What are books that you have had to read for school that you absolutely hate?

[cricketcrazynerd]

the god of small things- i had to write a speech on it...i never actually read the book and understood the basic story from wikipedia (yet i ended up scoring full marks )

[Lydia Marie]

Romeo & Juliet.... AWFUL play. I like Shakespeare as much as a balanced, sane person can like Shakespeare (he's kind of a BAMF when it comes to language) but I just thought that the plot was something the world could do without. I know that times were way different when it was set, but there is no way that two emotionally under-developed, melodramatic tweens so infatuated with each other that they ignore the consequences of their actions and the impact that it has on EVERYONE around them (seriously...the entire city was affected by it in some parts).... where was I again? Oh yeah. No way does that qualify as true love and anyone who says that relationship sets the standard for relationships everywhere needs help.

1984.... I like the politics and the dystopian theme, but I'm just so frustrated with people trying to turn Winston and Julia's political relationship into a romantic one. The Party had so distorted relationships between people that I highly doubt those two would be capable of what we consider a romantic relationship. That being said, they were as much in love as they could be considering the circumstances. It's really not the book, it's the people that think that every book needs to have some sort of romantic aspect.

Can I just say that Agnes Grey was an awful book too? I'm genuinely sorry that Anne didn't seem to inherit the Bronte gift her sisters did. I think Agnes is the most ridiculous, unrelatable character I've read about, except perhaps Bella Swann from That Series That Shalt Not Be Named. Agnes is far too perfect, righteous, and unchanging. The constant moralizing drives me crazy.

[halfbloodqueen]

I really didn't like most of the pre IB texts I had to read... including Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart.

As for IB texts- I can't say I love anyone of the ones I had to read, with the exception of Jane Eyre. Everyone in every novel is batty! Even Jane isn't very normal.

The two that I really really didn't enjoy reading were:

Sailor who fell from grace with the sea by Yukio Mishima

The Ousider/ The Stranger by Albert Camus

I simply couldn't understand why the characters acted the way they did. Neither could I bring myself to empathize with them.

There there is the Sorrow of War by Bao Ninh. I hated the graphic description of violence, and the wonderfully disturbing way Bao Ninh writes of the war. I can't help but admire and wonder at the way the author was able to conjure such assulting scenes after scenes that traps the reader with the characters.

On the other hand, I also hated the depressing feeling I got after reading the book. I couldn't really understand the main character either, his insistance on turning away from society. I guess I'll just have to be grateful I don't understand, because I never had to live through a terrible war.

[laura15badillo]

The Scarlet Letter!!! i hated it haha

[ninnielle]

Adiga's The White Tiger... Oh dear god it just does not do it for me, but I guess we need to have a balance between great classic literature and... well this. And Macbeth I do not particularly hate, yet think that Shakespeare has written far better plays. We also read The Alchemist for Finnish which was the greatest disappointment of all. Coelho is completely new to me and somehow at this level I was expecting something a bit more demanding with more content to it. I fail to see where the popularity of the book derives from...

Edited November 5, 2012 by ninnielle

[maereth]

I also had to read white tiger! Wasn't that bad though.. but another book we have to read for English B is Shakespeare's The taming of the shrew and it's absolutely un-readable. Do You think it's a good choice for language B creative writing?

[Angelino Dantas]

Senhora - José de Alencar

Vidas Secas - Graciliano Ramos

Both classics in the brazilian literature, but I just couldn't read them, impossible!! haha

[ChocolateDrop]

I started off hating Hamlet, then towards the end, I started to like it. Maybe it was the promise of finality, as it was finally almost over or maybe I just realised the story was actually quite interesting. I'm not sure. I gave it a chance and it just grew on me. I was pretty sad when it ended, and secretly re-read it again and accepted my fate as an English lit geek.

[Jaydon]

City of the Beasts by Isabel Allende

Thank goodness that was pre-IB work.

Do I spot another QA kid or is it just a coincidence?

[Ambriah]

Ethan Frome & Animal Farm

[alefal]

Love in the Time of Cholera (translated to Norwegian) by Gabriel Garcia Márquez and Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë.

[Arya_17]

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest -- I HATED IT. I also had to read Their Eyes Were Watching God (shudder), which, in my opinion, was a wandering book that chronicled the life of a woman who was like Goldilocks in regards to men instead of porridge. And anything by Kafka that I had to read, but his stuff was just weird.

[supergirldq]

So far Madame Bovary and The Unbearable Lightness of Being!!!!!!!!!! both of them are nightmares!!!!!!!!!!!

[CJSelf]

One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich

[susanne]

While I don't hate One Flew Over the Cuckoo's nest, it's a difficult book to read, just to put it out there;

I really, really don't like LIke Water for Chocolate, the characters are so similar and the plot isn't great either; the only thing to recommend itself is the food and the magical realism's aspect of technique (going off to pixieland, I see)

[Matsu]

The White Tiger and Joyluck Club... absolute waste of time IMHO

"What a ****ing joke."

[Absolutely Positively]

Emily Brontë - Wuthering Heights
Jane Austen - Pride and Prejudice

Ödön von Horváth - Jugend ohne Gott (The Age Of The Fish)
Ismail Kadare - Der zerrissene April (Broken April)

Ferdinand Oyono - Une vie de boy

(Gustave Flaubert - Madame Bovary | It was a little long-drawn-out and tiring to read the book in French but it wasn't all that bad, actually.)

Edited June 19, 2013 by Absolutely Positively

[Dmetri Tabor]

Absolutely DESPISED The Great Gatsby

[the blonde one]

I almost fell asleep in every single reading of Julius Caeser. Hard to follow, boring plotline, and c all of the above.
To Kill a Mockingbird was also pretty boring as well in many parts.

[Darta Jenn Bush]

In our pre-IB year our teacher made us read "How starbucks saved my life", which I absolutely despised. I felt like there is no "nutritional value" in it whatsoever. Ugh. Hate these **** books.