I blame my Y chromosome.


What the Shakespeare?!

I like dikeens, but when I was told he was paid by the word suddenly everything made far more sense.


I hated Tom Bombadil. I tried reading through that section several times before just skipping it.


I'm not sure you're really supposed to like the characters in 1984

I read it in high school and thought it was OK, then I went back and re-read it a few years ago and enjoyed it quite a lot more.

Yeah, the characters certainly are not the focal point of 1984. If you read the book and don't look for a political message your not likely to enjoy it.

I didn't think I would post here, because I didn't think there was any book I "hate with a passion".

But then I kind of thought of several that may qualify:

All of the Frank Herbert sequels to "Dune"

I loved the original Dune book. It set up a wonderful universe with lots of dynamics and discussions of things like politics, technology or lack thereof, economics, ecology, etc.

I read many of the sequels hoping for something of the same. All I got was garbage. Just pretentious quotes and a very, very narrow focus of the rich universe set up in the original.

Twilight namely.

Wanna' know what? I have been looking for the original Dune for ages but can't find anything but the sequels in bookstores.

I think you can buy it on line (like at Amazon). I very, very highly recommend the original Dune book!

But my advice is to skip the Frank Herbert Sequels.

Note that I am just referring to Frank Herbert sequels. There are some sequels by other that might be good; I haven't read those. I'm just referring to the Frank Herbert sequels.

MOBY dike. Get it away from meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee. :shakehead:
:batman: You have angered the Batman. :batman:

The Count of Monte Cristo...Unabridged...Summer before Sophomore Year. Hate...hate...hate. 2000 pages of endless, confusing, 1905855 different characters...HATE.

Also, another High School Book, this one from before Junior year, it was called Unspun: Finding Facts in a World of Disinformation. Not that it took forever to read or I disagreed with it, but I felt as if it was targeted towards stupid people. I didn't need a 90 page chapter on how politicans bull**** me, but the book gave it to me anyways.

It's not like I hate EVERY book I've had to read for High School. For example for the summer reading before Senior Year I had to read a book called Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close and I LOVED it. Now I'm reading The Things They Carried and it is the greatest book on modern war ever written, in my opinion. And I've read good classics like Frankenstein and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Some books however, like The Scarlet Letter, I had to re-read to enjoy, because I had to read through them WAY too fast when they were assigned.

I agree, probably one of the contributing reasons I prefer the movies to the books.

Well there are exceptions to the rule =P. It may have been directed at that market and if the authors purpose in writing was simply to generate income or publicity for the series than so be it. I can't fault him for his purpose but I will choose not to read it.

@ the poster who said English teachers make us read crappy old books.......I'm sure this was a light hearted statement but its actually pretty inaccurate. While there is certain subject matter, genres, authors and writing styles we may prefer, It doesn't make the themes, messages, purposes or books themselves any less relevant. Even people who hate reading owe their debts to "old" authors, think of things like "The Odyssey" or "Macbeth", If you have ever read these one would see that these are precursors to the whole action hero persona. In the same way that John McClain proclaims " Yipee-kay-yay *******" , Macbeths killer shouts a Shakespearean styled one liner as he charges into their duel. Where would fantasy be without Tolkien or the Civil Rights Movement without "Uncle Johns Cabin". I bet if you were to read the latter you may find it dull or a challenging read but its an important work that needs to be absorbed for the betterment of a student. This isn't to say that only the "old" books have something to offer but I think its easier to look back on a piece of literature and understand its key literary elements through juxtaposition with the time period it represents. Just look at "The Great Gatsby", if someone were to write a modern novel that centered around thoughtlessness consumerism, faux elegance, and a bleak hopelessness for society as a whole and the setting were modern day New York we may struggle to see the outcome of the books messages. Yet because this novel takes place in the 1920's and was written in the 30's we have an advantage over the characters of knowing what the outcome of their actions will be (The Great Depression). Even though the themes are relevant today they are easily studied when placed in a given time period we can reflect upon. This isn't always the case but I think it's a somewhat viable reason.


It will be different depending on what courses you've taken and again it could come down to the preference of the reader. For instance I love history so I've never had a problem with an older book.

same here, i generally loose interest in a book and never read any further before i get to the point where i hate it.

Anything by Crassius Curio. He's a total creep... I mean, I may be biased as I know him in person, but it DEFINITELY seeps into his writing. The Lusty Argonian Maid should be banned from all libraries, even the grand library at Vivec.
On topic, I can't think of anything atm.

Can't really think of a book I truly hated,

there were assigned reading books I liked and others I didn't have a particular fondness for, but I took my grades seriously and thus I read through them whether I liked them or not.

I thought I would like Great Gatsby, but I found it to be not nearly as good as I'd hoped it was going to be for me.
Great Expectations by Charles dikeens was a book I had a hard time chewing on, Didn't find myself particularly enthralled by Shakespeare either.
in fact to be perfectly honest I don't care much for british literature. I know I should, and I have nothing aginst people who love it, but it's never appealed to me.
I actually quite like American Literature though.

Mark Twain (my favorite author)
Ernest hemmingway
Jack London

etc. etc.

oddly enough the books that I was always told I would be forced to read because they were "Classics" were never assigned to me. Oh sure, a few of them I expected to read and did, but I was surprised to see that a good number of them were not assigned to me, but rather more obscure books were.

I too have not read the book but really liked the film

I haven't read them but I think I'd not like the twilight books

Hating books is silly; they are just carriers of their author's ideas, thoughts, imagination and dreams, after all. However, there are some books I really think we would be better off without ... mostly because they are just trying to deceive people, or were used to do so by demagogues. That's the titles like "Mein Kampf", "Malleus Maleficarum", "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion" and "Dianetics".

The Twilight books are the few books I would argue are objectively bad.

It's slightly more controversial, but I can't read The Catcher in the Rye any more. Only because I knew this one guy at sixth form who was a right melodramatic, whiny git who would constantly compare himself to Holden, and now I can't read the book without imagining that mopey [censored].

Two books hold the #1 spot on my list:

The Graqes of Wrath

and The Scarlet Letter

Both were endurance tests. Steinbeck and Hawthorne's prose are just so boring to me.

I think this is pretty true. It's only possible to hate a book if you're forced to read it. I've started a few books that I haven't liked or found interesting, so I put them away and find something else. No hatred garnered.

Except maybe for 'Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit'. I didn't so much put that one down as hurl it across the room into the dustbin when it got to the nauseating dream sequence after a few chapters of thinly disguised 'oh woe is poor me, the author'.

'Macbeth' was ruined by English class. Whizzed through it in a day when we were given it to read, and I loved it. However, I had to shove pencils in my legs to stop myself going mental as the stupid kids in the class bumbled through it line by line in a monotone.

I had to read and do essays for this book back in 4/5th year. I was never that into read, more so writing, and it took me weeks to get into reading it, plot etc was all quite simple and easy to understand, but when it came time to do the essay before the exam I just skipped to the last few chapters and made the middle up by myself. Turns out I scored not bad on the essay even missing out half the story.

Book I hate though I don't read much is....Death Of A Salesmen, I used to play the role of Uncle Ben, I just never liked it and its slow build up, but maybe thats due to the whole class trying to play a part in it and people wouldn't pay attention to who their charcter was or what line they where on :flame:

I have yet to buy a book I have not liked, nor read one I hated. To me all books can be a source of enjoyment and knowledge. In one way or another.
But I have only read between 80 and 100 books in my life time.

Anything Shakespeare, and antigone

Just started reading Lord of Souls, page 45 and I still don't hate it (I don't like some of the stuff in it but I don't hate it). Just updating you guys on that.

I too am reading the second Elder Scrolls novel. It's OK, but I much prefer Greg Keyes' Kingdoms of Thorn & Bone saga, which really is excellent. For some reason it feels more Elder Scrolls-y than the Elder Scrolls books!


I saw Antigone as a school play, and found it immensely frustrating. I spent most of it wanting to slap the girl for her wilful stupidity, though I'm sure there are many who'd disagree with me.

You just read the wrong Steinbeck book is all.

They should have Travels With Charlie In Search of America on every school syllabus. Much better than Graqes or even Mice.

I love reading, but a I hate quite a few of the books I had to read in secondary school - An Inspector Calls and a Christmas Carol especially. Then again, we also had to read Of Mice and Men and I loved it.