What classic books do you not like/loathe

[formergothardite]

I was forced to read Moby Dick 4 times in my educational career. I finally got it, to me Moby Dick was about a struggle between good and evil, with Ahab being the evil and the White Whale representing good.

Still could have gotten that whole point in one chapter. :lol: That story is too damn long. My mother made me read it. She was all about making us read the classics.

[freejoytoo]

I've never read Moby Dick but it always makes me think of the bit in Matilda where she tells her dad what she's reading and he frowns and says, "Moby WHAT?!"

[Sweetpea1]

Moby Dick is just waaay too long. I had to read it in college. I think I was the only one who didn't really get into the story that much. I loved Bartleby the Scrivener, though. That story was summarily dismissed by my professors as too ordinary.

[sparkles]

The Lord of the Rings trilogy just makes me want to gouge out my eyes with a spork. Even if it was cut down to one book, it would have been too long by about 50%.

I have a long history with Heart of Darkness in that I've been trying to finish it for about 40 years. I buy the book, get to a specific spot, put the book down, lose it, wait a couple of years, buy a new copy, get to a specific spot...lather, rinse, repeat. It's always the same damned spot. I think if I ever actually finish the damned thing, it will signal the Apocalypse.

I absolutely fucking LOVE Atlas Shrugged but mainly because I think it's the most brilliant comedy in the history of the world. The writing is just so eye-rollingly bad, everything is black and white, no nuance. And nothing like taking an interesting premise and beating it to death with a stick. Subtlety, thy name is NOT Ayn Rand. I got a friend of mine at work to read it and we had our own little Atlas Shrugged book discussion every lunch hour. We just about peed ourselves laughing. I don't think I'll ever get through Galt's speech though. Guess I'll have to wait for part 2 of the movie...

Overall, I'm a big fan of the classics although there's still a lot of literature that I know I SHOULD read but don't because the stories just don't interest me. I'm resigned to being an uneducated blob for the rest of my life.

[fakepigtails73]

I didn't like "On The Road". Not crazy about "Catcher In the Rye" either; as I read it I understood why it's the favourite book of most mass murderers though...Some Dickens I liked, others less. Never got into Jane Austen, at all.

In French, I really hate Marcel Proust's novels. So long and tedious, they really shouldn't make it madatory reading in high-school, it will turn kids away from litterature for ever! Horrible. Loved Alexandre Dumas père's historical novels and some of Victor Hugo's classics, although Les Misérables is pretty long.

ETA: Among the Québécois French "classics" I loathed "Kamouraska". Had to read it in a French college class, oh man it was horrible. I remember the teacher proudly announcing that the title was brillant because it has the word "amour" (love) woven into it... :think: :doh: Idiot, the title is the name of the village that the story happens in. The first 60 years of Québec French lit. is, 90% of the time, about a stranger entering a small village and wreaking "havoc" because he's tall and handsome and, worst of all, a non-practicing Catholic (the horror!) or, man leaves remote Qc village to try his luck elsewhere. Much hijinks ensues (yawn).

[shedemei]

Anna Karenina. Fluffy, eye-rolling, nobility angst.

Trying to read War and Peach immediately afterward was a mistake. I slogged through 2/3 of it then decided that it was OK to stop.

[tropaka]

Hated The Great Gatsby. Hated Sons and Lovers. Hated Catcher in the Rye. All of them bored me to sleep.

Do love Stephen King - well, early Stephen King - Carrie, Salem's Lot, Stand by Me....the stuff he wrote while hopped up and since just kind of bores me. Did love his Dance Macabre.

[Lillybee]

One high school read that I hated was Beowolf in old english.

[luckystone]

I love, love, love The Catcher in the Rye but from what I've seen in real life I seem to be very alone in that opinion.

I love it too! Well, I did when I read it several years ago. I haven't re-read it yet to see if it holds up with the older and improved me, lol. I was a teenager then. I like a few other things that have been on the hate list so far, like "The Scarlet Letter". I thought it was very forward-thinking!

I disliked "The Hobbit" because it was very boring, I didn't finish it. Same with "Lord of the Rings" (only managed a few pages). I didn't like "Great Gatsby" but I didn't HATE it. I found "Emma" very boring but most Austen I like. I struggle with Dickens, I do enjoy his books but often they are too long, wordy and complicated (probably due to being serials), I struggled with "Bleak House" for months, I enjoyed the main plot but there were so many characters with silly names I lost track. I also disliked "Fiesta" and haven't been game to try any more Hemingway. Oh, and I'll add a vote for "Atlas Shrugged" on my boyfriend's behalf, I know he hates it.

As for modern books, I hated "God of Small Things". Yuck.

[freejoytoo]

Sounds like we have similar taste! I really appreciate Austen as an author but I find it hard to get into some of her novels. I'm okay with Dickens as long as he isn't trying to be funny, because he fails at it.

[luckystone]

I find him funny in parts, but maybe unintentionally. Like when someone with a ridiculous name says and does something bizarre.

[jaynie]

The only book I ever actually quit on was Robinson Crusoe. It was a while ago, but I remember it being the most unbearably tedious thing I had ever read, and I read Les Miserables (unabridged) when I was twelve! I also slogged through the Lord of the Rings -- I'll readily defend Tolkien as a creative genius but the only story of his I'd ever read again is Roverandom, which is mercifully brief.

Generally I'm quite forgiving of long wordy old books, and I have come to realize that a lot of the seemingly irrelevant detail in Les Mis is actually quite meaningful if you happen to be the world's expert on 1800s Parisian life. But I have lately decided that there is no shame in watching a good movie adaptation (key word being good) if there is a classic novel with interesting ideas that is just too unpleasant to read (I really liked the BBC Crime and Punishment miniseries, for example). Actually on that note, the musical Les Mis is quite a faithful adaptation too (way more so than you might expect). Sure you miss some details, but if you were never going to read a particular book in the first place, why not fill in the gaps in your cultural knowledge in a more palatable form?

I also like Shakespeare, but I prefer to watch the plays rather than read them (I lose track of who is speaking, otherwise).

On a slightly related note, as a child of the 90s there are many classic books I think I've read, only to suddenly remember that I'd seen the Wishbone version on TV instead. Does anyone else get that?

[freejoytoo]

Haha, absolutely. I loved Wishbone!

I love your avatar :lol:

[darareaksmey]

I so detested Moby Dick. Chapters on the whale's eye, chapters on the whale's tail--wtf? I also hated Catcher in the Rye and all of Salinger's stories.

But unlike a lot of you, I love Dickens. I think A Tale of Two Cities is probably the most thrilling book I've ever read; and Bleak House is a scream.

[jaynie]

Haha, absolutely. I loved Wishbone!

I love your avatar :lol:

:) It's a quote from the Big Fat Quiz of the Year, though I have no idea *which* year. It seemed appropriate somehow!

Wishbone was pretty fantastic, and is pretty good proof that children's tv doesn't have to be mindless or dumbed down.

[tacky]

I hated Catcher in the Rye too. Moby Dick was pure torture. I like the LOTR trilogy, but had a really difficult time getting into the first book. Once I got about a third of the way into it, I was fine. The other two read really easily for me, but I know a lot of people who hate the whole series and still love the movies. The Good Earth, by Pearl Buck was really difficult for me to get through. I almost dropped AP English after that one, having plodded my way through 1984 just prior.

I like Jane Austen. My middle daughter was named Emma after the Austen novel. I loved that one when I read it in high school.

[lilwriter85]

One high school read that I hated was Beowolf in old english.

One of my high school English teachers also had us read that too and I disliked it.

[mockingbird]

The Catcher in the Rye

Of Mice and Men

Heart of Darkness

1984 (more out of bad memories associated with the time I was reading this book, than actual dislike of the book itself)

Not a classic, but I've read it in tons of classes - The Kite Runner. I REALLY HATE this book. The literary devices are so obvious that it just ruins the story for me - doesn't flow because I feel like he just added some events, characters, etc. in just to make his book seem more literary.

In general, I don't really like epic poems. I just find them really tedious. Canterbury Tales and Aurora Leigh (Victorian epic by Elizabeth Barrett Browning) were ok. I honestly think for all the other ones I have had to read (Beowulf, Aenid, Paradise Lost etc) I just gave up and read the spark notes.

I was an English major, but not really a classics reader. I do like Victorian fiction but at the same time, it can be a veeeerrrrry slow read. (LOVE Vanity Fair so far though! I love that he makes fun of all the things we complain about in Victorian novels.) Professors used to always ask us what our favorite books were and the joke was that if you said Ulysses you were lying because nobody actually understands it. I was always honest and said Harry Potter. lol

eta - favorite classic author is Ernest Hemingway for short stories, not totally sure about novels because there are single books that stand out, but I haven't read all of one author's work yet. I didn't really get into Shakespeare until I visited the Globe Theatre. Like I said, I've never really been into classics. My undergrad thesis was on modern literature and I also did an independent research class and wrote about Harry Potter. :D

[Mommy22alyns]

Moby Dick! Holy crap, who CARES about the whiteness of the whale!?!?!?!

[mnb357]

"The Hound of the Baskervilles." I had to read it in 7th grade, and I think I was woefully incapable of comprehending it. I felt like flying apart whenever silent, sustained reading began. The book gave me a headache. I finally got the Monarch Notes from the public library, skimmed them, and declared myself finished with the book. I also loathed "The Old Man and the Sea," but that's probably because our English teacher gave us stupid daily assignments to do like ranking the fish.

[FaustianSlip]

Um... I like Joyce. Dubliners is one of my all-time favorite books, and I liked Portrait of the Artist, as well. That said, I read Finnegan's Wake (of my own volition!) for a research paper I did in high school (the topic was the influence of Finnegan's Wake on the writing of "I Am the Walrus"- findings inconclusive, in case you're wondering), and that really was a bridge too far, even for me.

Anyway, I agree with the less-than-enthused assessments of Dickens, who I also loathed due to his verbal diarrhea. I did enjoy Great Expectations, though, weirdly. I remember having to read Ivanhoe my sophomore year of high school and hating it with the fiery heat of a thousand suns. Ugh, what a shitshow of a book. The Scarlet Letter was bad, as well, but the lameness of the book was mitigated by having an awesomely snarky teacher that year who rewarded our efforts by allowing us to watch the ridiculous movie adaptation featuring Demi Moore, which was so bad it was awesome. I really wanted to love LOTR, but it was a really hard slog for me, for some reason. Little Women scarred me for life when my mom got a bit weepy when she read it aloud to me (during the particularly sad part, which I won't spoil for anyone who hasn't read it), but I adore Little Men and Louisa May Alcott's other work. I had to read A Light In August for AP English one summer, almost slit my wrists and haven't gone near Faulkner since.

I read Catcher In the Rye my freshman year of high school and loved it, read it multiple times, then felt kind of weird about it because of the unsavory associations the book has with John Lennon getting murdered. I haven't read it since high school; I may have to give it a reread at some point. I love Orwell, though I think Down and Out In Paris and London is a much more interesting read than 1984. Shakespeare is great, but I agree with whoever said it's much better to watch than it is to read.

[FaustianSlip]

Also, Escaped Cardinal, your avatar of Mr. B Natural there both amuses and terrifies me.

"Well, excuse me, sexless man-woman!"

[mockingbird]

The grade above me got so fed up with Moby Dick that my 10th grade teacher just gave us an outline and showed us some scenes from the movie. We all loved her for that though I don't see why we couldn't have just skipped it in the first place and read something else, maybe it was a state standard or something. I have no desire to actually read it.

[Guest Anonymous]

The Catcher in the Rye

Of Mice and Men

Heart of Darkness

1984 (more out of bad memories associated with the time I was reading this book, than actual dislike of the book itself)

Not a classic, but I've read it in tons of classes - The Kite Runner. I REALLY HATE this book. The literary devices are so obvious that it just ruins the story for me - doesn't flow because I feel like he just added some events, characters, etc. in just to make his book seem more literary.

In general, I don't really like epic poems. I just find them really tedious. Canterbury Tales and Aurora Leigh (Victorian epic by Elizabeth Barrett Browning) were ok. I honestly think for all the other ones I have had to read (Beowulf, Aenid, Paradise Lost etc) I just gave up and read the spark notes.

I was an English major, but not really a classics reader. I do like Victorian fiction but at the same time, it can be a veeeerrrrry slow read. (LOVE Vanity Fair so far though! I love that he makes fun of all the things we complain about in Victorian novels.) Professors used to always ask us what our favorite books were and the joke was that if you said Ulysses you were lying because nobody actually understands it. I was always honest and said Harry Potter. lol

eta - favorite classic author is Ernest Hemingway for short stories, not totally sure about novels because there are single books that stand out, but I haven't read all of one author's work yet. I didn't really get into Shakespeare until I visited the Globe Theatre. Like I said, I've never really been into classics. My undergrad thesis was on modern literature and I also did an independent research class and wrote about Harry Potter. :D

Yes, this. I hate The Kite Runner. It's absolute bilge. I want to punch that book in the neck.

[mkitten]

Dickens' women, let's see. Estella: ice queen. Miss Havisham: deranged bridezilla. Nancy: tragic victim. Mrs. Cratchit: helpmeet. Yeah, I see what you're getting at. I haven't gone through his entire works, but out of the stuff I have read, the strongest female character I can come up with off the top of my head is...the Ghost of Christmas Past..

Loathe Dickens, especially Great Expectations. All I can see when I think of the book is Miss Havisham and the moldy wedding cake with the yellowing wedding dress. Yuck. I love Tolkein: LOTR, The Hobbit, etc. but I do have to confess that I really can't stand the chapters where it's just Frodo and Sam; I just skip past the whole thing and go the next volume.