What was the dumbest "classic" mandatory reading book you suffered through in high school and why?

Great expectations

When someone hates a book, it often says more about that reader not being receptive to the ideas, style, or cultural overtones in the book rather than the book itself being stupid or poorly written.

Having said that, the absolute worst classic book I read was Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad. A distant second was Catcher in the Rye. 100 Years of Solitude was unreadable for me because I just got lost.

OP, for what it's worth, I loved Life of Pi.

Beowulf was absolutely idiotic, just a dumb story about dragons. To me English class today is a monumental waste of time, more than half of the class is spent reading and analyzing "themes" which are really just unessecarilly long explanations of symbols that supposedly represent more than they actually do. I remember reading somewhere that a college student was at a lecture about a book he/she had to read and asked the author something along the lines of "on page xxx when the character is in a room that is painted blue, my teacher said that the blue represented and showed the depressed mood that the character was in, what is your take?" and the author responded with something like "the room was blue because that's what color I felt like making the room". I've been able to say to myself at least once every time I've read a book for English class "maybe that scene or this event means what happens or it means nothing and is there to fill a would be plot hole or something".

Runner1/2/1 wrote:

Great expectations

Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner!

I think if I'd read Catcher in the Rye in H.S., I probably would have liked it, but I read it as an adult and couldn't stand it. One of the few books I've started and not finished.

I'm surprised by some of the stuff on mandatory H.S. lists these days.....Life of Pi? The school I teach at is still making kids slog through Billy Budd and the Scarlett Letter as if nothing notworthy has been written for the last 100 years or more.

Totally disagree on Good Earth. Read it in HS and thought it was great.

I'm an English teacher, so I've read most of the insufferable stuff--and I've assigned some of it, too.

I can't stand Catcher, either. Holden Caulfied just annoys me.

Most of all I cannot tolerate Gatsby. Not only do I not give a rat's ass about Gatsby himself, but Nick Carraway, the narrator, seems not to have a soul. He's not showily repugnant like Tom Buchanan; he just can't seem to make himself care about anything. The only thing he does of any value is to attend Gatby's funeral and tell his story.

We read "Thanatopsis" just so I get a chance to make fun of it.

Yes, I find Romeo to be melodramatic and silly. Shakespeare wrote a number of better tragedies, Macbeth and Othello especially. I have no particular investment in Hamlet or King Lear.

So, yeah, we can do better.

Ben L Wrong wrote:

"To kill a Mockingbird" by Harper Lee.

Yeah, that's awful and then you realize that WHY that book is required reading and become very cynical.

Killer Angels.

It was a LONG book about the civil war.

I had to read like 3/4 of the book the last 3 days of the summer to finish on time. So incredibly painful. If I had to do it again I don't know if I could.

Here is an excerpt:

This pointless general climbed to the top of this hill and saw the oncoming troops. Then he walked to the bottom of the hill and did something different. Then he did something else, followed closely by another thing.

The scarlet letter was dreadful. I did not finish it though. The time and setting and ideas did not appeal to me I guess.

However I enjoyed many other mandatory books and I think they were what made me get into reading.

Grapes of wrath

the bean trees

catch 22

the good earth

black like me

Was just about to slam Grapes of Wrath. Did not like Steinbeck.

Beowulf. ..horrid

Beloved....zzzzzzzz

The one where the guy was an insect....zzzzzzzzzz

Portrait of an Artist...oof

Crime Stats wrote:

Ben L Wrong wrote:

"To kill a Mockingbird" by Harper Lee.

Yeah, that's awful and then you realize that WHY that book is required reading and become very cynical.

Yeah yeah, heaven forbid there be a story about a black man being mistreated...cynicism is the answer!

gold counter wrote:

The Good Earth by Pearl Buck. As I recall it's about 600 pages of feudal farming in China. The last 100 or so pages are decent but the 500 you read to get there is pure torture.

I've read TKAM and Catcher in the Rye and believe me this is much, much, worse.

I just finished reading that because I've always been curious. But I didn't get the point. It was an interesting insight into a different world but I didn't draw any real lessons of human nature from it.

you're obviously an intentionalist. there are many problems with that idea.

don't advertise your stupidity.

I was about to slam Grapes of Wrath too. I hated it so much. I remember thinking "Why do I care about a turtle crossing the road? Stop wasting my time." But I was oblivious to the writer at work. I actually want to go back and read it again (15 years later) to see if I can appreciate it more.

A Millennial wrote:

Beloved by Toni Morrison and The Awakening by Kate Chopin.

Suffered through both of these, Tess of the D'Urbervilles, and Jane Eyre all in the same class. Clearly a theme picked by our teacher that year.

I was lucky enough to get to read Ender's Game in high school at least.

The worst thing ever though was Moby Dick. Call me Ishmeal then 500 pages of a whaling manual before a paragraph with Moby Dick... The end.

jjjjj wrote:

don't advertise your stupidity.

Pfft. I've read them ALL pal. Joyce, Tolstoy, Hardy, you name it. Dad was a lit professor and I didn't go to no public HS, yo. I did my Latin homework, then read lit written in English.

During HS it was Catcher in the Rye.

I'm just old enough to have missed Beloved storming the HS scene. But I did read it as an adult. That book is hands down the worst one I've ever read.

dracula

My name is Rojo wrote:

I read the whole Goosebumps series during my senior year. Hated every one of those books. But to be fair, that's probably just because I wasn't quite ready for that level of literature yet.

i know you ain't rojo cuz he can't spell Goosebumps