What classic books do you not like/loathe

[Guest Anonymous]

Okay now I'm curious... is there anybody out there who has read To Kill a Mockingbird who DIDN'T like it? Honestly the only people I know who don't never actually read it, just skimmed it for school and watched the movie

I liked it when I read it as a teenager in school. I found it overdone and cloying when I read it again as an adult.

[StarrieEyedKat]

I just the remembered the damn 'Red Badge of courage' that took me two months to get through

I wanted to burn that goddamn book.

[ElphabaGalinda]

Washington Square. Plain girl is wooed by gold digger, gold digger is thwarted by girl's father, girl never marries. DULL.

I actually liked Catcher in the Rye, but I think you have to read it when you're a teenager. I suspect that if I went back and read it now, it would annoy me.

I actually read it for the first time at 17 and found it extremely annoying, so being a teenager didn't make it any better for me.

[ElphabaGalinda]

Not sure how old you are, but I think it might be a generation thing. I was born in the late 70's, and have been accused of "not getting it" by people of my parents generation.

I was born in the early 90s, so maybe I don't get it either. But I think for something to be a real "classic" you shouldn't have to be a certain age or born in a certain time to get it. People of all generations should be able to understand the appeal or i don't think it deserves to be called a classic.

[Terrie]

I actually read it for the first time at 17 and found it extremely annoying, so being a teenager didn't make it any better for me.

Huh. I read it at 15 and while I didn't LOVE it, I did enjoy it.

[celestial]

A Tale of Two Cities. It seemed needlessly drawn out and the characters seemed pretty flat.

[Aerial312]

I've been unable to get into any of Hemingway's novels, though his short story Hills Like White Elephants is one of my favorites.

I'm also not a big fan of Faulkner or Dickens.

[freejoytoo]

I was born in the early 90s, so maybe I don't get it either. But I think for something to be a real "classic" you shouldn't have to be a certain age or born in a certain time to get it. People of all generations should be able to understand the appeal or i don't think it deserves to be called a classic.

I'm about the same age as you and I read it when I was 13 and fell in love and still love it nearly ten years later - I don't know if that says something about me but I just find it very readable and weirdly funny. My mother and I always quote it to each other.

[keen23]

I hated The Great Gatsby. Daisy was so f'ing horrible.

I have a deep loathing for A Confederacy of Dunces. Not a likable character in the bunch

I've never been fond of I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings.

I think that On The Road is a self-indulgent piece of shit.

[jesssnerch]

I'm about the same age as you and I read it when I was 13 and fell in love and still love it nearly ten years later - I don't know if that says something about me but I just find it very readable and weirdly funny. My mother and I always quote it to each other.

Do you ask where the ducks go in the winter? My best friend and I always quote that to each other.

[freejoytoo]

We normally talk about how we fall down the stairs and practically broke our goddamn neck!

[Gizmola]

Count me in as hating Dickens. It just goes on and on and on and on...

I admit I like Jane Austin movies a lot more than the books.

[Seven Severn]

Under the Volcano. I've tried three times and can only get about half way through and I just give up.

[Conuly]

Lord of the Rings, oh my God I just wanted to die. I'm weird though because I like the films.

Well, yeah. In the movies you can just look at all those beautiful vistas, you don't have to read page after page of description of beautiful vistas!

I'll read very nearly anything, but I could never EVER get into reading "Lord of the Flies". Cry the Beloved Country is on my all-time hate list as well, and Childhood's End? The less said, the better. I *did* make it through that book, but never again. NEVER AGAIN.

[phereby]

I've liked most of the books mentioned here.

I loathe Moby Dick. Most boring book ever written in the English language.

I wouldn't say I *loathe* War and Peace, but I've never made it past the third chapter, even though I've started it several times. It's not Tolstoy - I really liked Anna Karenina.

[Deleted10]

Huckleberry Finn is the only one that comes to mind. I HATED that one.

[OkToBeTakei]

I detest ALL Shakespeare. I get called out for saying it all the time. It would appear in literary circles it is akin to saying I hate my child. But I just detest it. There are years of my life I will never get back reading that chap and discussing what it 'may' mean. What parallels to modern life we can draw, etc. I'm sure he is a genius. I just don't care. Shoot me. OH and Chaucer, repeat all the above with bells on.

[JesusFightClub]

I hate Catcher In The Rye. It defines bourgeois self indulgence.

Dickens, I usually like, but Pickwick Papers is utter bollocks. I suppose it may have been vaguely amusing like 200 years ago or something. Great Expectations set my teeth on edge - I could see it was well written but I hated it.

Little Women, creepy.

[Kitty]

Frankenstein. I had to read it 3 times in school, and it was still just so boring and stuffy. I appreciate the symbolism and all that but seriously, GET TO THE POINT.

It's not really a book, but Romeo and Juliet is also really disappointing when you really know what's going on. The fact that Juliet is about 13, and she and Romeo have only known each other for 3 days can really break the story for someone expecting it to be a 16th century cheesy romance.

Oh, and I agree with Fahrenheit 451. Good premise, but I saw it in my high school library, remembered that it's banned in lots of other schools, so I picked it up just for that. Yeah, also disappointing.

And, Huckleberry Finn. I don't hate it, it's not a bad story really, but phoneticized accents are really difficult and annoying to read, even more so than anything Shakespeare wrote. Good luck trying to figure out what Jim's saying.

[twin2]

I thought of two more.

Vanity Fair. I hadn't read it in school, but went with a friend to see it when it was made into a movie a few years ago. I liked it so I got the book. I got about half way through and gave up, I just found it torturous to read for some reason.

The Letters of Abelard and Heloise. Dear God, I just wanted to slap both of the senseless.

[Arete]

The Letters of Abelard and Heloise. Dear God, I just wanted to slap both of the senseless.

[OddlyAmused]

Just thought of one that I just finished-Tess of the d'Urbervilles. I spent much of the book wanting to grab Tess and shake her.

[Naga Viper]

The Bible. Seriously, that thing needs a tighter edit. I had to read sections of it in college and couldn't go ten minutes without wanting to punch a wall.

Also, another vote for Tess of the d'Urbervilles, the only book I didn't finish in high school. Although to be fair, seniorities might've played some part in that; I suppose I could give it another shot. I did enjoy Gatsby more as an adult than as a teenager.

[wtfrenchtoast]

The first two that come to mind are Jane Eyre and Heart of Darkness. Jane Eyre I forced myself through the last 200 pages because I refused to let myself read something I really wanted to read until I finished it, and Heart of Darkness was for AP English Literature and was just incredibly painful.

OMG. I had to read it for AP too, and it was the most awful reading assignment EVER. I pretty much loathed it. The only thing I like was that during that same time, the last season of Lost was going on, and they had a pretty cool promo that quoted it: "The horror, the horror!"

[PennySycamore]

I've liked most of the books mentioned here.

I loathe Moby Dick. Most boring book ever written in the English language.

I wouldn't say I *loathe* War and Peace, but I've never made it past the third chapter, even though I've started it several times. It's not Tolstoy - I really liked Anna Karenina.

My 11th grade English teacher would always threaten us with Moby Dick if we misbehaved. She agreed it was the most boring book in English.

I like some of Stephen King, but not everything he's written. I loved the first five books in The Dark Tower series, but try as I might, I just could not get into Song of Susannah. I could not get into Lisey's Story either. My son-in-law is a huge fan of his earlier work. He said Stephen's later work is just different.

I used to read the opening pages of The Hobbit aloud to get my kids to take naps. That might say something good about the book -or not.