Best/worst novel you were forced to read?

[nuk]

Most of the novels I had to read in school were old and dull. But in my senior high school world lit class, we had to read Catch-22. Possibly the funniest book I've ever read. It inspired me to read the rest of Joseph Heller's books, unfortunately.

In the same class, we read Virgil's Aeneid (sp?). Bob sent 200 spears, Jim sent 150 horsemen, and so on for pages. Ugh.

[I'm Murrin]

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.)

[High Lord Tolkien]

I still get a sick feeling in my stomach when I even think or hear "The Scarlet Letter"

[drew]

I can't remember if it's called 'David' or 'My Name is David'..had to read it in grade 9--the teacher hated the book too, so he spent most of the time shooting down the writting skills and correcting the historical discrepincies.

On the lighter side of that teacher-he also got us to read Byron's 'Prisoner of Chillon' --9 page poem..good stuff!!

[Lord Mhoram]

The Giver. What an awful book.

However one of the best I had to read A Separate Peace by John Knowles...though I don't know if that counts, since I had read it a year before we read it in class. Still, a great novel.

[Ariadoss]

I thoroughly enjoyed Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte! That book was great a novel before its time, I would put her on the level of Shakespeare, I think if she had lived longer she would have unquestionably surpassed him, take a look at her poetry!
Others that were good and that I was forced to read were:
The Jungle by Upton Sinclair; Of Mice and Men & Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck; The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald; The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger; Number the Stars, The Giver, & Gathering Blue by Louis Lowry; the Time Quintet (Book 1 is A Wrinkle in Time) by Madeleine L'Engle; Fallen Angels & Monster by Walter Dean Myers; Animal Farm by George Orwell; The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury; The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (do I need to name the author?); Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen; along with a ton of poets.

Don't get me wrong there a lot of books I was forced to read that I did not enjoy like Homer's the Iliad and the Odyssey (fell asleep), Isabelle Allende's Paula (wanted to kill myself), and Charles Dicken's Hard Times & A Tale of Two Cities (both books had emotionally riveting parts, but Dicken's diction is too repetitive and sarcastic).

[duchess of malfi]

Least favorite would be anything by Charles Dickens, but especially the one called Great Expectations. The exception to that would be Tale of Two Cities, which is the only Dickens other than his Christmas Story that I actually like and enjoy.

Another major downer was Dante. Enjoyed The Inferno, but the books about Purgatory and Paradise were extrememly boring to me. Why should Hell be so much more interesting then Heaven?

I was lucky and enjoyed pretty much everything else I had to read in both high school and college. Don't know that I could even pick out ultimate favorites.

[Alynna Lis Eachann]

An American Childhood, and Hunger of Memory... two different authors, two dreadful books. In the first one, the woman wrote about her childhood, in all its dollhouse/Norman Rockwell-esque glory. *snore*

In the second one, the guy spent half the time complaining about having gotten into school on a scholarship. Like he was singled out for being smart and Hispanic, and he wished he was stupid and Hispanic so he didn't feel so alone, or something. I still don't get that.

[kevinswatch]

Haha, I remember that Hunger of Memory. Well, not really remember it. All I can recall is everything you just said about it, and nothing more. Heh, but yeah, I remember thinking it was strange that he was complaining about being smart and winning scholarships.

I don't recall the first one though. Did we read that in high school? It sounds familiar.

There were some other snoozers in high school...Beloved...and yeah, the Scarlet Letter.

I can't recall off hand any books that I actually enjoyed in high school...heh. The best memories I have of high school english classes involve the Chronicles of the Yoink, heh. Oh, and that project on euphemisms I did. Heh.-jay

[Alynna Lis Eachann]

I liked Beloved, what I read of it. I'll be honest and say I never finished reading The Scarlett Letter, either. I tended to do that because the teacher always ended up explaining everything during class... so what was the point? Another one I hated was As I Lay Dying. Didn't read more than 5 pages of that.

What else didn't I finish reading? The Illiad, The Odyssey, Catcher in the Rye... An American Childhood, of course. Basically, anything I didn't like, I put down in favor of, um, Covenant. And Star Trek, and all that other stuff English teachers say is not worth reading.

I loved The Great Gatsby, though. Definitely finished that one. I liked A Tale of Two Cities, too. And Ishmael... that book was great. Everyone else hated it, though. Baykeeper I finished, too, though it wasn't all that exciting.

Anyone wanna guess what kinds of grades I got in English? Come on, I'll give you great odds on this.

[matrixman]

Best book(s) I read in school: I can't choose between Nineteen Eighty-Four and Flowers For Algernon. Animal Farm was great, too. If I can also throw in plays, then Hamlet and The Crucible were excellent, too! Flowers For Algernon wasn't "forced" on me the first time, as I happened to read it on my own the year before we ended up doing the book for class.

Worst book(s) I read in school: Tess of the d'Hubervilles (or whatever) by Thomas Hardy. Boring and irritating at the same time. Also didn't care for Romeo and Juliet. Our teacher also had us watch the movie adaptation with Olivia Hussey and whatsis name. Again, boring and irritating at the same time.

[Warmark]

This year i was forced to read:
Thrawn Janet by Robert Louis Stevenson. Loved it.
A View from the Bridge by Aurther Miller. OK.
My Fathers Axe by Tim Whinton. OK.
Daddy by Sylvia Plath. Hated it.
George Orwell Essay's - A Hanging and Shooting an Elephant. Good.

We also had to pick a novel to study by ourselves, I chose the wonderful Nineteen-Eighty Four.

[kevinswatch]

Anyone wanna guess what kinds of grades I got in English? Come on, I'll give you great odds on this.

Heh, I'm sure they were better than mine. That's an easy bet.

Ishmael is definately one of those books that I would probably appreciate more now if I read it again. I remember it brought up a lot of interesting points. At the time though, I was probably just mostly thinking, "Dude, it's a talking monkey." Heh. Yeah, I was a loser in high school.

I took a class a few years ago in college called "Ancient Astronomies", but it was more really, as the professor put it, a class about "Life, the Universe, and Everything." The class really helped me open my eyes and think deeper on a lot of those big subjects. We had to read a book called The Third Chimpanzee and it's been a few years since I read it, but I remember it was pretty good. Very interesting stuff. But yeah, it's sort of related to the whole Ishmael thing, which is why I should probably read Ishmael again, heh.

But yeah, that "Ancient Astronomies" was probably the best class I took here in college. The professor was amasing.-jay

[dANdeLION]

Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes & Farenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury were my two favorites. I flat out refused to read The Hobbit. A Tale Of Two Cities was good, but I have to admit I found all the Shakespeare stuff to be quite droll and annoying, until I came across "Much Ado" and "Taming Of The Shrew", and realized he had a sense of humor!

[Cail]

Loved "A Separate Peace", and all the Shakespeare I was forced to read.

Loathed "Bartleby the Scrivener", all Dickens, and a fair amount of James Michener.

[dANdeLION]

I haven't read that Shakespeare one yet. I did end up reading the Hobbit, BTW. It was okay, if you're into that sort of thing

[Ariadoss]

I liked Beloved, what I read of it. I'll be honest and say I never finished reading The Scarlett Letter, either. I tended to do that because the teacher always ended up explaining everything during class... so what was the point? Another one I hated was As I Lay Dying. Didn't read more than 5 pages of that.

I totally forgot about As I Lay Dying, only read the first two "sections" went to the cliffnotes after I gave up, same with Leslie Silko's Ceremony.

[onewyteduck]

Catcher In The Rye. I hated it!

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

[FizbansTalking_Hat]

I was forced to read Jane Austen's - Pride and Prejiduce and at first I was thinking, Fem-nazi Victorian Romance, but it turned out to be one of the best reads I've had in a long time. Lots of satire and humor poking fun at the institutiion of marriage and relationships, cheers.

[Warmark]

Macbeth
The Long, the Short and the Tall.
the outsiders