I enjoyed most HS literature. But there was one book I could not stand. I will never read it again. No movie can ever fix it. It is an insufferable monstrosity in which when you think it couldn't be more anticlimactic, it decides to one up itself again and again and again. A bunch of spoiled idiot children blathering on about their egos for an eternity.

Wuthering Heights, by Emily Bronte.

Oh yeah, one book that I read a long time ago and to this day joke about is Tuck Everlasting. So many words used to say one thing. The writer had diarrhea of the pen. :thumbsdown:

The Bible... Nah I kid. :no:

Shelter of Stones by Jean M. Auel.

Worst novel series sequel disappointment ever. Terrible, just terrible. It's like she had a ghost writer (or at least a very good re-writer) for all the other books and decided she no longer needed one. Grammar, writing structure, dialogue, all cringe-worthy. 22 years to get to read the 5th book in a series, and it was so horrible I lost all interest & haven't read the 6th.

Continuing the tradition of school-required reading, The Great Gatsby. I actually can't remember what I thought of the book itself, but I grew to hate it because there's apparently no standard of what "grade" it is, but it's still widely used. Subsequently, across different grades, I had to read (and do corresponding assignments about) the book four times. It didn't help that I could start and finish the thing really quickly, but then class would still be going on about it for weeks.

Of course, I wound up having a grudge against all school reading. Not because of it being forced, but because it meant reading aloud, and that meant every single person in every English class I've ever taken http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yaKxRN2LdEI for an hour every single day.

Oh, God, NO! You just had to remind me of the same nightmares of the class reading through Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH in 4th grade...GAH! No wonder I've always liked the movie better.

I hate pretty much all of them. The only books I've ever somewhat closely read cover to cover is the Hobbit and King James version of the Bible. While both are fiction, I kinda preferred the Hobbit most -- better story. It was really tough getting my GE in college out of the way, since I have the attention span of my 4 week old daughter, and so asking someone like myself to read a handful of these thick books is like torture. I wound up passing with flying colours by getting the quick version of the books on Sparknotes and other crap (it helped that there were so many pointless "touchy, feely" papers one would bs their way through), and learning how to paraphrase and where in the books to cite. Without a doubt, English skills are required to make that all work out.

I harbor severe hatred for anything written by Jane Austen.

Modern poetry, mostly. The only poetry I can read without vomiting is classical poetry which I understand as it was pretty much the only form of writing back then. Now, it's just overrated crap that makes you looks smart and optionally romantic.

Atlas Shrugged. I don't care what your message is, make the novel that your expressing your view in a tad less [censored] boring and I might start taking your position more seriously. At least the Communist Manifesto was nice to read, for Christ's sake.

:P I admit I skipped a few pages that went into describing aspects of whaling in far too much detail, but overall I enjoyed Moby dike.


As for my answer to the question, for me it would be... The Old Man Who Read Love Stories, by Luis Sepulveda. I really didn't like the character of the old man, whatever his name was.

Also... Les Planches courbes, by Yves Bonnefoy... in my opinion the most pretentious and overrated poetry I had the (dis)pleasure of studying in highschool.


edit: I don't "hate" either with a passion, though. I just got rid of them as soon as I could!

I actually really liked the book. My most hated one is Millions (by Frank Cottrell Boyce I think). It just seemed like a really childish book (for Year 8) and I just didn't enjoy it at all.

A Separate Peace.

No book has as much revile and distaste in my mind as that one. It was bad the first time, it was even worse the second time, but then the third time with the audio book and then came the MOVIE? Christ on a stick I had too much. It's like every grade in High School had that book on their syllabus without knowing it.

The plot is just awful, bordering on asinine plodding about without purpose, and filled with a hefty dose of homoeroticism and Christ symbolism. I swear to god if I ever have to see another "Christ figure" in a book like that again I'll scream and tear it apart. Phineas fell off a tree and broke his leg and then died BUT THE TREE IS THE CROSS AND PHINEAS IS JESUS CHRIST.

And then the very end: No Gene, you are the Phineas. And then Gene wore a pink shirt.

Agatha Christie :shakehead:

I truly hated the book with a passion too. Only problem, finny fell off the tree and lived, but fell down the stairs and died.

I have tred carefully around this genre, but I don't think it's an inappropriate subject matter for fiction. Fiction is often a more effective means of discussing these matters, although I'll admit with so many powerful non-fiction accounts you would need a very good reason to base a novel on the event.


According to my wife the trick with Austen is realizing they're comedies, and largely making fun of the stuffiness pervades them. I slogged my way though Pride and Prejudice without realizing this and it was awful.

I've yet to put this to the test, but if I somehow ever run out of books to read I'll grab a copy of Emma.

Heavily abridged.

A scholar would faint if he saw this thread! In other news, my favorite books: The Count of Monte Cristo, Crime and Punishment, Peter and Wendy. Least favorite: War and Peace (Tolstoy can't compete with Dostoyevsky.)

Pssh, what I wouldn't have given to have read War and Peace instead of A Separate Peace (three times plus audio book plus movie).

Wait, how can you not get that they're comedies? They are famous for being the blueprint for the romcom! That's why the modern versions (Clueless, Bridget Jones's Diary) work so well.

My most-hated book was The Road by Cormac McCarthy. It's essentially Mad Max without punctuation or characterisation. I hated it so much I left it on the train because I didn't want it in my handbag any longer.

I rarely read books or watch movies because they feel like such an outdated medium compared to video games. But I would have to say anything by Ernest Hemingway. There is absolutely nothing about his stories or writing style that makes it remotely interesting to read. Reading anything written by him is like watching Napoleon Dynamite.

I absolutely despise the book The Black Arrow: A Tale of Two Roses by Robert Louis Stevenson. That book was horrid. I can't even describe my hatred for it, ugh just not a good read at all. It's the only book I hate.

Hey I hate Lord of the Flies as well!!!

I love survival books and the beginning of the book I was in love with, but as [censored] hit the fan I was like, seriously. And the ending made me so angry...

There are a few books I didn't read in school that I am glad I saved until later because I LOVE 1984 but I am sure if I was forced to read it in a week I would have resented it.

EDIT: Princess, did you happen to watch the movie? I didn't read the book but I really enjoyed the movie. I don't think many movies pull of the lonely desperation it did so well.

A game of thrones. Its the geek/nerd equivilent of twilight.

Something that reads like a creepy fanfic, generally dull characters and manages to get a cult following. I felt bad just checking it out from the library. Glad I didnt actuallt buy the damn thing.

:angry:



:tongue:

I don't like Lord Of The rings, I think they're just dull and made better as movies.