Best and Worst Books You Had to Read in School

[FrostRanger]

Hands Down for me, "The Scarlet Letter" by Nathaniel Hawthorne, got an "F" on my paper, I can't believe I remember the author., Junior English, 1967, Vietnam era, best read was "The Ugly American", same yr same teacher, only A+ in the class. The ol' if I'm interested I'll engage, if not, C Ya.!

I had to read the scarlet letter in 12th grade ap lit, it was fine, not great but I've read worse, I certainly wasn't that interested in it either, I do wish schools would provide more interesting required reading material, horrible books that one is required to read killed the love of reading for many sadly

 

[FrostRanger]

Best: The Remains of the Day. Follows the life of an English butler, whose employer is a Nazi sympathizer. Highly recommend.

Worst: Grendel. It's a 70's twist on Beowulf, a story so old it probably pre-dates Jesus. Grendel is the monster in Beowulf. This "reimagining" is from his point of view.

Grendel has a surprising amount of feelings for someone that likes to eat people. Grendel looks out at the sea and contemplates life. Grendel has an overbearing mother (author projection?). Grendel has the hots for the king's new wife. It did drop the c-word at one point, which was about the most exciting thing to happen in the book. Worst of all, we had to discuss Grendel in English class for SIX MONTHS! I kid you not.

I actually tried to read it again 25 years later, thinking it couldn't have been that bad... I could not keep my eyes open. Sorry, Grendel.

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Best: The Remains of the Day. Follows the life of an English butler, whose employer is a Nazi sympathizer. Highly recommend.

Worst: Grendel. It's a 70's twist on Beowulf, a story so old it probably pre-dates Jesus. Grendel is the monster in Beowulf. This "reimagining" is from his point of view.

Grendel has a surprising amount of feelings for someone that likes to eat people. Grendel looks out at the sea and contemplates life. Grendel has an overbearing mother (author projection?). Grendel has the hots for the king's new wife. It did drop the c-word at one point, which was about the most exciting thing to happen in the book. Worst of all, we had to discuss Grendel in English class for SIX MONTHS! I kid you not.

I actually tried to read it again 25 years later, thinking it couldn't have been that bad... I could not keep my eyes open. Sorry, Grendel.

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Huh, I read Beowulf in 12th grade but I don't recall if our teacher mentioned the spin off, she might have but I graduated years ago so I don't remember

 

[OnlySympathy]

I honestly just don’t ready them . I’ve always got some of the highest scores on the essays for them even without reading them so I don’t see the point. And yes I know it isn’t a good habit or anything but half my classes are college level so the more time I have the better

I read them up until like halfway through 9th grade but I have 0 memory of what any of them were called but I know I didnt like any other than the ones about WW2. i did half read (just skimmed the entire book basically) The Metamorphosis last year and have no clue how I feel about that one. I liked and hated it at the same time

 

[FrostRanger]

Best: To Kill a Mockingbird is one of the best books I've ever read. I've read it several times, and it is different every time, due to different amounts of life experience.

Worst: My early American History textbook.

Yes, I agree, The Grapes of Wrath was long and tedious.

My mom and I both read Condominium one summer. We both hated it. Why? Neither of us gave a damn about any of the characters. I felt the same way about Gone Girl. I disliked both the main characters. Now if anything is compared to it ("It's the next Gone Girl"!), I don't even give it a glance.

Pretty much how I felt about the great Gatsby, all the characters were awful and everything is happening because they're awful, what was even the point of all that?

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Pretty much how I felt about the great Gatsby, all the characters were awful and everything is happening because they're awful, what was even the point of all that?

You're supposed to learn not to be awful?

 

[thecatumbrella]

horrible books that one is required to read killed the love of reading for many sadly

Yep. I loved to read as a kid. High school killed it for me. Finally rekindled my love for books in my 30's.

I honestly just don’t ready them

I don't blame you. The time commitment on a lot of required reading is pretty heavy.

 

[azurbanclucker]

Best: 1984.
Worst: 1984.

A heck of a lot more people should have read it, and not just the Cliff Notes.

 

[SourRoses]

It was middle school and the most depressing, demoralizing, horrifying book. I can't remember the name but it was set in China told from three viewpoints... The young wife from a poor family who had no option to marry her husband, the husband, and a concubine.
The wife is the main character though. Her life is constant drudgery with no hope of escape. She works in the field every day and then in the house all evening. She gives birth alone in the field, and is back doing manual labor in the sun a few days later, only with an infant strapped on.
Then her husband's perspective is how bored with his life and wife he is because she works hard and is sturdy, so he falls in love with this concubine for her "delicate" tiny feet.
The concubines perspective is of constant pain from her wrapped feet, and can hardly walk, but she has no other options in life besides starving. So she works hard to gain male attention and eventually has to settle for the impoverished husband who, if I'm remembering right, pretended to have more funds and be more important.
Eventually the concubine needs help and he convinces her to move home with him. The wife, who has more kids by then, has to play servant to the concubine.

I get that it was supposed to be relating historical facts in a narrative story. But that book was "I'm losing the will to live" level of misery.
So I had my own book on my lap half shoved under the desk during class reading.
Mine was much more interesting... The Saddle Club, with horses!
I've always been a voracious reader. My mom and I would go once a week to buy a new book each and then go out to dinner just us girls and read while we ate.
As an adult I still read because it's fun. I've always resisted the "classics' which I think gained their status because they made people so miserable it took them time to suffer through them so they weren't in a race and could share them as a social experience. Just a theory.
"Little Women" was also sooo depressing. There was so much foreshadowing, you could tell it was all going to go wrong. So I quit a few chapters in, lol.

 

[Evadig]

I hated all the reading they made me do in high school. I don’t remember the titles, because I read the book just enough to write the dumb report on the subject.

My favorite thing to read was, is, and always will be a plain old history book!

 

[FrostRanger]

It was middle school and the most depressing, demoralizing, horrifying book. I can't remember the name but it was set in China told from three viewpoints... The young wife from a poor family who had no option to marry her husband, the husband, and a concubine.
The wife is the main character though. Her life is constant drudgery with no hope of escape. She works in the field every day and then in the house all evening. She gives birth alone in the field, and is back doing manual labor in the sun a few days later, only with an infant strapped on.
Then her husband's perspective is how bored with his life and wife he is because she works hard and is sturdy, so he falls in love with this concubine for her "delicate" tiny feet.
The concubines perspective is of constant pain from her wrapped feet, and can hardly walk, but she has no other options in life besides starving. So she works hard to gain male attention and eventually has to settle for the impoverished husband who, if I'm remembering right, pretended to have more funds and be more important.
Eventually the concubine needs help and he convinces her to move home with him. The wife, who has more kids by then, has to play servant to the concubine.

I get that it was supposed to be relating historical facts in a narrative story. But that book was "I'm losing the will to live" level of misery.
So I had my own book on my lap half shoved under the desk during class reading.
Mine was much more interesting... The Saddle Club, with horses!
I've always been a voracious reader. My mom and I would go once a week to buy a new book each and then go out to dinner just us girls and read while we ate.
As an adult I still read because it's fun. I've always resisted the "classics' which I think gained their status because they made people so miserable it took them time to suffer through them so they weren't in a race and could share them as a social experience. Just a theory.
"Little Women" was also sooo depressing. There was so much foreshadowing, you could tell it was all going to go wrong. So I quit a few chapters in, lol.

I like historical stuff. The way you described the book reminds me of the audio book I've been listening through, blood meridian. It follows a teen known only as the kid as he survives the old west, however, it's a more historically accurate old west rather than the romanticized old west you see in westerns. It's not pretty. There are no good guys in the story, simply brutal people surviving in brutal times and it goes in detail on how brutal things were. The kid's group being tailed by wolves constantly at one point is the absolute least of their worries here. Enjoyable reading? No, not really, but it is interesting seeing the side of the old west that isn't usually brought up