Books you had to read in school that you HATED?

[katiekynoch]

My bete noir was Shakespeare's 'Tale of Two Cities' waaay back in 1969/70 . . . I never got beyond page 90 but thanks to other options on the reading list managed to scrape through English A Level with a very lowly pass.

[ikklecob]

I never had to read anything by Shakespeare it wasn't considered necessary for us as we were not destined to take exams.

We did have to read Shane which I didn't find enthralling.

[Debbie]

I found "Merchant of Venice" to be rather boring myself, and I could easily see "How to kill a Mockingbird" would fast become a non favorite if you were stuck reading and rereading it. It wasn't a favorite of mine, but we did manage to get through it in one swoop.

I remember watching Mel Gibson's "Hamlet" when we lived in Guatemala. He did a very respectable Hamlet

Ahh, so you were a part of the modern schooling too Helen? My cousin is about ten years my elder and they did all sorts of different curriculums for her. Very sadly, to this day her spelling is horrendous I can understand what she's writing, but it's sad that her basic schooling got messed up. Thank goodness you came out so far advanced

[heathera]

I loved the Shakespeare we had to do but I didn't enjoy, 'Testament of Youth' by Vera Brittain at all. Too much gore and detail about all the loss and violence of th First World War.

[nedales]

Jun 24, 2014 19:40:18 GMT -1 dusty said:

I hated and still resent all the class time wasted on To kill a mockingbird. It may have been partly brought on that our teacher went off sick and subs just made us re-read and re-read it when I'd finished it in the first night.
As a book lover and someone that works in a library I can honestly say its the only book I'd happily burn.

Oh what a shame! Perhaps Mockingbird is a book relevant only to US (it is the deep Jim Crow segregated 1950's south) but I always adored it and it is still required reading in US schools today (note that English system has dropped it). Did you get to watch the Gregory Peck film? The only books I really remember having to yawn my way through were in a really depressing grade 9 list-- My Antonia, Mill on the Floss, Old Man and the Sea, Death of a Salesman, Of Mice an Men etc. but I agree that have never found dissecting books for analysis and comprehension much fun.

[dusty]

We watched bits of the film when subs remembered to book the media room. My GCSE english class was a bit scattered to say the least lol. I enjoyed doing Macbeth and the Crucible at school so it's just poor to kill a mockingbird thats in the crosshairs for me.

[nedales]

Not too late to see the whole thing on Netflix!

[merlinalison]

I loved reading and English at school, (although I went off it some when I had to start writing essays dissecting everything...) but I do remember my mother complaining that so much of what we did was actually in translation from French, German or Russian. And I remember doing some of the same books over and over again because they only had so many sets so we read Macbeth and George Orwell in both O and H classes. We had a fantastic English teacher for 3rd and 4th year who was truly inspirational and who covered some of the "normal" texts with us (Animal Farm, Lord of the Flies, 1984, Wilfrid Owen and Macbeth) but then romped through a whole pile that seemed much more interesting, so we read Robert Browning and Ted Hughes, contrasted Wilfrid Owen's war poetry with Roger McGough's "Why patriots are a bit nuts in the head" and then a huge variety of books including Camus's The Outsider, The Maltese Falcon, Karl Marx's Das Capital, Porterhouse Blue in juxtaposition with Brideshead Revistied and even Paul Zindal's My Darling My Hamburger. I was less inspired by our 5th year teacher who had a fondness for Edwin Muir and Edwin Morgan. (What intrigued me even more was finding that Charlie T was just as inspirational 30 years later when he taught my niece who is not a reader. It was very strange going to Parents evening with my sister though and meeting him again.)


Coming out of lurkdom!!!

[mikea]

I absolutely loved the Hobbit by Tolkein. I remember sitting in the school library as an 11 year old, the headmistress used to read a bit each day, using the most amazing voices and animation , to bring it all to life. Having been so inspired by Tolkein, later in my school life, as a part of a "project" , I decided to read the Silamarillion again by Tolkein - what a failure. I never manged to get through it- I,ve tried 3 times now- it's the toughest most complicated book ever written - I've now given up.

[yanny]

I couldn't stand the crucible...read it in English in year 9. All about a witch hunt; i found it so boring! Can't remember who it's by though.

[Blackshadow Dales]

I too enjoyed the Crucible and Macbeth. Had a real hard time with Death of a Salesman too! Majored in English Lit in college, lots and lots of lit and reading. Kurt Vonnegut was a lot of required reading, some really interesting stuff. I was working towards a career in literature, children's lit, teaching...and then totally left it all and ended up being a cop. Now my required reading is Penal law, and case law. Maybe Death of a Salesman wasn't so bad after all!

[colmworthdales]

My goodness. Hasn't the English Lit curriculum changed vastly over the years! When I was at school we did a lot of Dickens and Shakespeare and heavy poetry, but I can't remember any 'light' set books at all. I must admit to quite enjoying the Dickens tho the Shakespearean language confused me. If we got the chance to go to London to see a production it was fantastic!

My sister - only 3 years younger and at the same school - had Gerald Durrell's My Family and Other Animals as a set book. I was SO JEALOUS!!!

[DalesLady]

I wasn't too hateful of Great Expectations, which I had to read for O'Level. I did manage an A, surprising not only myself but my English teacher at the time. Its was Merchant of Venice I hated! I just couldn't get my head around it at all....the subject matter left me cold and I had no patience with it at all.