Task #24: An assigned book you hated (or never finished)

[Rayne]

So for whatever reason, I started a book club selection several years ago and didn't finish it. So I'm gonna go back and read The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

[Maddy]

Melanie wrote: "Honestly, I am happy to see that I am not alone in my dislike for The Old Man and The Sea. It was assigned in High School and I read, maybe, four pages. This year, I am going to slay my literary dr..."

Me too! I HATED The Old Man and the Sea. I am so glad that I'm not the only one - it's popped up in this thread already a handful of times. Phew! Maybe I'll like it more 15 years later... but it's doubtful.

[Jody]

Going to give Catcher in the Rye another chance. I felt like I was the only person in my school who couldn't stand it, and I only made it halfway through.

[Karen]

I took an English class on Mark Twain and never made it through Pudd'nhead Wilson.

[Rosemary]

I think for me it will be Great Expectations or A Tale of Two Cities. There's so much that I like, actually, about Charles Dickens, but he does go on. And for some reason, I really hated these books when they were assigned in high school.

[beentsy]

The Catcher in the Rye. Didn't even have to think twice about it and I'm really hoping I don't loathe it this time around.

[Laura]

I can't believe no one else has mentioned this because I didn't even have to think about it: The Poisonwood Bible. It has a huge following, so I'm hoping middle school age was too young to appreciate it (fingers crossed).

[Bonnie G.]

Laura wrote: "I can't believe no one else has mentioned this because I didn't even have to think about it: The Poisonwood Bible. It has a huge following, so I'm hoping middle school age was too young..."

You were assigned Poisonwood Bible in Middle School?! Just because something is about a young girl doesn't mean it is middle grades or YA. Very progressive school!

[Melany]

Well I guess it's finally time to see if I appreciate Old Man and the Sea more as an adult. It's the only thing I was ever assigned that I really hated.

[Bill]

I'm going to go with Rabbit, Run for this one. It was assigned in a college literature course, and for some reason, I couldn't do it, couldn't read it. I don't even remember why. I'm hoping that giving it another try will loosen up an old memory.

[Kat]

If we're going with sheer hatred, it's gonna have to be Ethan Frome. I'm waiting until August, though. We had to read it in Cleveland in February when I was in 12th grade and it made me feel suicidal just to look at it after a while.

[Octavia]

I think I'm going to make sure to do this challenge task first thing this year, because if I hate it now as much as I did 20 years ago, the rest of the reading year can only improve.

I'm looking at you, King Lear. The bane of my high school English experience...

[Karen]

I agree with the King Lear choice. One of the worst assigned books.

[Cait]

Rachel wrote: "This one is going to be hard... I was homeschooled as a kid, so I read whatever I wanted, and then in the single year I attended high school, I'd read not only all of my class' material but the oth..."

I agree that having been homeschooled and told to read whatever I wanted makes this hard! And I religiously read my college assignments.

I'm not interested in revisiting the few classics I assigned myself then DNF'd (Moby-Dick or, The Whale, The Odyssey), but I like the other interpretations I'm seeing of books you were "assigned" by a friend or book club. Maybe I'll actually finish The Woman in White.

[Monica]

Cold Mountain

This is going to be hard. I remember loathing this one so much I didn't finish it the when it was assigned and took the horrible grade.

But maybe it will be like Beloved which I really liked the second time around after I had matured enough to understand.

[Elizabeth]

The main one that comes to mind for this is To Kill A Mockingbird, which I was supposed to read for my tenth grade English class, and then just sort of... didn't? I do actually own a copy, and it's obviously one of those books that I should read anyway, so hopefully this gives me the extra kick to get to it.

[Catriona]

Cassandra wrote: "As soon as I saw this I instantly knew it would be The Giver. I hated it so much when it was assigned to me in school that I stopped reading it and somehow got my m to write my book rep..."

I really liked the Giver, I thought it had an interesting plot idea

[NoRa]

Raye wrote: "I have no idea what to pick for this. I've never been assigned a book. Should I just pick a book that someone else mentioned?"

Same here, I don't/didn't attend classes with required reading so I am/was never assigned a book to read. I suggest we google a list of required reading for highschool/college students and choose from there, what do you say?

[Holly]

Nina wrote: "Lord of the Flies. No question. I utterly despised it when I had to read it in 9th grade. Perhaps it will work better for middle-aged me."

This was my immediate thought on this one and I am honestly dreading it!

[Rainey]

Terri wrote: "Raye *"

Lol. I am picking one from my bookclub that I never finished which also counts as an Oprah book club pick. The Underground Railroad

[Ava]

I am probably going to read A Tale of Two Cities for this one. I don’t remember disliking it when it was assigned in high school, I just didn’t really read it because I was lazy and could get by with skimming/listening in class to pass the test. Other options I can remember are: Washington Square, Tess of the d’Urbervilles, Native Son, and Don Quixote. The latter I actually did try to read but I hated it and will not torture myself with again.

[NoRa]

Terri wrote: "Rate, NoRa, I hereby assign you both the title Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman. If you haven’t finished it, feel free to select that for this prompt. 😊"

I'll accept this :)

[Marie]

NoRa wrote: Same here, I don't/didn't attend classes with required reading so I am/was never assigned a book to read. I suggest we google a list of required reading for highschool/college students and choose from there, what do you say?"

Following Terri's lead, I hereby assign anyone else having difficulty with this challenge to read one of the books on the lists below:

Required reading for top U.S. colleges:
https://qz.com/602956/these-are-the-b...

Required reading around the world:
http://blog.ed.ted.com/2016/12/08/the...

Summer reading lists at top private schools:
http://www.businessinsider.com/summer...

[Erika]

As soon as I saw this one, a single book came immediately to my mind: Johnny Tremain. It's the only assigned reading I never finished, and I distinctly remember skipping to the end and pretending like I'd finished it because I lost complete interest. And since it's been like 20 years (I had to read this in the fifth grade), either a) I'll appreciate it more as an adult or b) I'll be able to choke it down in one day and "rip the band-aid" off so to speak.

[Jaime]

DNF and did not really enjoy Pride and Prejudice. Will give it another shot because it is a classic and might open me up to that type of literature!

[Sheri]

My first thought was As I Lay Dying. Man, I hated that book when it was assign

[Sheri]

Ok that last post should say I hated As I Lay Dying by Faulkner when it was assigned. I also could never finish Moby Dick and I have friends who LOVE that book.

[Ellyn]

So, this one for me is going to come down between The Daughter of Time or What We Can't Not Know: A Guide. I wound up in the hospital when I was assigned Daughter of Time, and as for the other one, I made it about 12 pages in and said "NOPE!" and never picked it up again...

[Angelica]

I had a hard time trying to decide this one, but finally went with the Longman Cultural Edition of Frankenstein by Mary Shelley (because it's the one I have and was assigned for a lit class and I never managed to get all the way through it). Maybe I'll find it memorable this time around.

[Heather]

The Pioneers by James Fenimore Cooper. Bleh.

[Jennifer]

This is a very tough category for me as I’ve been a reader my whole life with the inability to NOT finish a book. All I can possibly think of is maybe The Diary of Anne Frank or maybe Fahrenheit 451. I seem to vaguely remember not finishing them.

[Alex]

I'm reading The Odyssey for this one. I didn't finish it in high school, and I heard a great interview with Emily Wilson on NPR that turned me on to this translation. It sounds like it's a fresh interpretation of a classic that's become pretty stale.

[Rainey]

Alex wrote: "I'm reading The Odyssey for this one. I didn't finish it in high school, and I heard a great interview with Emily Wilson on NPR that turned me on to this translation. It sounds like..."

I bought this one too - it was on sale the other day for $3.99 (Kindle Version).

[Octavia]

Done! I wanted to get King Lear out of the way early, because I remember hating this one HARD in high school (we had a mock trial where I was Regan and argued everything she did was fully justified, lol) and I didn't want it hanging over me all year.

Luckily the local library had a copy that had both the original text and a plain translation in the same book so that made it easier. You know, it was a lot better than I remembered! Don't get me wrong, I still HATE Lear himself, who deserved everything he got (no sympathy here) but the play itself was genuinely compelling.

[Andi]

I had a moment of terror when I saw this that I was going to either have to reread Disgrace or slog my way through The Return of the Native _again_.

And then I remembered I never finished Mutuwhenua: The Moon Sleeps which was an assigned text for a university class. Not because I disliked it, not at all, but because I somehow got it stuck under a filing cabinet at work and couldn't retrieve it in time.

Yeah.

So I shall be reading that next!

[Dominique]

I can't think of an assigned book I DNF. I'm sure it happened but I just don't remember any titles. So, I'm stuck with something I hated. That leaves The Outsiders, Indian in the Cupboard, Calico Captive, or Lottery Rose. Sigh! If I go by intensity of hate that probably means I'm reading The Outsiders.

[Caroline]

I think I might reread Heart of Darkness for this one and pair it with Things Fall Apart, which I’ll do for the colonial/post colonial category. Struggling with this one, though, because it seems like the spirit of this category is to get you to reread a book you couldn’t appreciate at the time and see if you’ll change your mind...and I think I was probably correct in loathing Heart of Darkness as much as I did. It is the WORST.

[Min Blossoms]

Dominique wrote: "I can't think of an assigned book I DNF. I'm sure it happened but I just don't remember any titles. So, I'm stuck with something I hated. That leaves The Outsiders, Indian in the Cupboard, Calico C..."

At least it is a quick read.

[Kate]

Oh man, I have so many contenders for this challenge. Like others, I'm not sure I want to revisit books that I hated. But there are many books I never finished, either assigned in class, book club, or recommended by a close friend: One Hundred Years of Solitude, Wuthering Heights, The Shipping News, The Little Book of Hygge: The Danish Way to Live Well, Tiny Beautiful Things: Advice on Love and Life from Dear Sugar, Emma...

[Dominique]

Min wrote: "Dominique wrote: "I can't think of an assigned book I DNF. I'm sure it happened but I just don't remember any titles. So, I'm stuck with something I hated. That leaves The Outsiders, Indian in the ..."

Very true.

[Karena]

I think I'm going to have to go with a book club assignment because I don't remember any high school or college books I hated or didn't finish. But man, I am behind on book club selections.

[Katy]

I only read enough of the Odyssey to pass the test in high school, so I'm going to give the new Emily Wilson translation a try.

[Krista]

Looks like I'm with many of you. I refuse to go back and read books I hated that were assignments in high school. The memories. Instead I'm going with a book I assigned myself to the 2017 Read Harder challenge, and struggled with, never finishing it. I picked Perla for my "in South America by South American author" task. I just could NOT get into it. Maybe it was my mindset at the time, but I put it down and picked a different book to fill that task with.

I figure that counts as "assigned book I hated or never finished".

[novelteathoughts]

Dundundun. I never finished Frankenstein

[Eva]

Well, this is a struggle for me too. My birthday is tomorrow and I will be 70. I don't remember ever not reading a book I was assigned in school or otherwise and I never remember reading a book I hated. So, my pick for this challenge is going to be Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House. I already hate everything in it.

[Dixie]

Kat wrote: "If we're going with sheer hatred, it's gonna have to be Ethan Frome. I'm waiting until August, though. We had to read it in Cleveland in February when I was in 12th grade and it made me..."

Ethan Frome is the only book I can remember hating in high school, and I always finished everything. But I don't want to read it again, I remember very well how depressing it is. This might mean Moby Dick (college); lordy.

[Krista]

Eva wrote: "Well, this is a struggle for me too. My birthday is tomorrow and I will be 70. I don't remember ever not reading a book I was assigned in school or otherwise and I never remember reading a book I h..."

You are a brave, brave person. I don't think I could cope with the level of my blood pressure if I read that.

[Rachel]

In high school, my 11th grade AP english teacher was sick, so she had the kids teach the unit and create the tests on native son. Because we were nerds and bad, we created this whole cheating ring where we wouldn't have to read the book or study. Over a decade later I still remember one of the answer keys(CEDAB TTFTF Bessie, Bigger, Bigger, Britton) but I remember nothing about the novel. So, here it goes Native Son

[Lauren]

I am definitely doing a book club book. We just read Keeper of Lost Things, and I didn't finish it in time for our book club meeting. I have always had a hard time with Magical Realism, and this one really took the cake. For a first time author, she tried to do WAY too much in one novel. I wasn't invested in any of the characters except the dogs. I finally forced myself to finish it, and I am going to count it because I can't think of any other book I've been assigned that I didn't finish.

[Allie]

novelteathoughts wrote: "Dundundun. I never finished Frankenstein"

Frankenstein is the worst. I basically refuse to re-read it because I hated it so much, and I can't even remember why!