[x] Oops - we couldn't find that review.

Listopia


Read These In School - Would Have Preferred A Root Canal

1
The Scarlet Letter
The Scarlet Letter
by Nathaniel Hawthorne 91 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
2
Lord of the Flies
Lord of the Flies
by William Golding 69 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
3
Great Expectations
Great Expectations
by Charles Dickens 57 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
4
Beowulf: A New Verse Translation
Beowulf: A New Verse Translation
by Anonymous, Seamus Heaney (Translator) 57 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
5
Heart of Darkness
Heart of Darkness
by Joseph Conrad 48 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
6
The Old Man and the Sea
The Old Man and the Sea
by Ernest Hemingway 36 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
7
Moby Dick
Moby Dick
by Herman Melville 35 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
8
The Pearl
The Pearl
by John Steinbeck 34 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
9
Wuthering Heights
Wuthering Heights
by Emily Brontë 32 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
10
Things Fall Apart
Things Fall Apart
by Chinua Achebe 27 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
11
The Grapes of Wrath
The Grapes of Wrath
by John Steinbeck 27 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
12
The Great Gatsby
The Great Gatsby
by F. Scott Fitzgerald 26 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
13
Of Mice and Men
Of Mice and Men
by John Steinbeck 26 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
14
A Tale of Two Cities
A Tale of Two Cities
by Charles Dickens 24 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
15
The Canterbury Tales
The Canterbury Tales
by Geoffrey Chaucer, Nevill Coghill (Translator) 23 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
16
The Catcher in the Rye
The Catcher in the Rye
by J.D. Salinger 23 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
17
Where the Red Fern Grows
Where the Red Fern Grows
by Wilson Rawls 19 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
18
The Red Pony
The Red Pony
by John Steinbeck 19 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
19
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
by James Joyce 19 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
20
Animal Farm
Animal Farm
by George Orwell 19 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
21
Tess of the D'Urbervilles
Tess of the D'Urbervilles
by Thomas Hardy 18 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
22
Crime and Punishment
Crime and Punishment
by Fyodor Dostoevsky, Alex Jennings (Narrator) 18 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
23
The Red Badge of Courage and Other Stories
The Red Badge of Courage and Other Stories
by Stephen Crane, Gary Scharnhorst (Editor) 18 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
24
Ethan Frome
Ethan Frome
by Edith Wharton 18 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
25
Silas Marner
Silas Marner
by George Eliot 16 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
26
Island of the Blue Dolphins
Island of the Blue Dolphins
by Scott O'Dell 16 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
27
The Good Earth
The Good Earth
by Pearl S. Buck 15 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
28
Frankenstein
Frankenstein
by Mary Shelley, Maurice Hindle (Editor) 15 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
29
The Crucible
The Crucible
by Arthur Miller 15 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
30
The Sound and the Fury
The Sound and the Fury
by William Faulkner 14 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
31
The Sun Also Rises
The Sun Also Rises
by Ernest Hemingway 14 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
32
Macbeth
Macbeth
by William Shakespeare 13 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
33
Billy Budd, Sailor
Billy Budd, Sailor
by Herman Melville 12 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
34
All Quiet on the Western Front
All Quiet on the Western Front
by Erich Maria Remarque, A.W. Wheen (Translator) 12 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
35
Madame Bovary
Madame Bovary
by Gustave Flaubert, Margaret Mauldon (translator) 12 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
36
Romeo and Juliet
Romeo and Juliet
by William Shakespeare 12 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
37
Hamlet
Hamlet
by William Shakespeare, Richard Andrews (Editor) 12 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
38
The Stranger
The Stranger
by Albert Camus, Matthew Ward (Translator) 11 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
39
The Metamorphosis
The Metamorphosis
by Franz Kafka, Stanley Corngold (Translator) 11 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
40
To Kill a Mockingbird
To Kill a Mockingbird
by Harper Lee 11 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
41
1984
1984
by George Orwell 11 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
42
A Separate Peace
A Separate Peace
by John Knowles 11 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
43
Brave New World and Brave New World Revisited
Brave New World and Brave New World Revisited
by Aldous Huxley 11 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
44
Cry, the Beloved Country
Cry, the Beloved Country
by Alan Paton 10 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
45
The Little Prince
The Little Prince
by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry 10 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
46
Ulysses
Ulysses
by James Joyce 9 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
47
The Aeneid
The Aeneid
by Publius Vergilius Maro, Robert Stuart Fitzgerald (Translator) 8 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
48
The Odyssey
The Odyssey
by Homer, Robert Fagles (Translator) 8 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
49
Jane Eyre
Jane Eyre
by Charlotte Brontë 8 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
49
A Raisin in the Sun
A Raisin in the Sun
by Lorraine Hansberry 8 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
51
The Epic of Gilgamesh
The Epic of Gilgamesh
by Anonymous, N.K. Sandars (Translator) 7 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
52
Don Quixote
Don Quixote
by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, John Rutherford (Translator, Introduction) 7 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
53
A Doll's House
A Doll's House
by Henrik Johan Ibsen 7 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
54
For Whom the Bell Tolls
For Whom the Bell Tolls
by Ernest Hemingway 7 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
55
Old Yeller
Old Yeller
by Fred Gipson 6 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
56
The Mill on the Floss
The Mill on the Floss
by George Eliot 6 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
57
Ethan Frome
Ethan Frome
by Edith Wharton 6 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
58
Gulliver's Travels
Gulliver's Travels
by Jonathan Swift 6 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
59
Ivanhoe
Ivanhoe
by Walter Scott 5 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
60
The Metamorphosis, In The Penal Colony, and Other Stories
The Metamorphosis, In The Penal Colony, and Oth...
by Franz Kafka 5 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
61
The House on Mango Street
The House on Mango Street
by Sandra Cisneros 5 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
62
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
by Frederick Douglass 5 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
63
The Deerslayer: The First War Path
The Deerslayer: The First War Path
by James Fenimore Cooper 5 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
64
The Chocolate War
The Chocolate War
by Robert Cormier 5 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
65
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
by Maya Angelou 5 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
66
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
by Anonymous, Burton Raffel (Translator) 5 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
67
Les Misérables
Les Misérables
by Victor Hugo, Lee Fahnestock (Translator) 5 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
68
Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions
Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions
by Edwin A. Abbott 4 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
69
The Sorrows of Young Werther
The Sorrows of Young Werther
by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Burton Pike (Translator) 4 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
70
My Brother Sam Is Dead
My Brother Sam Is Dead
by James Lincoln Collier, Christopher Collier 4 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
71
Catch-22
Catch-22
by Joseph Heller 4 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
72
The Awakening
The Awakening
by Kate Chopin 4 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
73
Gulliver's Travels and A Modest Proposal
Gulliver's Travels and A Modest Proposal
by Jonathan Swift 4 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
74
Macbeth
Macbeth
by William Shakespeare 4 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
75
To the Lighthouse
To the Lighthouse
by Virginia Woolf 3 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
76
The Tale of Genji
The Tale of Genji
by Murasaki Shikibu, Royall Tyler (Translator) 3 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
76
The Turn of the Screw
The Turn of the Screw
by Henry James 3 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
79
King Lear
King Lear
by William Shakespeare 3 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
80
Nothing But the Truth
Nothing But the Truth
by Avi 3 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
82
Othello
Othello
by William Shakespeare 3 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
83
Number the Stars
Number the Stars
by Lois Lowry 3 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
84
The Giver
The Giver
by Lois Lowry 3 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
85
Fences
Fences
by August Wilson 3 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
86
Dear Mr. Henshaw
Dear Mr. Henshaw
by Beverly Cleary 3 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
87
Pygmalion
Pygmalion
by George Bernard Shaw 3 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
88
Anna Karenina
Anna Karenina
by Leo Tolstoy, David Magarshack (Translator) 3 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
89
Henry V
Henry V
by William Shakespeare 3 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
89
Hiroshima
Hiroshima
by John Hersey 3 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
89
The Rape of the Lock
The Rape of the Lock
by Alexander Pope 3 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
92
Waiting for Godot: A Tragicomedy in Two Acts
Waiting for Godot: A Tragicomedy in Two Acts
by Samuel Beckett 3 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
93
Fahrenheit 451
Fahrenheit 451
by Ray Bradbury 3 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
95
Across Five Aprils
Across Five Aprils
by Irene Hunt 2 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
95
The Killer Angels
The Killer Angels
by Michael Shaara 2 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
95
The Mayor of Casterbridge
The Mayor of Casterbridge
by Thomas Hardy, Keith Wilson (Introduction and Notes) 2 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
95
My Antonia
My Antonia
by Willa Cather 2 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
99
West with the Night
West with the Night
by Beryl Markham 2 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
99
Dracula
Dracula
by Bram Stoker 2 people voted »
didn't like itit was okliked itreally liked itit was amazing
List started by: jim (votes)
Lists are re-scored approximately every 500 seconds



Molly
Molly
436 books
13 friends
Kay Kay
Kay Kay
201 books
13 friends
Valerie
Valerie
266 books
0 friends
deLille
deLille
196 books
6 friends
Annechien
Annechien
66 books
2 friends
Lise
Lise
73 books
9 friends
Joey
Joey
236 books
7 friends
Anette
Anette
73 books
7 friends

More voters…


comments (showing 1-25 of 25) (25 new)

dateDown_arrow    newest »

message 1: by Angel (new)

190365 Wow, now that is what I call a title for a book list. I don't think it gets any more descriptive, or precise, than that. In some cases, for some of these books, I would have preferred MULTIPLE root canals.



message 2: by Kay (new)

264037 "Where The Red Fern Grows" on this list?! SICK.


message 3: by deleted member (new)

Most of these I liked altho I was required to read some of them too but Heart of Darkness was the pits to me. Several here I still hope to read someday.


message 4: by deleted member (new)

Well, I tried the Mill on the Floss and it may get better but I cannot go on any longer with her boring childhood.


message 5: by Max (new)

1959519 90% of these books are AWESOME
You guys are lame
Like... who was reading Ulysses in school?!
Sounds like a cool school to me


message 6: by Linda (new)

239204 Jim Trelease makes the point in The Read Aloud Handbook that many classics are not appropriate teen reading. Forcing them down the throats of teens can turn them off classics permanently. Though i love to read, I'm still struggling to wrap my head around the notion that some or even many of these books that I hated as a teen might have something to offer me now.


message 7: by Linda (new)

1367242 I am stumped as to why many of these titles are on this list, ie. Red Fern, Island of Blue Dolphins, Number the Stars ?? The only thing I can think is that the reader was given the book when he/she was not mature enough to appreciate it. I hated The Grapes of Wrath in high school, but appreciated it later as an adult.


message 8: by Linda (new)

1367242 (Forgive the italics above, I couldn't figure out how to end them.)


message 9: by Rachael (new)

2215096 I read the Island of the Blue Dolphins in fourth grade (but by my choice) and thought it was amazing. I can't believe it is on this list. I read a lot of classics even though I'm only 13 and I love them. Maybe if teachers just let us pick up the books in our own time we'll learn to appreciate them.


message 10: by Rachael (new)

2215096 My teacher is forcing my class to read the narnia series and it's driving me nuts. Like group one gets book one and so on. I tried reading those books a few years ago but they were just too confusing and now I have to read book five without any clue what is going on.


message 11: by Helenn (last edited Apr 17, 2009 06:55PM) (new)

72472 With me is not the book itself... is that they make me analyze them and try to find meaning and essays and homeworks and horrible class discussion...

My teacher force The Rape of the Lock down my throat! It was horrible... and he kept laughing ... and then he made us analyze it and write in the style of it. Oh goody!
Then he move on with the poems and so we got Andrew Marvell and thus my hatred for him began. I just didn't understand them and then writing in his style and analyze them was just a pain. His poems are so long and have so much to do with his time period that it just ....
As for the English Teacher and Great Expectations... I just didn't like them for selfish, none school related reasons: since the analyzing was fairly simple what annoy me was the characters in them!

I am sure that I will soon have a book for my fifth, but for now I would have preferred root canalS during the MONTHS we spend working on those books.


message 12: by Linda (new)

239204 Wow, reading the Narnia books jigsaw-style... That's dumb.


message 13: by Emily (new)

2302019 I actually sort of enjoyed The Scarlet Letter, though that might have been because it was the first time that I really understood the symbolism of a book instead of just thinking that the teacher was making it up (I swear some of my teachers did). I also just enjoyed the discussion we had. I also really enjoyed The Crucible. It had a lot of good points to it.
I hated A Separate Peace though. I think that is my least favorite book ever.



message 14: by Allie (new)

2232981 Aaah, too funny. I thought The Scarlet Letter was lovely!

And OH, Beowulf...Good times.

:)


message 15: by Eastofoz (new)

939365 Hilarious list title :D

Some of these books are just not meant for teen readers like some others have said. Have to wonder what the teachers were thinking when they decided to add these to their course. There are so many others that teens could relate too, but then again if it's taught well they just may like it :)


message 16: by Rane (new)

1987431 I cried when Boxer was killed in the Animal Farm by George Orwell


message 17: by Brenda (b) (new)

915184 I guess I was lucky. The Grapes of Wrath was the only one I had to read that I didn't like. Too depressing for me. Plus the class time was running short so we were told to skim read and I guess a lot of it didn't make sense that way. We really didn't read many of these in my high school or maybe I just didn't take those classes -- we got to choose from several literature classes. I remember reading several Vonnegut books in one class that I didn't really understand but I didn't hate them either.


message 18: by Tara (new)

985231 I would add the sound the fury to this list. I loved Great Gatsby, and To kill a Mockingbird, but not one ounce of The Sound and the Fury.


message 19: by b. (new)

716434 I 100% second what Max @ 02/25/2009 10:03PM had to say. You'd prefer root canal over something like Crime and Punishment?? Maybe it's not the books, it's you.



message 20: by Cynthia (new)

102271 Oh, boy. I love pretty much all of these books.


message 21: by Becky (new)

Nophoto-f-25x33 This list disappoints me.
I'll admit that there are a few clunkers listed here, but there are also some amazing books on here as well.



message 22: by Nicole (new)

Nophoto-f-25x33 hmmm.. some I agree with such as Great Expectations and Heart of Darkness.. but I really liked some of the other books on here like Catch-22, Wuthering Heights, To Kill a Mockingbird, Brave New World... The Scarlet Letter wasn't TOO bad.. it had it's moments...


message 23: by Bean (new)

2811780 This is a horrifying list. Tess of the D'Urbervilles is the only one that I've read which I'll admit I wasn't moved by. Many of these I read in school, but I loved them!


message 24: by Susanna (new)

1109068 I had a notorious book-killer teaching several of mine, which didn't help, I'm sure.


message 25: by Jan (new)

1855321 I didn't see Albert Camus' The Plague (I don't know how to turn on or off the italics). Actually we didn't read it. We read maybe a quarter of it and the girls voted that we didn't want to read a book with a bunch of rats in it!

I hated The Scarlet Letter. And I was, oh, so glad that they changed their mind about our having to read Silas Marner - after having made everyone buy it.

I enjoyed The Grapes of Wrath and Animal Farm.

But, oooooooooh, The Rape of the Lock. Ruined Pope for me forever.


back to top



flag as offensive (?)

Please sign in to vote on this list.





Must be signed in to see friends votes.