Best/worst novel you were forced to read?

[Nav]

I'm not sure if it counts, but there was one time we were all herded up into the library and weren't allowed to leave until we loaned one book from the fiction section. I took this odd little book called Lord Foul's Bane.
(The reason I'm not sure it counts is that we weren't really forced to read the book, and we were at least allowed to pick the one we loaned.)

I had to do that when I was at school, but the English teacher didn't think the book I'd picked (can't remember what it was now) would challenge me enough and gave me John le Carre's The Spy Who Came in From the Cold instead.

I read the first four or five chapters, got bored, read the last two and got the highest mark I ever recieved for a book report!

[Lady Revel]

I was forced to read Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness. UGH! Run, far and fast! Never again!

[FizbansTalking_Hat]

Heart of Darkness is a difficult read but when you examine the work in light of the modernist literary movement it makes more sense. There are so many metaphors and themes that touch subjects ranging from gender equality to imperialist propaganda, its very well done, but one thing is for sure its not for everyone. Cheers.

[Alynna Lis Eachann]

Catcher In The Rye. I hated it!

On the other hand, I seem to be the only one here who liked The Scarlett Letter!

Didn't like Catcher in the Rye at all, myself. At the time, I thought the main character was a whiny brat. Now, I might sympathize. Maybe. I'm not sure, of course, as I really have no idea what the book is about, having put it down after the first chapter.

And for the record, I was an A-average student in English. Had one or two Bs during my whole high school English career. Hard work is not all it's cracked up to be. Heh, and they were all Honors and AP classes, too.

[FizbansTalking_Hat]

It's interesting you slam Catcher in the Rye Alynna. I loved it as a teenager, but went back adn re-read last year as an adult and hated it. I think you can relate more to the book as a child, you put yourself in the character's place and can relate to his issues, his woes of being a teen against a world that is just too frustrating, but as an adult you say to yourself, get over yourself and stop being so selfish, to each their own though, cheers.

[Avatar]

Was never too keen on Catcher, but in the end, I really enjoyed Heart of Darkness.

I'll never forget it either. It was a set-work for University english, and I was trying to read it the night before the exam. Struggling through it, I decided that I'd finish it the next morning, as I was only writing the exam at 14h00.

Having decided to give up for the night, I thought I'd just read on for a time, while smoking a quick little bed-time spliff.

Suddenly I realised that this book formed the foundation of Coppola's Apocalypse Now, and before I knew it, the book was finished. Went on to ace the exam as well.

--Avatar

[Lady Revel]

The best novel I was FORCED to read was the Chocolate War, followed closely by Animal Farm.

[kevinswatch]

Heh, I actually liked Catcher in the Rye. It was probably the only book in high school I enjoyed. I still read it every once in a while when I get bored. I just think it's a funny read. Plus it's short...heh.

And for the record, I was an A-average student in English.

Show off. -jay

[The Leper Fairy]

I love 1984... it's never been actually assigned but maybe it counts... I wrote a huge (for me) paper on it and how our government relates to the one described in the book.

Favorite actually assigned things... some of Kurt Vonnegut's short stories, some E. A. Poe, The Fountainhead especially...

I hated 12 angry men, the Crucible, the Glass Menagerie... maybe I'm just not one for plays.

Nuk - I've been reading Catch-22 on my own for ages... although it is really funny, it's also kinda of tedious, I think... I read a chapter about once every other week

Lord Mhoram - You didn't like the Giver?! I remember loving it when I was little...

[Avatar]

I love Catch-22, and read it frequently. Didn't enjoy the sequel, Closing Time as much though.

--A

[ur-bane]

Of the books I was forced to read, the one I liked the best, and one which also sticks in my mind is Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls.

I was young, but I reread it as an adult, and still loved it. As a matter of fact, I think I need to once again read it, as it's been years.

[Usivius]

good topic. Now I have to go back the many years to high school and university... (thanks )
Best I HAD to read:
- "1984", George Orwell
- "The Golden Ass", Lucius Apuleus
- "Inferno", Dante
- "Julian the Magician",Gwendolyn MacEwan (pure magic in modern story-telling)
- "King Lear", Shakespear


Worst:
- "Stone Angel", Margaret Lawrence (so BOOOOORINGGGG!!!)
- "Merchant of Venice", Shakespear (sorry, not one of my faves...)
- "Catcher in the Rye", JD Salinger (I understand why it is read, as some of the haunting images still are with me, but I didn't enjoy it).

[danlo]

A Separate Peace
Othello
The Razor's Edge
Desert Solitaire-Edward Abbey
Brave New World
The Sea Around Us-Rachael Carson
A Nation of Sheep
Of Mice and Men
The Pearl
Lord of the Flies
Glory Road-Bruce Catton
and the very depressing but very good
Death Be Not Proud
All Quiet on the Western Front
& Johnny Got His Gun

worst:
The horribly tedious Dubliners (James Joyce)
and contrary to the above I did not like The Red Pony

I still haven't read Catcher--even tho I was sent to a stuffy male boarding school--or Catch 22

[Nathan]

The worst book I was ever forced to read was Skellig. Written by David Almond, this book received the Carnegie medal and the Whitbread award for Children's book of the year. The only way I think this book could have been children's book of the year is if the children who rated it were mentally retarded.

[Dragonlily]

I remember I loathed my English Lit 101 text. It was full of classic novellas by people like Thomas Mann, Kafka, and Hemingway. Grim grim grim, and not like any people I'd ever met, so there was no way I could relate to it. Don't ask me to go and look up the titles, either, I'd prefer to leave them all blocked out.

More recently was THE STANDING DEAD by Ricardo Pinto, whose immense talent is wasted on his horrible subject matter. An editor stranded me with this one.

ALL SAINTS' DAY by Brent Benoit, EVIDENCE OF THE OUTER WORLD by Janet Bohac, and HOW I FIND HER by Genie Zeiger. These three all arrived in one reviewing package. I had a horrible three weeks of reading, plus I had to keep them all vivid in my mind because I had to analyze them. ALL SAINTS' DAY is as defeatist as they come, and EVIDENCE OF THE OUTER WORLD is a sequence of alienated short stories that makes no sense. My stomach curls again at the thought of them.

HOW I FIND HER would actually be good for some people, because it's a memoir about dealing with a mother with Alzheimer's.

Lastly, and worst, is THE YELLOW SAILOR by Steve Weiner. Another review treat. I can't even bring myself to describe it.

If anyone wants the gory details, see my website. I allowed myself to write hack-and-slash reviews on most of these titles. Sometimes a reviewer needs self-defense skills.

[Marlowe]

Hmmm... Well, I loved The Great Gatsby, Portrait of a Lady and even Ethan Frome- seem to be the only person on the planet (aside from Edith Wharton) who liked that one. I've always had a hard time finishing the books I was assigned in class, mostly because I don't have the patience for being forced to read what I'm not interested in reading. I prefer to come to stuff in my own time, and fortunately, I was clever enough to get by in my classes without always having finished the assignments.

This means if I didn't like a novel I was assigned, I almost never finished it. I got through The Awakening, though. God, how I loathed that one.

[matrixman]

Fizban's "Canadian Literature" thread meant well, but unfortunately, one of the mentioned books is one I definitely hated being forced to read in school: The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz, by Mordecai Richler.

[Usivius]

LOL its actually one fo the Cad lit. books i DID enjoy reading. Be thankful you didn't have to read 'Stone Angel'.... gads!

[taraswizard]

This is sure to compel Sylvanus to reply. Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane. Classic of American lit, my a**. Boring and pointless, beyond the bearing of it. Assigned to 9th grade students at my HS, in the late 60s.

Best assigned reads. HS English class, same 9th grade English class that assigned RBoC, reading of Our Town by Wilder, planted a love for the play that lives on. Seen most of the televised versions since my reading and liked them all, never saw the movie made in the late 40s. My respect and affection for Wilder makes me wish I wish I had liked Bridge at San Luis Rey more than I did. I even like Wilder's play where all the dead bodies are called up by the Biblical rapture.

Reading Hawthorne in my 11th grade English was OK, nothing to get excited about. At the time, I found Scarlett letter very dry and and a little boring (not as boring as RBoC).

These are the three instances that standout in my memory. And I wish Catch 22 had been an assigned reading, but I read it while in HS, around the time the Alan Arkin movie came out.

[The Somberlain]

This year I'm doing The Scarlet Letter... I still haven't been able to force my way past the first few pages. I had to find and read an online synopsis so that I could pretend to have read it. I'll finish it sometime.