Worst Book You've Read in High School?

Pre-College Issues High School Life
1

<p>So I'm finishing up Tess of the d'Urbervilles (or at least, my class is), and it is by far the worst book I've read. I heard that Hardy's other books aren't any better.</p>

<p>My Lit class had a discussion about it today, and I just wanted to gauge HSL's opinions about the worst book you've been forced to read (at least the Sparknotes for) in high school. </p>

<p>My top 5:
- Tess of the d'Urbervilles, Thomas Hardy
- Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte
- Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, Frederick Douglass
- A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens
- Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain (actually, anything by Twain.)</p>

2

<p>I had to read the Princess and the Goblin. I thought it was a joke at first.</p>

3

<p>Macbeth by Shakespeare, I never liked it. I usually like his stuff, but this one was a bore.</p>

4

<p>Ethan Frome sucked.</p>

5

<p>I literally just had to bear through the first 46 pages of Wuthering Heights. Took me almost four hours because I kept falling asleep, partially from being tired and partially from the book being so damn awful.</p>

<p>P.S. I loved Huck Finn, I have no idea how you can dislike it. lol</p>

6

<p>Of the books read in class I did not like Pride and Prejudice and some other book I can’t remember the name of two years ago. I’m not a fan of Jane Austen to be frank. We read parts of Romeo and Juliet two yeras ago too, and I didn’t like it.</p>

7

<p>I just read Hardy’s Return of the Native… and it wasn’t that bad. My friend who had to read “Tess” also hated it though, and she’s a hardcore lit nerd like me.
As for worst books…
“The Shack” – William P. Young (religious commercial fiction? I couldn’t believe it was assigned :confused: )
“The Jungle” – Upton Sinclair (though I do have a twisted appreciation for it, sort of, but it was SO BORING. plus it was summer homework)
“Romeo & Juliet” – Shakespeare. I know it’s a play… but it’s a god-awful play haha.
If I think of more I’ll post!</p>

8

<p>Did anyone have to read A world lit only by fire for AP Euro…?</p>

9

<p>The Crystal Cave: This book was just weird. Don’t read it.</p>

<p>Heart of Darkness: It’s dense and hard to read, racist and dehumanizing, and boring beyond belief.</p>

<p>The Scarlet Letter: Hawthorne is the absolute most boring author ever. This was back when I at least tried to read boring books instead of just CliffNoting them, and I fell asleep multiple times.</p>

<p>Those three are tough to beat.</p>

10

<p>@FallenAngel I just think it’s extremely inconsistent, and the way Twain kept using exclamation points bugged the crap out of me. After Huck almost gets hit by the boat, the book just gets really dumb. Who knows, it might have been that I had a terrible student teacher at the time. He also taught us Frederick Douglass…</p>

11

<p>My favorite of these threads is <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/high-school-life/528930-what-boringest-book-youve-ever-had-privilege-reading.html?highlight=boringest[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/high-school-life/528930-what-boringest-book-youve-ever-had-privilege-reading.html?highlight=boringest&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

12

<p>My Antonia is pretty terrible, though after analysis it got better.</p>

13

<p>Pretty much any romantic or Victorian novel (eg Pride and Prejudice or Ethan Frome)</p>

<p>Also, Siddhartha sucked >.<</p>

14

<p>The Fall by Camus. Fortunately, the work for that book was just Socratic seminars, so I got by without reading more than a couple of pages.</p>

15

<p>The Usual Rules by Joyce Maynard
Candide by Voltaire</p>

<p> o but i actually liked scarlet letter </p>

16

<p>Whirligig.
I don’t remember who it is by, but it was absolutely terrible.</p>

17

<p>I loved Candide.</p>

18

<p>Scarlet Letter</p>

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19

<p>Well, I never in all my life understood the point of studying literature. It sucks. Well this is my opinion about it :D</p>

20

<p>Invisible Man.</p>