess up and list _Death of a Salesman_ under Regular(which I was). So I get it, read it(bored to death), and find out the first day of school that I needed another book. **Ooooohhh!** I was so mad that I wasted my time on that book! _Beowulf_-Loved it. 'Nuff said. _Fahrenheit 451_- I liked it, but do you think I can remember it all? _1984_-Hated the book, hated the movie. _Summer of My German Soldier_-Read it in Junior High and fell in love with it. _A Separate Peace_-Don’t remember what it was about, but I can tell you that I did not like it, not one bit! _The Outsiders_-Didn’t like, but that is okay. It was taught by another teacher I couldn’t stand. Also, I had to read it for Summer School. Yuck! _Red Badge of Courage_-Couldn’t get through it. Another winner book from my awful teacher. _Catcher in the Rye_-Couldn’t get through this book. It was too slow, and some parts were a little disturbing(if I remember correctly). ---
**Author:** ![YWalker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/6f9a4e/32.png) [@YWalker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YWalker)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2001, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-assigned-books-did-you-love-hate/64508/24 "2001-05-06T16:33:29Z")
Absolutely hated Steinbeck’s “The Pearl.” The funny thing was, when I mentioned that in my English journal, my teacher returned it with a note that she thought it stunk, too. I loved to many books to list. (Though like many of you, Animal Farm was high among them!) Here are some that I was **surprised** that I enjoyed: Joseph Andrew, by Henry Fielding - Hilarious! I expected a stodgy novel, and found smutty humor instead! “The Birds” by Aristophanes – Ditto, except it was a play. Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe—unbridled propaganda, but a good potboiler read anyhow. ---
**Author:** ![FunkDaddy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bc79bd/32.png) [@FunkDaddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FunkDaddy)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2001, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-assigned-books-did-you-love-hate/64508/25 "2001-05-06T16:38:18Z")
I loved: The Handmaid’s Tale (Woohoo for estrogen-based 1984 :)) Macbeth Animal Farm Lord of the Flies Antigone Hated: Lure of the Labrador Wild (synopsis: 3 went in, 2 came out) Obasan Dracula (not a horrid book, but reading it in class was painful) Winter’s Heart (my cousin wrote it, and you’re lovely Cassie, but JESUS) A Christmas Carol Hrm… I’ve been using other people’s lists to add to my summer reading list. Good thread, **Outrider**. FD. ---
**Author:** ![Zap\_Rowsdower](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/3da27b/32.png) [@Zap\_Rowsdower](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zap_Rowsdower)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2001, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-assigned-books-did-you-love-hate/64508/26 "2001-05-06T16:40:25Z")
The one book I was unable to finsish and I completely hated was “The Old Man and the Sea”. I found it unreadable, uninteresting and overrated. One that I looked forward to but turned out not to be what I thought was “Frankenstein”. I probably was expecting the hollywood version, but I did not find it scary, but am glad I read it. My favorite had to be Orwells “1984”, I could not put it down. ---
**Author:** ![Katisha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bcef8e/32.png) [@Katisha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Katisha)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2001, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-assigned-books-did-you-love-hate/64508/27 "2001-05-06T16:46:07Z")
Ack, I’m seeing so many of my favorites on people’s “hated” lists! :eek: Actually, a lot of my favorites were assigned reading, but here are my personal love/hate lists… Hated: _Ethan Frome Dubliners Wuthering Heights The Pearl_ (who DOESN’T hate “The Pearl”?) _Dandelion Wine Daisy Miller_ I hated _Heart of Darkness_ the first time I read it, but the second time I appreciated it a great deal more. Same goes for _The Great Gatsby._ I didn’t like _Beowulf_ at first, either, but now I love it. (Especially since I can read the original Old English now! :)) Loved: All the Shakespeare – but especially _Romeo and Juliet_ (first Shakespeare I read), _The Tempest, King Lear,_ and _Henry IV._ (I think I was the only one in my class who liked it.) Oh, and _Henry VI_ – I can almost certainly say I’m alone in that. 😃 _The Canterbury Tales A Canticle for Leibowitz Star Maker Paradise Lost Les Liaisons Dangereuses Waiting for Godot_ (I really want to see it in performance, though…) _The Divine Comedy To Kill a Mockingbird_ ---
**Author:** ![AETBOND417](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/47e85d/32.png) [@AETBOND417](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AETBOND417)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2001, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-assigned-books-did-you-love-hate/64508/28 "2001-05-06T17:00:11Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by FireUnderpantsBoobs \* > \*\*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). \*\* Agreed on Crime and Punishment, A Tale of Two Cities, and the Odyssey. Haven’t read some of the others. I also liked Les Miserables (despite, as you mentioned, it’s disturbing similarities to ATofTC) and Julius Caesar. I disliked The Good Earth (I know it was a decent book, I know the theme was cycles, but it just seemed so redundant). I also didn’t care for Don Quixote. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_Torque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Max\_Torque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Torque)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2001, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-assigned-books-did-you-love-hate/64508/29 "2001-05-06T17:06:56Z")
_Ethan Frome_ is worthless. Can’t believe I finished that book. Worst: _The Scarlet Letter_ and _Death Comes For The Archbishop_. Best: _1984_ and _Fifth Business_. ---
**Author:** ![Orual](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/779978/32.png) [@Orual](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Orual)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2001, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-assigned-books-did-you-love-hate/64508/30 "2001-05-06T17:08:00Z")
**HATED** _A Seperate Peace_ [Lisa Simpson]I hate John Knowles[/Lisa Simpson] My 10th grade English teacher absolutely adored it. We didn’t get on too well. _The Grapes of Wrath_ _The Great Gatsby_ The book in and of itself wasn’t too bad, but the endless discussions of the symbolism of the &#@_!_#$% green light killed it. _Gilgamesh_ _The Old Man and the Sea_ Here’s the entire story: An old man went fishing. He caught a big fish. Sharks ate the big fish. The old man went home. The End. **LOVED** All the Shakespeare _The Giver_ _Wuthering Heights_ All the Greek tragedy (_Oedipus_, _Anitgone_, _The Oresteia_) _The Iliad_ and _The Odyssey_ ---
**Author:** ![CrankyAsAnOldMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crankyasanoldman/32/11670_2.png) [@CrankyAsAnOldMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CrankyAsAnOldMan)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2001, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-assigned-books-did-you-love-hate/64508/31 "2001-05-06T17:18:47Z")
Aw, you hated My Antonia? Crap, I loved that book because the same thing happened in my family, only the gender roles were reversed (Respectable protestant Nebraska farm girl falls in love with Catholic Bohunk immigrant stock) only in my family, they got married. My grandmother (the farm girl) was disowned from her family for that. I never understood why until My Antonia gave me an understanding of the prejudice of the time. As I said in the “books that changed me thread”, I loved Last of the Mohicans. I am NOT a Faulkner fan. Anything by Faulkner I loathed, “Absalom Absalom” being the absolute last straw. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2001, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-assigned-books-did-you-love-hate/64508/32 "2001-05-06T17:44:44Z")
I loved _Heart of Darkness_ for reasons probably more to do with the moody, broody, artsy, teen angst phase I was going through at the time than it’s actual literary merit, though it’s got plenty of that, IHMO. The year we read _Crime and Punishment_ in high school, I couldn’t get through it. It had nothing to do with me or with the book. You see, my English teacher at the time had just come back from an extended leave during which she sat in a courtroom while her son-in-law was being tried for the murder of her daughter. After she returned, _C&P_ was the first book we covered. The situation she was in just tore me up, and I never even bothered trying to read it. Still haven’t. I hear it’s good. ---
**Author:** ![Agrippina](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8797f3/32.png) [@Agrippina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Agrippina)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2001, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-assigned-books-did-you-love-hate/64508/33 "2001-05-06T17:48:09Z")
What a coincidence. I did a journalism piece on this topic for my Journalism class last year. We (my partner and I) polled kids and interviewed them. The number one was **1984** by Orwell (oddly enough this book has been taken off the required readings list for my school…coincidence? I think not.), and the most hated was, ironically, **Animal Farm** and (not ironic) **Old Man and the Sea**. One of the most popular quotes for their reason of not liking **Animal Farm**? : “I couldn’t get used to the fact that the animals talked.” or “Why would animals be used to represent Russians?” I kid you not. But enough about that. My favorite required readings were **To Kill a Mockingbird** in 8th grade, **Animal Farm** in 10th grade, and **The Great Gatsby** in 11th grade. I also like **Lord of the Flies** this year, but I had already read that a million times before. The ones I hated were **Romeo and Juliet** in 9th grade, and **The Old Man and the Sea** in 10th grade. That’s probably why I loved **Animal Farm** so much, is because we read it right after **Old Man and the Sea** and I was just greatly thankful for another book. ---
**Author:** ![Fionn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@Fionn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fionn)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2001, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-assigned-books-did-you-love-hate/64508/34 "2001-05-06T18:12:14Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by ghandi5569 \* > \*\*I hate Melville! All of it! THat is the only thing that I was ever assigned that I truly abhor. _shudder_ \*\* I was assigned Melville’s The Confidence Man for an English course my freshman year in college. The premise of the book is intriguing, but I couldn’t get into it. I suspect no one in the entire class finished it. Loved: Candide Crime and Punishment Madame Bovary-we were only assigned a chapter, about the party she attends at a local nobleman’s mansion. I had to go out and buy it to see what happened next. The Crucible Disliked: The Inferno The Epic of Gilgamesh ---
**Author:** ![simply\_cats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8c91f0/32.png) [@simply\_cats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/simply_cats)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2001, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-assigned-books-did-you-love-hate/64508/35 "2001-05-06T18:51:36Z")
I don’t remember a lot of what was assigned in high school… I am/was a voracious reader, and it’s a little fuzzy what I read on my own and what I read for school. I know I read To Kill a Mockingbird, but it really didn’t leave an impression, maybe I should read it again? The two assigned books from high school I remember and love were Return of the Native and Watership Downs. At Purdue, I managed to drag myself through Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man only to finish it and say “I HATE this BOOK!” On the flip side, I loved One Hundred Years of Solitude (put me on a real Gabriel Garcia Marquez Kick)… loved it when the ants carried off the baby… and also Prayer for Owen Meany, which led to World According to Garp (John Irving… also an old Robin Williams movie, although in the movie it doesn’t show the wife biting off her lover’s… well, you get the idea.) Great thread 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![BiblioCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ed8c4c/32.png) [@BiblioCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BiblioCat)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2001, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-assigned-books-did-you-love-hate/64508/36 "2001-05-06T18:52:12Z")
Count me in with everyone else who loved _To Kill A Mockingbird_. I also liked: _The Crucible The Outsiders Catcher In The Rye Romeo & Juliet All Mark Twain Wuthering Heights_ Greek and Roman mythology in Junior High Hated: _1984_ I graduated from HS in '82, so we all had to read it (as Seniors) and write a paper on which we compare and conrast current events vs. the book. Very boring. _Animal Farm Moby Dick Summer Of My German Soldier The Great Gatsby The Old Man And The Sea_ ---
**Author:** ![Sir\_Rhosis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d9b06d/32.png) [@Sir\_Rhosis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sir_Rhosis)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2001, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-assigned-books-did-you-love-hate/64508/37 "2001-05-06T21:42:29Z")
I too absolutely despised “The Great Gatsby” and “Death of A Salesman.” Not so much that they were badly written, they weren’t, but for the leads. The incredible weakness and whinyness. I wanted to slap both Jay Gatsby and Willy Loman, no, I wanted to beat them horribly with my fists until I was too tired to punch them again. It is rare that I feel so must despicability toward fictional characters, so in one sense, I suppose both authors did their jobs. But still, I’m glad Gatsby got shot (or drowned, or whatever), and when Mrs. Loman tells Willy’s grave that the mortgage is paid of, I always say, “No thanks to you Willy, you weak, worthless piece of shit.” And yet, it is possible to write about weak characters (“Macbeth”) without rasing my ire. Go figure. I suppose it’s because I came from a dirt-poor southern background and rose above it with hard, steady work, not whining or schemes like Willy’s, though this doesn’t explain why I hate Gatsby so much. Practically everything else I was assigned, I enjoyed. Sir ---
**Author:** ![Jeffro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/7993a0/32.png) [@Jeffro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jeffro)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2001, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-assigned-books-did-you-love-hate/64508/38 "2001-05-06T22:19:57Z")
The only book that I remember hating was “Silas Marner” I liked all the rest of them. ---
**Author:** ![kasuo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/8c91f0/32.png) [@kasuo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kasuo)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2001, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-assigned-books-did-you-love-hate/64508/39 "2001-05-07T00:15:37Z")
Loved: - Brave New World - The Chocolate War - The Stranger Hated: - Pride and Prejudice - Wuthering Heights ---
**Author:** ![Purd\_Werfect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e47c2d/32.png) [@Purd\_Werfect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Purd_Werfect)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2001, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-assigned-books-did-you-love-hate/64508/40 "2001-05-07T00:28:29Z")
Being the poor student that I was, I recall very little of what was assigned, and what I do remember is fixed in my memory due to my hatred of it. Fortunately, I read a lot of the titles listed above on my own. That being said, Dickens and Hawthorne would do well not to ever bump into me at the bar. Twain and Salinger, on the other hand, would drink free all night. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-assigned-books-did-you-love-hate/64508.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-assigned-books-did-you-love-hate/64508.md?page=3)