Best and worst books you've been forced to read?

... We've all had to read books that other people have chosen at one point. Either for a school English class, or from a friend...

So.. What is the best book, and the worst book you've been forced to read?

... For me the best was "Catcher in the Rye".. (Even acquired my own copy after I had to give the class copy back) ... And.. "Where the red fern grows" .. Read that in grade 8... It was soooo sad =( ... and.. "To kill a mockingbird" wasn't bad.. Probably would have enjoyed it more if people who had read it before didn't keep telling me it was terrible..
The worst was.. The Great Gatsby.. It was a total snooze fest. =p

I enjoyed a lot of the books I had to read for school and college. I particularly enjoyed Shakespeare(genius, I couldn't help liking it, even though I didn't really expect to, Shakespeare unfairly gets a bad reputation for complicated language, I think), How Many Miles to Babylon by Jennifer Johnston (sad, simple and effective), also Le Petit Prince/The Little Prince by Saint-Exupery-(simple and beautiful) and an Irish language play "An Triail/The Trial"- (very brave for its day and truly moving.)

One I really disliked, mostly because the main character had very few redeeming features, or even noticeable ones, at that (intentionally, but still, I like to feel that I get to know the main character, whether likeable or not) -L'Étranger/The Outsider, by Camus.

One of the absolute best books I have ever read was due to my tenth grade English class: A Prayer for Owen Meany. Though the first time I read the book was several years sooner than it was assigned to me, it was only in my hands because it had been assigned to my sister. (We ended up having the same English teacher in high school.) Another book I thought was simply amazing was Tolstoy's Resurrection. That book had be captivated from beginning to end.

One of the worst books, through no fault of its own, that I ever read (or attempted to read, I should say) was Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky. I had to read it just after a very good friend had committed suicide and couldn't get past certain points in the book, at which time my teacher let me off of reading the rest and allowed me to choose a substitute - oddly enough, it was Resurrection. :D

Not a book, but I was forced to read Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz poems in high school and I found them to be quite brilliant and funny.

Best: The Outsiders, S.E. Hinton; Brave New World, Aldous Huxley

Worst: The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck

Best: Njals Saga (for my Old Icelandic class)

Worst: I enjoyed most things, but I had to read a couple of Defoe novels at university and found them interminable. And there was some dire late mediaeval morality play with an annoying character called Ambidexter who says "because I play with both hands" about every three lines.

Best- Wrinkle in Time and The Midwich Cuckoos

Worst - A Pattern of Islands and The Incredible Journey


Quote
L'Étranger/The Outsider, by Camus.
I hated that one too.

Best: Beloved by Toni Morrison. I loved it! I read this for one of my womens study classes in college

Worst : Johnny Truman or The Yearling. Both in junior high school. So dull, both of them.

In fith grand last year I had to read "Bunicula" it wasn't something I would chouse my self but I liked it. I enjoyed it and I can twist a book in to a way I will like it. If it reminds me of something of if I just need to look at it in a difrent view books have more than one way of looking at them to me any way. :p I can look at a book from sevrul diffrent views. . . .

WORST book I've been forced to read by my friends: Twilight. Enough said.

BEST :"Freedom at Midnight" by Dominique Lapierre and Larry Collins. That is such a masterpiece. My Dad forced me to read it. I was very sceptical and thought it would be boring, considering it is non-fiction. It turned out to be amongst the best ever books written about partition:tu:

Best: The Invisible Man by H. G. Wells. I had to read it for school.

Worst: This book about George Washington I had to read for school. I was bored out of my mind.

WORST book I've been forced to read by my friends: Twilight. Enough said.

BEST :"Freedom at Midnight" by Dominique Lapierre and Larry Collins. That is such a masterpiece. My Dad forced me to read it. I was very sceptical and thought it would be boring, considering it is non-fiction. It turned out to be amongst the best ever books written about partition:tu:

I know how you feel about twilight, I wouldn't have wasted the time in reading it if my wretched friend hadn't talked me into it. I don't know what it is with him and vampires.....:err:


My worst: The Great Gatsby. I don't know whatit was, but it simply drove me insane, and I don't normaaly have a problem with books. Another was The Idiot, by the author who wrote Crime and Punishment (can't spell his name). And the one I completely despise is Mary Shellwys Frankenstein. I've been punished three times in having to read that.


Best: To Kill A Mocking Bird, Where the Red Fwrn Grows, Great Expectations, An american tradegy, The Perks of Being A Wallflower, Cantabury Tales,, Macbeth, Anthem, and many others which I'm probably forgetting.

Both were class books set by the same teacher

The best was Wide Sargasso Sea- a sort of prequel to Jane Eyre. I loved it. And the worst was Heart of Darkness- I tried to like it, but I just wasn't interested in it. I did really badly in that exam...

Worst: any of the abridged versions of good books I had to read for English class. Making anyone read a 70-pages long version of Jane Eyre or a 35-pages long one of Treasure Island should be a punishable offence.

The other worst was a horrible book I had to read for Philosophy class. It wasn't any famous one, just a stupid book about teenagers with very philosophical thoughts (Situation: girl buying shampoo; she wonders: "should I buy the one telling 'it will leave your hair natural and bright' or the one with the label saying 'a sophisticated touch for your hair'? Is there anything like a natural truth or does society impose us its values?"). Absolutely unbearable. When the term was over I went to the teacher and told him: "please, if next year you want us to read something philosophical, at least give us The Little Prince, or anything with a minimum of interest".

One of the best was Manual del Perfecto Idiota Latinioamericano y Español(Manual of the perfect Latin American and Spanish Idiot), which my dad gave me to read when I left for college. It's the first book about Politics I read, and, though I didn't understand everything, it was so well-written and funny (despite being about Politics!) that I got hooked.

best: the stone cutters by jane urquhart

worst: the great gatsby by F scott fitgerald

The other worst was a horrible book I had to read for Philosophy class. It wasn't any famous one, just a stupid book about teenagers with very philosophical thoughts (Situation: girl buying shampoo; she wonders: "should I buy the one telling 'it will leave your hair natural and bright' or the one with the label saying 'a sophisticated touch for your hair'? Is there anything like a natural truth or does society impose us its values?"). Absolutely unbearable. When the term was over I went to the teacher and told him: "please, if next year you want us to read something philosophical, at least give us The Little Prince, or anything with a minimum of interest".


:rotfl:

Best: Probably To Kill a Mockingbird, which we had to read for school. I was surprised by how much I liked it.

Worst: Twilight, anything related to Twilight, and anything written by Stephanie Meyer. Basically everyone in the world said how great it was, but no. If you ever are advised by someone to read it, don't. It's the worst thing you could possibly do to yourself. It will suck your brain right out. :yuhup:

Best:
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
Night by Elie Wiesel
Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare
Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen
Animal Farm by George Orwell
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton

Worst
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens - The plot is fine but I found the writing to be dull
The Stranger by Albert Camus - It isn't poorly written or anything, it's just that the philosophy behind it disturbs me

Night by Elie Wiesel
... Ooh.. I had to read that one too... For an english class that focused on incredibly dark literature..
It was definitley the most depressing book I've ever had to read O.O ... Many people in my class dropped out because they couldn't handle the subject matter..

... Ooh.. I had to read that one too... For an english class that focused on incredibly dark literature..
It was definitley the most depressing book I've ever had to read O.O ... Many people in my class dropped out because they couldn't handle the subject matter..

Really? No one in my class seemed to complain about it. It was very emotional but I think my class enjoyed that book more than the other ones we read later that year. :)

Best: The Giver, Where the Red Fern Grows, Walk Two Moons
Worst: Among the Hidden, Shiloh, Julie of the Wolves

WORST book I've been forced to read by my friends: Twilight. Enough said.Same here. :)

Worst books I had to read for school: The Great Gatsby, Grapes of Wrath, and others along those lines that I've blocked from my memory. ;)

Best: Storm of the Century by Stephen King, The Giver by Lois Lowry

Worst: The Alchemist, Rebecca, and the Odyssey.... *shudders*
Best: Marked, Night, And Then There Were None.

The best one for me was Goodnight, Mister Tom, which I found incredibly moving, even at fourteen.

But the worst one was Grapes of Wrath. Arrgh, I couldn't get through it at all, and I found the end particularly squicky:

The end of Grapes of Wrath where what's-her-face breastfeeds this starving old man in a barn after she had miscarriaged. Yes, breastfeeds an old man. Now you can go scrub your eyes and brain. Granted, I was only sixteen at the time, but still squicks me for some reason even now.

The Pearl by John Steinback I think it was...Oh that almost killed me. I could not get through the first chapter. I know that it's considered a very good book, but I also found Lord of the Flies a bit of a struggle.

Best...I can't really think of many books throughout high school I particularly liked. Apart from About a Boy which is always a nice read. Oh I forgot! Tomorrow when the War began! Awesome book and series!

Best book - Ender's game (my high school had a english class entitled science fiction it was awesome!!!)

Worst book - well there were some definite whoopers but i sadly cant remember any of them i think i blocked them from memory they were so bad. :rotfl:

But the worst one was Grapes of Wrath. Arrgh, I couldn't get through it at all, and I found the end particularly squicky:

The end of Grapes of Wrath where what's-her-face breastfeeds this starving old man in a barn after she had miscarriaged. Yes, breastfeeds an old man. Now you can go scrub your eyes and brain. Granted, I was only sixteen at the time, but still squicks me for some reason even now.

Come on, it was a brilliant book and Steinbeck among the best American writers of his century.

Come on, it was a brilliant book and Steinbeck among the best American writers of his century.

Just because you liked it, doesn't mean that I have to. Don't need to be rude about it. :)

Best: The Count of Monte Cristo or A Separate Piece. Although I may have eventually read The Count of Monte Cristo myself, A Separate Piece is not something I would have made myself read, but I loved the story.

Worst: To Kill a Mockingbird. I know, there are so many fans of this book, but I couldn't stand it.

I acknowledge that all the books we had to read were 'good' books, but it was the way that some of them were presented and taught to us that I couldn't stand.

If we're going strictly by books we've been assigned in school....

Best: Les Miserables, Victor Hugo. I was so hooked on that book the teacher had to tell me off for reading ahead, heh.

Worst: It's a tie between The Great Gatsby - a well-done commentary on how self-indulgent and ridiculous the main characters are, but mostly it just made me hate rich people; honestly, I tried to get through it three times, and still have not succeeded; and The Grapes of Wrath - which did indeed portray the depression and poverty of Hoover-administration America very well and is undoubtedly a cornerstone of modern American literature, but I still hated it.

Now, as for books that my friends have coerced me to read...

Best: Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere. I was given a fat hardback with that, and Stardust and Smoke and Mirrors by a flatmate in London, when I did my study abroad there; Gaiman's been my favorite writer ever since.

Worst: Honestly I can't think of anything to put here. If someone bugs me to read a book, unless it's for an assignment, I usually ignore them. (The girl who gave me Neverwhere was unusually persistent.)

Worst: The Reader, you know the one that is currently made into a movie. German book. Had to read it at school. I hated it so much, the content and what it's about. I refused to read it.
Angela's Ashes, by this Irish guy. Also school book, I never could finish it.
Twilight, especially Breaking Down. Why why why did I spent money for this book? why?

Best books:
Romeo and Juliet, just because it's Shakespear.

Worst: The Piano Teacher (dunno what's the correct Enhlish title, and don't care) from Elfriede Jelinek. I could only descibe it like this: *censored* *censored* *censored* piece of *censored*, written by a stupid, mysanthropic, mad *word that Molly used for Bellatrix*. Can't understand how this garbage got Nobel price.


Best: 100 Hundred Years Of Solitude. It became my second favourite book ever.

Also great: The Tin Drum. Wonderful book.

We needed them all for post-modern literature class on the university.

The Pearl by John Steinback I think it was...Oh that almost killed me. I could not get through the first chapter. I know that it's considered a very good book, but I also found Lord of the Flies a bit of a struggle.

Best...I can't really think of many books throughout high school I particularly liked. Apart from About a Boy which is always a nice read. Oh I forgot! Tomorrow when the War began! Awesome book and series!

I didn't like The Pearl either. My English teacher at the time was singing its praises, but I couldn't warm to the book. It was quite depressing and I found it hard to get a feel for the characters and the sense of exploitation and hopelessness were a bit much. Especially the ending, which seemed to prove right those who told the main character, Kino, I think, that he had to accept his poor station in life and not try to improve things for his family.

best: wow...i can't think of one book in English i REALLY enjoyed :lol:, that's pretty pathetic. But I guess the best one would be....The Outsiders, i liked the writing style, but I lied the imagination behind Clockwork by Phillip Pullman more.

Least Favorite? DEFINITELY The Pearl by Steinback. AWFUL novella

Worst: It's hard to choose. The Great Gatsby? A Passage to India? Of Mice and Men? I hated them all!

Best: The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton. LOVED IT!

Best: Oh, I've had a lot
The Giver
Girl with a Pearl Earring
The Lady and The Unicorn
Fallen Angels
Fight Club
Handmaids Tale
High Fidelity
1984
Animal Farm
(ALL of the above I purchased copies of)

WORST:
ENDERS GAME!!
To kill a mockingbird
All shakespeare :)

To be honest, I don't think there has been a book I regret reading or thought little of.. I generally accept them as they are and seek the quality that made them classics.

In terms of good ones, anything Shakespeare, Steinbeck... I also liked Death and Nightingales though it was tough going at times. Roll of Thunder Hear my Cry is still one of the best books I have ever read, it totally changed my outlook on life- when I was 9. ;)

Picking something bad is a really tough thing to do. But I do remember us being told to read a Cecelia Ahern novel in school, sort of a "free time" thing. It was awful... :(

I had almost forgotten about Roll of Thunder Hear my Cry! That's my favorite, and i had to read it in the 6th grade. Granted, I barely remember anything about it :lol:, but it was a wonderful book

Meh, I am reading the Hot Zone for Biology. It's about the Ebola viruses...it's horrible. Not the writing, but the subject. I have a weak stomache, so I was throwing up and crying at the same time. I'm only half way through it, and I would have to say, it falls under the worst books I've been forced to read....:(

Best: Goodnight, Mister Tom. I cried :) Such a beautiful story.

Worst: Animal Farm. I could not stand it.

Meh, I am reading the Hot Zone for Biology. It's about the Ebola viruses...it's horrible. Not the writing, but the subject.

Great yarn, but the writing (once it moves from the virus) is pretty annoying. Especially the descritpions of each character when they enter the scene. What they look like is pretty immaterial.

:hmm:hmmm....that's really hard.

Best: A Tale of Two Cities, The Scarlet Letter, Jane Eyre, Johnny Tremaine,and believe it or not, I wa at one point, forced to read Harry Potter

Worst: Of Mice and Men, Sharpshooter, The Lord of the Flies, The Call of the Wild, and, without a doubt, the Twilight series

Best: Harry Potter

I didn't start reading the series till the fifth book was released. Till then I was very prejudiced towards it.

Worst: None as of now.

I don't like to label any book as bad because I realise the amount of hardwork and research involved in writing a chapter let alone a book. But even then I haven't come across an atrocious book till now and hopefully won't.

Worst:
▌The Misted Cliffs - eeeww.
▌Jane Eyre - I really don't like this one.. I was forced to read this for our HOME READING REPORT..:argh::upset:

Best:
▌Harry Potter 1-7 - :x
▌The Christ Commission by Og Mandino - very inspiring...
▌Who Moved My Cheese? :rotfl:
and others..

The best I was forced to read would have been "The Tomorrow Series" back in Highschool, around Year 9 or 10. It was about this group of teenagers who were caught up in a war, and hiding out in old barns and the bush and stuff. And all the rest of their town was being held captive in a huge stadium and they were trying to figure out how they could rescue them. There was about 10 books to the series, but I never got to finish them.

The worst was probably Breaking Dawn. Not that I was forced to read it, but I needed to finish the series. It was a real let down. Everything happened so fast, and some parts were really farfetched. Loved Twilight, New Moon and Eclipse, but Breaking Dawn ruined the series for me.

Wow, so much hate for The Great Gatsby . . . I really like that one.

So here's a twist on the idea of teachers assigning books that students hate. How about books I've been forced to teach that I couldn't stand teaching? Contrary to popular belief, teachers don't necessarily get to choose the books they assign. We don't get to choose the books we think would be most interesting to kids or the ones we think kids would get the most out of. We have to teach what is on the curriculum guide or what has already been purchased by the school.

Worst books to teach:
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. I adored this when I read it in college, but it is the absolute worst book I have ever had to teach. I hated every minute I had to spend on it and so did the students.

I'm really not enjoying teaching Night right now. It is a good book, but there is something about reading it four times a day that I'm not loving.

Best books to teach:
Othello. My (high school) students have never been more into Shakespeare. We all had a lot of fun with this one.

Absolute favorite of all The Outsiders. Adore teaching this book. Cannot say enough about it. The (middle school) students never loved a book or characters so much, and they never learned so much as when we read this.

Wow, so much hate for The Great Gatsby . . . I really like that one.

So here's a twist on the idea of teachers assigning books that students hate. How about books I've been forced to teach that I couldn't stand teaching? Contrary to popular belief, teachers don't necessarily get to choose the books they assign. We don't get to choose the books we think would be most interesting to kids or the ones we think kids would get the most out of. We have to teach what is on the curriculum guide or what has already been purchased by the school.

Worst books to teach:
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. I adored this when I read it in college, but it is the absolute worst book I have ever had to teach. I hated every minute I had to spend on it and so did the students.

I'm really not enjoying teaching Night right now. It is a good book, but there is something about reading it four times a day that I'm not loving.

Best books to teach:
Othello. My (high school) students have never been more into Shakespeare. We all had a lot of fun with this one.

Absolute favorite of all The Outsiders. Adore teaching this book. Cannot say enough about it. The (middle school) students never loved a book or characters so much, and they never learned so much as when we read this.

That's so funny, you mentioned everything we've read this year. :lol:

The Great Gatsby was not bad at all. I can't say I actually read that much of it or paid any attention when we discussed it in class, because I just couldn't get into it for some reason when I attempted to read, but it seemed pretty good. I plan to go back and (re)read it sometime. The essay on The Great Gatsby on our exam was so fun; I got a perfect score.

Huckeberry Finn was a gigantic pain. We could all tell my teacher was not fond of it, and none of us enjoyed it in the least.

Othello was awesome. I can't say my class was that into it, you can't really expect most 16-year-olds to love Shakespeare as much as I do, but I certainly enjoyed it. :D

Best: Othello, Romeo and Juliet

Worst (this is kind of difficult, since I don't read the books we're assigned in school unless I really like them): Aventures of Huckleberry Finn, A Separate Peace...oh I forgot about Of Mice and Men - by far the worst.

I'm so excited for next year. Pride and Prejudice, Great Expectations, Henry IV...:love: What more could I ask for? :D

I'm so excited for next year. Pride and Prejudice, Great Expectations, Henry IV...:love: What more could I ask for? :D

Patience. Towards the end of Great Expectations it becomes clear that Dickens is exploiting the serial format in which it was first published. The damn thing never ends.

I don't know which book was the worst book I've been forced to read, because we haven't read books like that at school. They say "You must pick a book you want to read. It should be at least 150 pages, report is supposed to be handed in before 22. May." I always pick books I know I will enjoy! :D Apart from teachers, the only person trying to force me to read books is a girl nicknamed Morning Star... And she usually picks great books! ;)

But once, a few years ago, two of my friends forced me to read 6 books, from a famous septology. The 7. book wasn't written yet, and they made me read the 6. book in English, since it wasn't translated to Norwegian yet! These seven books are still one of my favourite book series. I'm of course talking about the Harry Potter series, the best books I've ever been forced to read! :D

Patience. Towards the end of Great Expectations it becomes clear that Dickens is exploiting the serial format in which it was first published. The damn thing never ends.

:lol: I don't know how well I'll handle that.

I guess I can't really be sure what books we'll read, because it depends on the teacher/year/level...:sigh: As long as we read Pride and Prejudice, I'll be perfectly content.

Best: Great Expectations, very long -- but worth reading; The Great Gatsby -- an interesting take on 1920's life.

Worst: The Grapes of Wrath -- one word for this one --> BORING. Enough so, that even the teacher who made us read it -- only had us read selected chapters of it. The movie was a lot better.

Our school is generally very good with books. The only book I was ever forced to read (as in, I didn't want to) was Wuthering Heights. I enjoyed it, but I had to read every chapter about three times over. Too complicated for words. :yuhup:

But my mum is very into forcing me to read books. Usually ones I don't want to. When I was eight she made me read one I was convinced I was going to hate, because it had a train on the cover. Of course, Harry Potter is now my all time favourite series. Thankyou mummy! :)

I don't know which book was the worst book I've been forced to read, because we haven't read books like that at school. They say "You must pick a book you want to read. It should be at least 150 pages, report is supposed to be handed in before 22. May." I always pick books I know I will enjoy! :D

That was almost the same at school for me. Our teacher gave us a list with different themes and for each theme several books. I just had to pick one, read it and make an essay about it. That's how I dicovered Bram Stocker's Dracula, Stendhal's The red and the black and Guy de Maupassant. I am very grateful to my teacher for that. :tu:
I can't remember of any book that I disliked, at least among those that I've been "invited" to read.

Of Mice and Men - by far the worst.



Oh, I agree. I hated every minute of that book. The story just didn't settle well with me at all.

Worst: Huckleberry Finn...I probably would've liked it, but i had a bunch of other more important classes and way too much homework to actually bother reading it, so i ended up just reading the wiki page about it to do the homework. :whistle: I'd like to try to read it again on my own time and see if i like it.

Best: The Outsiders, The Lottery Rose, To Kill A Mockingbird

Oh, I agree. I hated every minute of that book. The story just didn't settle well with me at all.

Oh wow. Of Mice and Men is on my list of favourites. :lol:, it was one of the ones we were forced to read in Secondary School. I also love Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry- that book totally changed my outlook on the world.

As for ones I didn't like so much.. I'm going to say that I'm not a big fan of The Crucible. It didn't do anything for me- though I purport that a cause of this might be that I was run off my feet trying to get any of it at all read; I wasn't in the mood for reading at the time.

The Reader
I hate that book with passion. It goes against my personal believes and I don't want to read such stuff. I was obviously the only one who thought that a 35 old woman having sex with a 15 year old is disgusting and should be considered as rape. I thought maybe my reaction at school was exaggerated and started to watch the movie, but when it came to the sex scenes my hate for this story came back and I had to stop watching it.

Oh wow. Of Mice and Men is on my list of favourites. , it was one of the ones we were forced to read in Secondary School. I also love Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry- that book totally changed my outlook on the world.:agree: on both of these. I thought both were engrossing. Loved reading them.
The Reader
I hate that book with passion. It goes against my personal believes and I don't want to read such stuff. I was obviously the only one who thought that a 35 old woman having sex with a 15 year old is disgusting and should be considered as rape. I thought maybe my reaction at school was exaggerated and started to watch the movie, but when it came to the sex scenes my hate for this story came back and I had to stop watching it.I am currently reading this book after seeing the movie. I do not hate it, but I totally understand and agree with your point of view. I am surprised that you were the only one who felt that way. To me, that is kind of the point of the story--how this inappropriate relationship impacted the boy's life, making him unable to connect to people or have normal relationships. That's what I got out of the movie, at least.

I was somewhat surprised by my dislike of Faulkner's "The sound and the Fury" as I had already read (and absolutely loved) 'Absalom' and 'Moses'... but I suspect it was the format rather than the story that threw me off. :hmm:

But absolutely worst piece of drivel I've ever set my eyes on was "Tess of the d'Urbervilles", and I deplore the fact that trees are still being cut somewhere in the Amazonian region so this gibberish could continue to poison the eyes and minds of English literature students worldwide. *AKs the curriculum-makers. Repeatedly*

The best book I was forced to read? LOTR :clap:
At the age of 14 I was literally restrained by my overenthusiastic best friend and her older sister in order to read through the initial chapter. I was all about historical fiction at the time and appalled at the mere idea of reading a fantasy book. :lol:

Worst book i was forced to read,
The clique.

god, the incredible horribleness of the book killed me. Somehow people can't seem to find any topic to write about except for popular girls ruining notsopopular girls' life. It disgust me.

Best book i was forced to read,
HP SS/PS.
My first meeting with Harry, i was about 10 years old and my parents let me know we were moving to India so i needed an English tutor to teach me english in a month. She gave me Harry Potter and the Philosepher Stone, in English. A different world opened for me that night. I wish I could thank her for it. haha

Worst:
Pillars of the Earth- Ken Follet. I could never ever get into the book.

Best:
The Color Purple-Alice Walker. What a classic! :tu:

Another best for me: The Crucible. It was fantastic. :tu:

Another best for me: The Crucible. It was fantastic. :tu:

:agree: I simply loved this one.



As for ones I didn't like so much.. I'm going to say that I'm not a big fan of The Crucible. It didn't do anything for me- though I purport that a cause of this might be that I was run off my feet trying to get any of it at all read; I wasn't in the mood for reading at the time.

:wow: You didn't like The Crucible?

Oh, I agree. I hated every minute of that book. The story just didn't settle well with me at all.

:wow: How could you not like Of Mice and Men?!

Best: The Handmaids Tale by Margaret Atwood, To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt, 1984 by George Orwell, and The Scarlet Letter by Nathanial Hawthorne (I haven't gotten around to rereading it though)

Worst: The Iliad and The Odyssey by Homer. They made me want to punch someone. And the Odyssey was summer reading too. I also had a hard time with Of Mice and Men and Heart of Darkness.

Another best for me: The Crucible. It was fantastic. :tu:

I really enjoyed A Break With Charity. Same idea, brilliant story.

WORST:
ENDERS GAME!!
To kill a mockingbird
All shakespeare :)

Gosh, I LOVED Ender's Game!!! And To Kill A Mockingbird was fantastic as well. Shakespeare has written some of my favorites too.

Best:
- 6th or 7th grade, forced to read Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Of course, I'd already read it... but still, I didn't mind reading it again.
- I ended up really liking Shakespeare - Macbeth, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Julius Caesar, and Romeo and Juliet were some of my favorites.
- Night - it hits you how tragic the holocaust was, especially to the people who had to endure it. I normally don't like books like this, but it was good.
- Lord of the Flies - I don't think I would have liked this book so much if we hadn't had such a fun project to do with it - our class divided into groups and were given a set of challenges as though we were on a deserted island. The class had fun with it. Our group won. It was awesome. :D

Worst:
- The Sword in the Stone. I absolutely hated it! I felt like it was just slow and boring.
- Of Mice and Men - too sad for my taste - it never clicked with me.
- A Separate Peace - again, really sad, and kind of twisted. The lying and "I didn't push you"... no. I really didn't like it. But while we had to read that, we were forced to watch "Dead Poet's Society" - now that is one heck of a good movie.

The best forced-reads I've ever had were probably To Kill a Mockingbird, like so many others have said, by Harper Lee. I liked the movie as well and My 9th grade teacher made me appreciate the symbols and power of black and white film medium. Also loved Bread Givers by Anzia Yeziersa (it hit home so hard I cried), Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller, and Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, though I remember the films more for the last two.

The worst was Moby Dick. I don't even think I finished it... it was so dull!

The oddest was definitely Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe - partly because my teacher had no idea how to teach it. And she kept changing the way we were suppose to pronounce the author's name ^^;

Interesting reads would be Night by Elie Wiesel. It's not my favorite, but I enjoyed reading it. Hamlet, When I Was Puerto Rican by Esmeralda Santiago, Famous All Over Town by Danny Santiag and the one where a man ends up burying his friend alive in a tomb or something(what was it called?) also fall in this category (and many more I'm forgetting..).

^Are you thinking of The Cask of Amontillado by Edgar Allan Poe? It is a short story, but it is all about a man burying his enemy alive. Actually building a brick wall and trapping him in to die there.

Worst: The Iliad and The Odyssey by Homer. They made me want to punch someone. And the Odyssey was summer reading too. I also had a hard time with Of Mice and Men and Heart of Darkness.
Why does the Odyssey make you want to punch someone? :huh: I actually enjoyed it, I think I was one of the only few who did when we read it. I haven't gotten around to the Iliad yet, I look forward to reading that one. :whistle:

I really enjoyed A Break With Charity. Same idea, brilliant story.



Gosh, I LOVED Ender's Game!!! And To Kill A Mockingbird was fantastic as well. Shakespeare has written some of my favorites too.

Best:
- 6th or 7th grade, forced to read Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Of course, I'd already read it... but still, I didn't mind reading it again.
- I ended up really liking Shakespeare - Macbeth, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Julius Caesar, and Romeo and Juliet were some of my favorites.
- Night - it hits you how tragic the holocaust was, especially to the people who had to endure it. I normally don't like books like this, but it was good.
- Lord of the Flies - I don't think I would have liked this book so much if we hadn't had such a fun project to do with it - our class divided into groups and were given a set of challenges as though we were on a deserted island. The class had fun with it. Our group won. It was awesome. :D

Worst:
- The Sword in the Stone. I absolutely hated it! I felt like it was just slow and boring.
- Of Mice and Men - too sad for my taste - it never clicked with me.
- A Separate Peace - again, really sad, and kind of twisted. The lying and "I didn't push you"... no. I really didn't like it. But while we had to read that, we were forced to watch "Dead Poet's Society" - now that is one heck of a good movie.
I couldn't get along well with The Sword and the Stone either, :no:, not really my area. I love Of Mice and Men though, I think I tend to like the more depressing stories. I don't know, but George and Lenney(?)'s relationship touched me. :love: The Shakespeare one's you've mentioned are my favorite as well. ;)




The worst was Moby Dick. I don't even think I finished it... it was so dull!


This one is just dreadful....I thought I would enjoy it, but it totally dragged on. :no:


And as everyone has stated, To Kill A Mocking Bird is awesome. :love: :agree:

Best I've been forced to read was To Kill A Mockingbird. I was so against it at first but now it's one of my favourite novels. I adore it. Also "Plain Truth" by Jodi Picoult.

Worst I've been forced to read: Educating Rita (the play) and Brave New World. Worst book ever.

Best: Much Ado about nothing - Shakespeare
Worst: Lord of the Flies- William golding it wasnt terrible, but it was boring.

Best: (This is so difficult!) On a light, amusing level: Good Omens, Wildwood Dancing, Harry Potter, The Stand, and many more.
On a deep, thoughtful level: Brave New World (I wonder why you didn't enjoy that one, Hysteria?), The Kite Runner, Metamorphosis, and many more.

Worst: Tess D'Urbervilles, The Twilight Series, The Clique, Ceremony, and a few others.

Worst: The Chocolate Wars

Best: Night, To Kill A Mocking Bird, Romeo and Juliet even though we did not get to finish it, my teacher was so bad, we finished it by watching the movie.

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

I really liked this book, which was really unexpected. I thought I'd hate it.

I know how you feel about twilight, I wouldn't have wasted the time in reading it if my wretched friend hadn't talked me into it. I don't know what it is with him and vampires.....:err:


My worst: The Great Gatsby. I don't know whatit was, but it simply drove me insane, and I don't normaaly have a problem with books. Another was The Idiot, by the author who wrote Crime and Punishment (can't spell his name). And the one I completely despise is Mary Shellwys Frankenstein. I've been punished three times in having to read that.


Best: To Kill A Mocking Bird, Where the Red Fwrn Grows, Great Expectations, An american tradegy, The Perks of Being A Wallflower, Cantabury Tales,, Macbeth, Anthem, and many others which I'm probably forgetting.

One of my favorite books I've been forced to read at school was The Great Gatsby. The day I got it I read it all in like 2 days.]

Other favorites are: Night, Brave New World, To Kill A Mocking Bird, The Kite Runner, Hamlet, and Othello (My favorite Shakespeare work. We did an essay on the green eyed monster, overall it was a blast to read in school and talk about it).

Worst for me was The Metamorphosis and The Stranger. Both strange, both boring.

Great: To Kill a Mockingbird, The Crucible, The Catcher in the Rye, Of Mice and Men, Speak, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry
Worst: The Great Gatsby, The Lord of the Flies

Best: Les Miserables - I thought this was going to be the most awful, drudgerous book in the history of bad writing. We had a whole class on this (which was completely unnecessary) and the teacher was terrible, but I liked the book. It was really old fashioned, but I thought it was interesting.

Worst: Twelfth Night was a play that I thought was utterly pointless, and I also couldn't understand half of what Shakespeare was saying.

Are you telling me that your teacher made you read Les Miserables and its 1000 pages for school? :wow: And my school fellows complaining because they had to read six chapters of Don Quixote

I don't think have been forced to read any truly horrible books. The best one is harder to say. There Is Väinö Linna's The Unknown Soldier which tells abiut the Cintunuation War between Finland and Russia. And then there's is Arthur Conan Doyle's the Hound of Baskervilles. Those are the books I was frced to read, but I enjoyed reading them very, very much.

I just remembered a book I really loved reading that was assigned for my class when I was around nine years old: Hatchet, by Gary Paulsen. In fact, when I was sick one day, I begged the teacher to let me take a copy home to finish. She let me take one copy, and I was not disappointed. :D

We had to read Hamlet for school. It wasn't exactly new to me, as this was probably the tenth time I'd read it, but I was so thrilled. :D

I've made a point of forgetting the books I didn't like. :lol: There are a thousand and one books I love, and I'd rather have them in my mind than the few I found dull. Mostly, those were the memoirs. :yuhup:

Best: The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton
Worst: Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson

Are you telling me that your teacher made you read Les Miserables and its 1000 pages for school? :wow: And my school fellows complaining because they had to read six chapters of Don Quixote

No, haha. Our version was like triply abridged or something. I think it was only four or five hundred pages.

Worst: It's a tie between Jane Eyre and The Scarlet Letter
Best: Beloved

Worst: It's a tie between Jane Eyre and The Scarlet Letter
Best: Beloved

I didn't think the Scarlet Letter was tooooo bad, but all my friends hated it.

I didn't think the Scarlet Letter was tooooo bad, but all my friends hated it.

It just bored me to death. And in my class we watched the movie along with it. Probably one of the worst movies I have ever watched. Our class laughed through the whole thing. :lol:

The Chrysalids by John Wyndam - I was the only person in my class who didn't despise that book. :lol:

The Give by Lois Lowry - everyone (including those who normally hated reading) loved that book.

Those two books were my intro to science fiction literature, can't be grateful enough for being forced to read them. ;)

Twilight. Forced to read by my friends.

The Odyssey, forced to read by my course. Brilliant.

Twilight. Forced to read by my friends.
And was it the best or worst you were forced to read? :)

Worst. Very worst.

Twilight. Forced to read by my friends.
:lol: I started to read that as of late... don't like it either. Bad, bad is what I say there.

Currently being 'forced' to read Pride and Prejudice. . .definitely the best book I've ever read for school! We also read Henry IV: Part 1 this year, which was fantastic, as well as The Canterbury Tales - very funny and entertaining, at least!

Paradise Lost has to go on my list of worsts. Not that I read more than a few lines of each page.

Also, I mentioned a while ago on this thread that we read The Great Gatsby in English and although I couldn't get into it, I wanted to try to go back and read it sometime - I'm doing that now, and I really love it this time around. :D

Worst would be Far from the Madding Crowd. I had to read it in 9th grade, for Academic Decathlon. It was one of the dullest books I've ever read.

Not sure which is the best, but The Giver definitely comes to mind, absolutely loved that one!

Worst: It's a tie between Jane Eyre and The Scarlet Letter
Best: Beloved

:wow: how can you hate Jane Eyre? That was my favourite "old" book until I read Wuthering Heights, although it does drag on a bit at the end.

Most of the books I've had to read for school were bad IMO. The lengthy list includes: The Tempest, Lord of the Flies, A Streetcar Named Desire and The Great Gatsby. I do realise that all of them are supposed to be classics but I just don't understand why :shrug:

I've been able to read some good books though - we read half of PS once :lol: and The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, which was good.

Best: In third grade our teacher read Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone to us. Needless to say, that goes into the best list. The rest: Catcher in the Rye (now one of my all-time faves), To Kill A Mockingbird (ditto), Pride and Prejudice (ditto again), Night (depressing but powerful), and Catch-22 (a book that is one long-running ironic joke = genius). And I loved the Great Gatsby too.

Worst: The Great Meadow, What Nature Suffers to Groe, Nature Incorporated, Nature's Metropolis, Death of a Salesman (play, but still), and Beowulf (not sure what that was supposed to be, but it was horrible either way). The first four were from my geographical history of the U.S. course, which is not anywhere as interesting as it sounded (the course description was very deceitful). Oh, and the House of Sand and Fog was pretty bad, as was the Legacy of Luna (no, not Luna Lovegood). And I hate hate hate Romeo and Juliet. So overrated.

I didn't think the Scarlet Letter was tooooo bad, but all my friends hated it.

It was an interesting idea, premise, and subject matter...but the language just...I know it's really no one's fault that it was written way back in the 1800s, and takes place in the 1600s (Is it?), but when people started giving soliloquies, and when the author gave long winded explanations on the situation without any dialogue, I was at a loss to figure out what was happening.

Best:

The Giver; While I don't think much of the sequels, I do like this book.
Julius Caesar: I understood this more than The Scarlet Letter.
Romeo and Juliet

The best books were Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone (in Grade four), The Giver, and To Kill a Mockingbird.
I think the worst was Rasselas, the Prince of Abysinnia. My classmates and I found it was a very good cure for insomnia.

Best: Jane Eyre. It was for a school project n I luv it! :tu:
Worst: Vanity Fair. It is so boring. I fell asleep! :(

Excluding college, the best books I ever had to read was The Westing Game, The Great Gatsby, and Rebecca.

By far, the worst was The Scarlet Letter, and I hope I never have to teach it, because I couldn't stand the book.

Excluding college, the best books I ever had to read was The Westing Game, The Great Gatsby, and Rebecca.

By far, the worst was The Scarlet Letter, and I hope I never have to teach it, because I couldn't stand the book.
Yea that book (The Scarlet Letter) can be somewhat of a chore to read :whistle:. But I'll say this much (at least for me)... at least it wasn't as bad as the Grapes of Wrath. I couldn't stand that book, and neither could the teacher that I had at the time who was making us read it. Only selected parts of course, but it was still a chore to get through.

Best: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone if my Children's Lit professor didn't assign it I wouldn't be a fan.

Worst: The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas. I think it's a combination of the language, the plot, and the characters. I could never get into the book. I couldn't keep up with the plot. I don't think it was badly written. It just wasn't of interest to me. It's a hard book to read and I think I needed to give it more time and read it slower than I could with it being assigned for English.

Worst: It's a tie between Jane Eyre and The Scarlet Letter
Best: Beloved

I love Jane Eyre, but it took me a second reading to enjoy and understand it.


I've been able to read some good books though - we read half of PS once :lol: and The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, which was good.

I avoided Narnia like the plague since I saw a movie on the Disney Channel when I was little that I absolutely hated (1980's I think). I was assigned the book in Classics in British Children's Literature and fell in love.

More bests: Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare, Tom's Midnight Garden by Phillipa Pearce

More Worsts: Great Expectations by Charles Dickens (I'm still expecting the great part to show up...it's bad when the English teacher tells you she hates the book and won't let you watch the movie because it'll bore you to death), Tess of D'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy, Beowulf

it's bad when the English teacher tells you she hates the bookYeah, it's miserable being forced to teach a book you hate. I try to hide my hatred from the kids, though.
Tess of D'Urbervilles by Thomas HardyThat one was rough! Did not like it in high school. Haven't picked it up since then.

I only slightly remember books I've been forced to read...
Nonetheless, I remember some.

Perhaps the best one I was supposed to read, was...either 1984, or Huckleberry Finn. 1984 was on this book list for which we had to pick out a book to read, and do a lengthy report on it. That was in 12th grade, while I think HF was in 11th.

The worst? Easily, Shakespeare's Hamlet in 12th. It was dull.....plus, hard to read. However, I grew to appreciate how he writes. Very creative writer; I'd admit that about him. Simply genius.

The best books/plays I've been forced to read:

- The Great Gatsby. I've never read another author with the power to say more in one sentence than Tolkein (among others) can say in three pages.

- The Monk. It opened my eyes to how amazing Gothic literature was.

- Jane Eyre. Led me to pursue Pride & Prejudice and other satirical-romantic masterpieces that are now among my favorite novels/films.

- Interview with the Vampire. The third consecutive great book I had to read for a Gothic Image in Literature honors class in college.

- Kubla Khan, Christabel, Tintern Abbey, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, The Raven, and Don Juan. These are technically poems, but they were great poems that showed me a poem can say more than a novella in fewer words.

- Othello. All of Shakespeare's plays and sonnets were great, but Othello is the best bar none. It's underrated because of Hamlet, but is far, far superior in plot and in character development (except for maybe Iago, who compensates with the wittiest villain dialogue ever written).

The worst:

- THE SCARLET LETTER. It was so dreadfully bad, soapish, nonliterary, and trite that by the end, I had literally carved 666 on the cover with my pen, then told my teacher the book now had an Azure Number.

- The Cherry Orchard. It was actually painful.

- Ulysses. I wasn't technically forced to read it, but since I was able to make the likes of Hamlet, The Great Gatsby and 1984 look like analyzing Looney Tunes in high school/college, I figured when told of this work that I might be ready for it. WHAT A LIE. I am now on my 8th attempt to read the first chapter and I STILL have no bloody idea what's going on. I tried looking at the ending, figuring it may clarify who the characters are that are doing the thinking that dominates the entire narrative... has anyone here tried reading an 8,000 word sentence? I AM NOT EXAGGERATING.

- Atlas Shrugged. I didn't think it was possible that anything could force me to stop reading it after two pages and a plot summary. How wrong I was.

Special award for "most ambiguous" goes to the nonfictional "How the Other Half Lives," which, while a great historical eye-opener, doesn't change the fact that its entire impact stems from its imagery, with its narrative being relatively weak. The Bronze Horseman gets a follow-up "most ambiguous" because its first 10% is some of the greatest writing I've read. The rest is dull.

Honorable mention also goes to every Derrida book I had to read for my European Philosophy course during senior year. I began that course having very little philosophy experience (Plato, Aristotle, Hume, Aquinas, Augustine, Cicero) and exited an expert on not only Derrida but, through him, also Heideggar, Nietzsche, Sartre, Levinas, Kant, Nancy, and deSaussure. I even remember the details about half of those today.

- The Monk. It opened my eyes to how amazing Gothic literature was.


The Monk didn't scare me much and it also irritated me how he kept using certain words. It was better written plotwise than other Gothic Novels but less scary.

Ulysses. I wasn't technically forced to read it, but since I was able to make the likes of Hamlet, The Great Gatsby and 1984 look like analyzing Looney Tunes in high school/college, I figured when told of this work that I might be ready for it. WHAT A LIE. I am now on my 8th attempt to read the first chapter and I STILL have no bloody idea what's going on. I tried looking at the ending, figuring it may clarify who the characters are that are doing the thinking that dominates the entire narrative... has anyone here tried reading an 8,000 word sentence? I AM NOT EXAGGERATING.

No, you're not. I was actually glad when I got to the last chapter not only because it meant I was finally done but also because I had heard so much about it. It's a shame that the story is so difficult to read because it is actually quite funny. It's like a parody of the Odyssey with Leopold Bloom being Odysseus and walking around in Dublin during an entire day (the whole book takes place during one day) in order to avoid coming home and dealing with his unfaithful wife (she is the one who talks in the final chapter). He crosses paths with Stephen Dedalus who regards him as a father figure. It basically mirrors everything which happens in the great Greek myth but with a twist (since there can be no real witche and cyclops). Not much happens as you can see. I suggest you keep going because if you put it down you will never pick it up again. But it gets better after a few chapters when you get used to the style it's written in.
And, seriously, Saussure? You can definitely read Joyce and enjoy it. :)

BEST: Lord of the Flies by William Golding.

Just a wonderful thought-provoking novel. I studied it with a teacher I disliked, but I really enjoyed reading it, and still did when I re-read it a little while back.

WORST: Briar Rose by Jane Yolen.

Oh my goodness, this was AWFUL. An overworked plot linking the Sleeping Beauty fairy tale with the Holocaust (ooo, death, wee, lets exploit this), throwing in characters nobody cares about and then having two of the main characters make out at the end even though there was no hint whatsoever of attraction previously. It was just pure trash.

The Bronze Horseman gets a follow-up "most ambiguous" because its first 10% is some of the greatest writing I've read. The rest is dull.

I agree. And Paullina Simons is usually quite good, too. :shrug:

The best book I was made to read for school was a Bulgarian novel called "Tobacco". The worst book I was made to read by my first boyfriend was Veronika Decides to Die by Paolo Coelho.

I agree. And Paullina Simons is usually quite good, too. :shrug:

Perhaps I should have clarified: I was referring to the Pushkin poem.

Upon the brink of the wild stream
He stood, and dreamt a mighty dream.
He gazed far off. Near him the spreading
river poured by; with flood abeam,
alone, a flimsy skiff was treading.
Scattered along those shores of bog
and moss were huts of blackened log,
the wretched fisher's squalid dwelling;
forests, impervious in the fog
to hidden suns, all round were telling
their whispered tale. And so thought He:
"From here, proud Sweden will get warning;
just here is where a city'll be"

etc.

No, you're not. I was actually glad when I got to the last chapter not only because it meant I was finally done but also because I had heard so much about it. It's a shame that the story is so difficult to read because it is actually quite funny. It's like a parody of the Odyssey with Leopold Bloom being Odysseus and walking around in Dublin during an entire day (the whole book takes place during one day) in order to avoid coming home and dealing with his unfaithful wife (she is the one who talks in the final chapter). He crosses paths with Stephen Dedalus who regards him as a father figure. It basically mirrors everything which happens in the great Greek myth but with a twist (since there can be no real witche and cyclops). Not much happens as you can see. I suggest you keep going because if you put it down you will never pick it up again. But it gets better after a few chapters when you get used to the style it's written in.

It's the first chapter I keep growing irritated with. Reading that is like trying to play Rusty Cooley's "Dark Matter" on a guitar. All I've gathered is that a guy makes shaving into a religious ritual but has someone else carry it out for him, has a friend named Stephen Dedalus who's the Telemachus figure and, like Joyce himself, was accused of not caring when his mother died, and they have an irritating guest of whom I can't even tell male or female. I have yet to even encounter Leo Bloom 50 pages in. In comparison to the obscure Latin phrases (it may not help that I was raised Lutheran and not Catholic) and Irish slang I've encountered so far, Saussure seems like a joke.

Here's something disturbing I've heard: apparently, there are two books written in English that actually have a reputation as less intelligible than Ulysses, namely Finnegan's Wake (by the same author) and Don Quixote (by Cervantes). If this is true, it buries any plans I had for reading the latter.

Here's something disturbing I've heard: apparently, there are two books written in English that actually have a reputation as less intelligible than Ulysses, namely Finnegan's Wake (by the same author) and Don Quixote (by Cervantes). If this is true, it buries any plans I had for reading the latter.

Wasn't Don Quixote written in Spanish? :hmm:

Perhaps I should have clarified: I was referring to the Pushkin poem.

Upon the brink of the wild stream
He stood, and dreamt a mighty dream.
He gazed far off. Near him the spreading
river poured by; with flood abeam,
alone, a flimsy skiff was treading.
Scattered along those shores of bog
and moss were huts of blackened log,
the wretched fisher's squalid dwelling;
forests, impervious in the fog
to hidden suns, all round were telling
their whispered tale. And so thought He:
"From here, proud Sweden will get warning;
just here is where a city'll be"

etc..

My bad. How strange that there are two written works with that name in existence that start getting weird at around the same time. :lol:

Wasn't Don Quixote written in Spanish? :hmm:

I thought this as well. :s

Wasn't Don Quixote written in Spanish? :hmm:

The Divine Comedy was written in Italian, War and Peace in Russian, and Cicero's works in Latin, but we still read them. When I say works in English, I include translations.

Though, while we're on the subject of books written in English rather than translated, has anybody read Lolita or Angela's Ashes? I was thinking of making one of those or A Clockwork Orange my next if I do give up on Ulysses (85% chance at present).

Best: 1984, Night(I almost forgot about this book if it weren't for others reminding me), Edith Hamilton's collection of Greek Mythology was also nice, Animal Farm.

Worst: Romeo and Juliet: I don't care if it's Shakespeare, it's about two stupid kids falling in love, Into Thin Air(Well, not bad, I just didn't care for it much)

Best: Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card--I'd already read it before and loved it, and, though I didn't exactly care to read yet again a book I'd already read more than once, that doesn't mean it isn't a really good book. :D

Worst: A Separate Peace by John Knowles. It was just boring. And the plot was....nonexistent. Well, if it was there, it was extremely uninteresting, to me at least.

The Divine Comedy was written in Italian, War and Peace in Russian, and Cicero's works in Latin, but we still read them. When I say works in English, I include translations.

You said "written in English" and that threw me off. Sorry. And in fact, I even read Shakespeare in translation. :)

Though, while we're on the subject of books written in English rather than translated, has anybody read Lolita or Angela's Ashes? I was thinking of making one of those or A Clockwork Orange my next if I do give up on Ulysses (85% chance at present).

I've read Lolita. It's one of my favourite books.

The Divine Comedy was written in Italian, War and Peace in Russian, and Cicero's works in Latin, but we still read them. When I say works in English, I include translations.

Oh, okay, I was just confused by your phrasing.

Though, while we're on the subject of books written in English rather than translated, has anybody read Lolita or Angela's Ashes? I was thinking of making one of those or A Clockwork Orange my next if I do give up on Ulysses (85% chance at present).

Both Lolita and A Clockwork Orange are very good books. The former is actually one of my favourite books. ACO is good, but it's a bit hard to get into because of all the made-up words. But once you get into the swing it's good.

Worst: Romeo and Juliet: I don't care if it's Shakespeare, it's about two stupid kids falling in love

The main issue I have with Romeo and Juliet is the modern interpretation of it - it, like all of Shakespeare's tragedies, was supposed to be a warning. It's supposed to show you how fickle teenage love is - Romeo is not supposed to be a sex god, he's supposed to be a stupid boy who can't decide who he loves and, because of it, dies, along with killing others along the way. Shakespeare wrote about fatal flaws. Not romances.

The main issue I have with Romeo and Juliet is the modern interpretation of it - it, like all of Shakespeare's tragedies, was supposed to be a warning. It's supposed to show you how fickle teenage love is - Romeo is not supposed to be a sex god, he's supposed to be a stupid boy who can't decide who he loves and, because of it, dies, along with killing others along the way. Shakespeare wrote about fatal flaws. Not romances.

My issue with it is this. Everybody says it is a great Shakespearian Romance. It is definitely not. Romeo was a complete idiot, especially in the end scene.

Oh Juliet has been dead for a couple of days. However, she feels warm, her skin has color, I can hear some breathing, but no, she really is dead. Time to kill self.

Both Lolita and A Clockwork Orange are very good books. The former is actually one of my favourite books. ACO is good, but it's a bit hard to get into because of all the made-up words. But once you get into the swing it's good.

That's actually my reason for wanting to read ACO. A lot of my reading lately is because I'm trying to expose myself to more writing styles I never learned in college. I tried Ulysses in part for the challenge and in part to learn what stream of consciousness sounds like. I want to check out ACO to learn how to coin words and neologisms for a story (though apparently most, such as "droogs," were just derivatives of Russian). I've heard it also takes place to a lesser extent in Lolita.

There was a time that in addition to coining words, I wanted to look into "nonsense literature" as best typified by Lewis Carroll's works (not by Jabberwocky, as he had originally written that as an example of how NOT to write his genre). However, I'm not too sure about that anymore.


The main issue I have with Romeo and Juliet is the modern interpretation of it - it, like all of Shakespeare's tragedies, was supposed to be a warning. It's supposed to show you how fickle teenage love is - Romeo is not supposed to be a sex god, he's supposed to be a stupid boy who can't decide who he loves and, because of it, dies, along with killing others along the way. Shakespeare wrote about fatal flaws. Not romances.

R&J is okay, but my biggest problem with it is actually how shallow it is. There's virtually no real emotional development, just superficial - it's like a bad Disney love story for the first half and a barely credible tragedy for the 2nd. There's no psychology and very little actual romance. By the end, I could take it about as seriously as a tragedy as I later took Titanic - which is to say, not very seriously. Want to read a good Shakespearian romantic tragedy? Check out Othello. It's deeper than R&J, more psychologically manipulative than Hamlet, and in its own way, more sinister than Richard III.

My issue with it is this. Everybody says it is a great Shakespearian Romance. It is definitely not. Romeo was a complete idiot, especially in the end scene.

Oh Juliet has been dead for a couple of days. However, she feels warm, her skin has color, I can hear some breathing, but no, she really is dead. Time to kill self.

Haha, that's the point! It's an exhibition of how stupid and silly teenage boys are (can't say I disagree) and the tragic consequences of such a stupidity.

That's actually my reason for wanting to read ACO. A lot of my reading lately is because I'm trying to expose myself to more writing styles I never learned in college. I tried Ulysses in part for the challenge and in part to learn what stream of consciousness sounds like. I want to check out ACO to learn how to coin words and neologisms for a story (though apparently most, such as "droogs," were just derivatives of Russian). I've heard it also takes place to a lesser extent in Lolita.

There was a time that in addition to coining words, I wanted to look into "nonsense literature" as best typified by Lewis Carroll's works (not by Jabberwocky, as he had originally written that as an example of how NOT to write his genre). However, I'm not too sure about that anymore.

If you want stream of consciousness, I'd recommend Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf. It's quite a good read. But yes, you're right, all of the slang in ACO is just pigeon Russian - a friend of mine speaks Russian and translated half of it for me. :D I didn't really notice that happening in Lolita - but that was probably because they were neologisms derived from English or French words so I didn't have any trouble understanding what they meant.

R&J is okay, but my biggest problem with it is actually how shallow it is. There's virtually no real emotional development, just superficial - it's like a bad Disney love story for the first half and a barely credible tragedy for the 2nd. There's no psychology and very little actual romance. By the end, I could take it about as seriously as a tragedy as I later took Titanic - which is to say, not very seriously. Want to read a good Shakespearian romantic tragedy? Check out Othello. It's deeper than R&J, more psychologically manipulative than Hamlet, and in its own way, more sinister than Richard III.

Yes, but the superficiality is the point. As I said, Shakespeare wanted to warn people of this kind of stupid 'love'. Of course, I, like many others, prefer plays like Othello, Hamlet and Macbeth to R&J, but it has it's merits as a warning.

Yes, but the superficiality is the point. As I said, Shakespeare wanted to warn people of this kind of stupid 'love'. Of course, I, like many others, prefer plays like Othello, Hamlet and Macbeth to R&J, but it has it's merits as a warning.

True, but I'd still say Sense & Sensibility easily beats it in that area, and shows the consequences more realistically IMO. At any rate its film adaptation buries every R&J adaptation combined, including West Side Story.

But if there's anything to blame, it's modern culture. It has an obsession with taking things at face value. Thus, we've become so "Disneyfied" that we see stories like R&J and believe that's the ideal romance, because that kind of superficiality appeared in all but one of the major Disney love stories (most young kids' first impression of romance these days). Nobody keeps in mind how the original versions of most of those stories went.

I have a lot, but I really like Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. It's changing my perspective on the world simply because our society is leaning towards the society depicted in the novel. I finally have some backing that points out exactly why some things in society now are not changing for the better.

People don't really come across books that change them often, so to have that experience with a book assigned to me is amazing. :D

Best book would probably be Oedipus and A Midsummer Night's Dream when I was in high school. Worst would be Watership Down.

Worst would be Watership Down.Sawyer would be sad to hear that.

:lol:

Someone talked me into reading the Twilight series (all four - they promised chocolate...) and I had a hard time reading some parts because it was just so dull and repetitive. I really tried to enjoy them, but I just couldn't.

My favorites have to be Night by Elie Wiesel and The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky. I had to read both of them in an English class one year - needless to say the teacher was one of my favorites. :)

Animal Farm
The Giver
Lord of the Flies
Anthem
The Boy in the Striped Pajamas

^ All fantastic.

My favorites have to be Night by Elie Wiesel and The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky. I had to read both of them in an English class one year - needless to say the teacher was one of my favorites. :)

Perks is a brilliant book. :agree: I've never experienced so many emotions reading a book.

Best books I've been forced to read--Harry Potter! My best friend told me to read them or suffer when I was 11...and the rest is history. Haha. The other one would be "The Picture of Dorian Gray" by Oscar Wilde. Fantastic.

worstworstworst.. Of Mice and Men. I think the way it was written was fine, the author did a good job at the QUALITY of writing, but the story line...x(

Best: the Harry Potter saga

Worst: Twilight

Best: To Kill a Mockingbird ... We read this in 8th grade and I LOVED it.

Worst: The Sun Also Rises by Hemingway (I think?)... Awful. Very boring. We had to read that one in 12th grade..... Lord of the Flies is a close second (read it in 9th grade).

EDIT: I keep thinking of good books! I remember reading "Tuesdays with Morrie" in 9th grade and "Night" in 10th grade. Both were very emotional, but great books.

worstworstworst.. Of Mice and Men. I think the way it was written was fine, the author did a good job at the QUALITY of writing, but the story line...x(

I actually thought it was one of the best books I was "forced" to read ;)

Best: The Giver, by Lois Lowry; And Then There Were None (Ten Little Indians) by Agatha Christie. If you've read these books, I doubt that I have to say why I liked them so much. They were very compelling to read. I also liked Animal Farm, by George Orwell, too.

Worst: Probably either A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens, or The Hobbit, by J.R.R. Tolkien. (Am likely to have a lot of haters now). I mean, they weren't bad, just sorta boring at times, and in the Christmas Carol there were points where the narrator sorta rambles about something not very relevant to the plot (when my teacher was reading this to us in 7th grade, she'd actually skip chunks of it because of this :D).

CrisRHr: You had to be forced to read Harry Potter? D:

I would say the best book I have been forced to read was The Giver. I don't really have a worst, though in college I never really enjoyed short stories. Maybe "araby".

Best: The Giver, by Lois Lowry; And Then There Were None (Ten Little Indians) by Agatha Christie. If you've read these books, I doubt that I have to say why I liked them so much. They were very compelling to read. I also liked Animal Farm, by George Orwell, too.

Worst: Probably either A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens, or The Hobbit, by J.R.R. Tolkien. (Am likely to have a lot of haters now). I mean, they weren't bad, just sorta boring at times, and in the Christmas Carol there were points where the narrator sorta rambles about something not very relevant to the plot (when my teacher was reading this to us in 7th grade, she'd actually skip chunks of it because of this :D).

CrisRHr: You had to be forced to read Harry Potter? D:

I love Christmas Carol and Dickens' famous rambling :D .

Best: All the King's Men :tu:

Worst: Twilight no doubt, and for real literature, The Odyssey... I don't know maybe it was my teacher, but Greek Mythology never was really personally relevant or interesting to me.

Best: The Color Purple by Alice Walker. Loved the premise of the book - a series of letters, though the subject content at times was very harrowing.

Worst: Not a novel, but Hamlet by Shakespeare. I seriously wanted to harm Hamlet by the end of the play.

Both of which, I was "forced" to read for my 'A' Level English Lit more than ten years ago. The Color Purple I have read many times over the last 10 years, whereas Hamlet has remained gathering dust on my shelf!

Best: The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley.

Worst: Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte. I love her sister's works, but Wuthering Heights just seemed too... soap-operaish.

best: hp series. I remained uncovinced that I would like the series, but a friend kept insisting.

worst: number the stars. it was too sad for me.

Worst: Catcher in the Rye. Read it in high school. Can't stand it. Maybe I don't get it because it was taught to me by a teacher who was just as vapid as any of the "phonies" (including Holden) described in the book. I don't know. For a character who's supposed to be an "icon of teenage rebellion," according to Wikipedia, I think Holden's as full of it as any of the rest of the characters. Maybe that's the point of the book - teenagers have issues - but did I really need to read an entire book full of people with boring problems in order to come to that conclusion?

Best: I read a lot of great books in college, being an English major, but The Sun Also Rises was probably the biggest surprise. We never did any Hemingway in high school, and everyone I talked to thought his writings were boring as heck. Well, somehow I ended up taking a class in college that was solely about Hemingway and Fitzgerald, and I loved it. If I hadn't had that particular professor, who had basically made it his life's work to study Hemingway, I doubt I would've appreciated it much at all, but the way he explained it made it soooo darn interesting. There are just a ton of little things in the writing that I would have never picked up on in a thousand years if it hadn't been for him.

I took a class about Lord of the Rings, too - can't go wrong with that! I'd already read it, of course, but being forced to read it again wasn't exactly torturous!

Best: The Kite Runner, And Then There Were None, A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Scarlett Letter, The Secret Life of Bees (highly recommended!!), The Outsiders, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Canterbury Tales

Worst: Catcher in the Rye, Grapes of Wrath, Wuthering Heights

And I've always loved studying Greek Mythology in school too. Most of my friends hate it, but I find it so interesting and fun. Not to mention the numerous Harry Potter references that helped me to ace the tests ;) What does everyone else think of mythology?

Best: The Oursiders, Flowers for Algernon, The Giver, and The Egypt Game.
Worst: Twilight, The Diary of Anne Frank.

Some new ones from my AP English class:

Best: Brave New World
Huxley is brilliant, and it's scary that he is able to so accurately predict the way that society has changed so far -- it makes us wonder whether eventually we will reach the society depicted in the novel. Definitely one of my favorite books, especially of those I've read for school.

Worst: Dubliners -- so awfully and terribly boring. The only good part of this book was that I managed to get an A on the essay about it without reading more than 10% of it.

Worst: Dubliners -- so awfully and terribly boring. The only good part of this book was that I managed to get an A on the essay about it without reading more than 10% of it.

Aw :( I loved these stories to bits. I'm sorry you didn't enjoy them. (I have no idea why, but I tend to take differing opinions when it comes to books I love very personally, :lol:)

Worst: Catcher in the Rye. Read it in high school. Can't stand it. Maybe I don't get it because it was taught to me by a teacher who was just as vapid as any of the "phonies" (including Holden) described in the book. I don't know. For a character who's supposed to be an "icon of teenage rebellion," according to Wikipedia, I think Holden's as full of it as any of the rest of the characters. Maybe that's the point of the book - teenagers have issues - but did I really need to read an entire book full of people with boring problems in order to come to that conclusion?

Erm, me too? I had to read this in 10th grade. I hated it, and Holden.

I suppose for best I was forced to read I might choose Immanuel Kant's "Grounding for the Metaphysics of Morals". It's one thing I wound up liking and finding very interesting, that I would not in a million years have picked up if it had not been a required text in a college class. :lol: I've read things I enjoyed more for classes, but I find it hard to say I was forced to read them, as I probably would have read them at some point voluntarily if they had net been assigned to me.