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

[Jennifer]

Lauconn wrote: "Jennifer wrote: "Slagging through Crime and Punishment determined to finish this time. Tiresome in school and tiresome decades later...."

Oh, don't tell me that. I was thinking that I might apprec..."

Maybe try some Pushkin? Perhaps The Master and Margarita, that one is a real head-scratcher!

[Anna]

I usually had no problems with reading assignments. I only had 2 books ever that I didn't fully read: Lord of the Flies and a book about Hiroshima that I just found too hard to read at the time. And since I have forgotten the actual name and author of the Hiroshima book, I will go with Lord of the Flies. I hope some 20+ years have changed my perspective on this book...

[Anna]

Jennifer wrote: "Maybe try some Pushkin? Perhaps The Master and Margarita, that one is a real head-scratcher! "

Pushkin didn't write Master and Margarita... Bulgakov did. But it's an awesome book! Then again I read through Crime and Punishment in 2 nights cause I couldn't put it down...

[Ashley]

There are only two books that I can think of (besides a couple of Shakespeare plays) that I truly hated: Lord of the Flies and Snow Falling on Cedars. I will never pick up Snow Falling on Cedars again, so I guess I have to go with Lord of the Flies! :S

[Judith]

I've just started "Cider With Rosie" and I'm already enjoying it a lot more than I did in 1986!

[Rachel]

I'm really struggling with this one. The only book I outright hated was In the Skin of a Lion, which I have no desire to read again. The other books that I wasn't such a fan of are books that I've already tried twice, so it seems silly to re-read them, and I don't have anything unfinished.

[Mya]

Rachel wrote: "I'm really struggling with this one. The only book I outright hated was In the Skin of a Lion, which I have no desire to read again. The other books that I wasn't such a fan of are book..."

Maybe a book you always meant to read, or think you "should" read? Something off of one of the many "50 books you should read" lists various groups compile?

I will be reading a book I didn't finish because life got busy & I wasn't in love with it, but that left me with two choices. The very few other titles I've abandoned because I hated them are not fit for second attempts.

[Rachel]

Mya wrote: "Rachel wrote: "I'm really struggling with this one. The only book I outright hated was In the Skin of a Lion, which I have no desire to read again. The other books that I wasn't such a ..."

Possibly, if I really can't find anything else. I generally don't like to stretch the topics too far, and it bugs me a little that there are technically options I could read, but I really don't want to re-read something I already hated.

[Saluka]

Allie wrote: "I've got a looooot of options here. I almost never finished assigned books in school. I'm thinking of finally finishing Hamlet or Fahrenheit 451.

The only books I remember truly hating were Franke..."

Ok, really hated Grapes of Wrath back in school - all that DUST! Tried the audiobook version this time around to (maybe) lessen the pain. The narrator was very good and the book was much easier to get through. Alas, I did not enjoy it much. Although to be fair, I have to consider this a success of sorts since I no longer "hate" the book.

[Doris]

I used Jane Eyre for this one. It was never actually *assigned* to me, but it was a great favorite of my Mom's and she encouraged me to read it. I tried multiple times, but could never get past Jane's school days: I invariably lost patience with her whiny self-pity. (In fairness to Mom, she never pressured me.) But this time I finally pushed through to the end.

I'm not sure it was really worth the effort, but I'm glad to have finished it at last.

[Molly]

We were assigned All Quiet on the Western Front in one of my high school history classes and I'm pretty sure I never cracked it because the cover just looked so boring. Reading the synopsis now has me excited to finally read it. That cover still isn't doing it any favors, though.

[Deborah]

Read "An American Tragedy" Couldnt finish it 40 years ago and had to force myself to finish it this time. Either you like it or loathe it. Put me in the i hate it columnAn American Tragedy

[Sheneve]

I used Sophie's World for this one. I had to read it for World History, but I switched schools and never had to finish it. It's been sitting on my bookshelf for years mocking me.

[Paul]

Wuthering Heights
I read this one. I didn't like it and probably didn't read more than half when assigned in high school. It wasn't what I remembered. I still have no idea why some people call this a romance novel. It was better and stranger than I remembered, though still not my favorite.

[Bonnie G.]

Paul wrote: "Wuthering Heights
I read this one. I didn't like it and probably didn't read more than half when assigned in high school. It wasn't what I remembered. I still have no idea why some peop..."

It also mystifies me why this is considered a romance. It makes me wonder what sort of relationships people have.

[Sherri]

Zen & The Art Of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert M Pirsig

[Annhastasia]

Bonnie wrote: "Paul wrote: "Wuthering Heights
I read this one. I didn't like it and probably didn't read more than half when assigned in high school. It wasn't what I remembered. I still have no ideawhy some peop..."

It also mystifies me why this is considered a romance. It makes me wonder what sort of relationships people have.


It's a gothic romance: "Gothic romance, type of novel that flourished in the late 18th and early 19th cent. in England. Gothic romances were mysteries, often involving the supernatural and heavily tinged with horror, and they were usually set against dark backgrounds of medieval ruins and haunted castles."

[Bonnie G.]

Annhastasia wrote: "Bonnie wrote: "Paul wrote: "Wuthering Heights
I read this one. I didn't like it and probably didn't read more than half when assigned in high school. It wasn't what I remembered. I stil..."

Yes, I know what a gothic romance is and that his is of that genre. The comment was about the relationship between Heathcliff and Cathy. Wuthering Heights is a story about obsession, not love, so its classification as a romance is troubling.

[Brandy]

I honestly don't know if I can bring myself to complete this task lol. I hated The Hatchet and had to read it twice in school and don't think I can bring myself to pick it up again.

[Deborah]

Brandy wrote: "I honestly don't know if I can bring myself to complete this task lol. I hated The Hatchet and had to read it twice in school and don't think I can bring myself to pick it up again."

Find something you only hated a little bit. Don't go for your most hated.

[Bonnie G.]

Brandy wrote: "I honestly don't know if I can bring myself to complete this task lol. I hated The Hatchet and had to read it twice in school and don't think I can bring myself to pick it up again."

My strategy was to go for the shortest thing I hated -- for me it was Ethan Frome (still hated it). My 19 year old did a book report on Hatchet when he was in 4th grade so its been a while, but if memory serves it is a pretty short book so maybe it would work. I promise its better than Ethan Frome.

[Brittany]

I figured with the movie coming out and all it would be a good tome to finally finish A Wrinkle in Time. It was assigned summer reading for an English class in high school, but I ended up taking my English courses at the local college my senior year. I got a hold of the book list for my new class and was all about reading them since it was one of my first college classes and I was still in high school. I never went back and finished A Wrinkle In Time.

[Hafsa | حفصہ]

People I'm stuck on this! The 4 books that have ever been assigned reading in my life are Matilda by Roald Dahl, Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne, A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens and The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho and I enjoyed all of them. I don't have English lit, instead I have English language at my A levels so what do I do for this?!

[Brandy]

....this honestly did not occur to me, but it's a brilliant solution!

[Julia]

I'm going to read Lord of the Flies, because many people were assigned to read it. I never was.

I might also read Moby-Dick or, The Whale, toward the end of the year, because I was never assigned to read it. Instead, I was assigned the much shorter Billy Budd, Sailor by Herman Melville.

There was one book in HS many decades ago that I assigned myself that I couldn't read: Das Kapital by Karl Marx. I got the Cliff Notes and based my paper on that. I'm still not reading it. I did read The Communist Manifesto.

Here's an assignment for those you having a hard time: read another book by the author, or read another book by an age/ countryman of the author.

Say you were assigned Ethan Frome, instead read The Age of Innocence. Were you assigned The Brothers Karamazov? Read instead The Idiot.

[Bonnie G.]

Julia wrote: "I'm going to read Lord of the Flies, because many people were assigned to read it. I never was.

I might also read Moby-Dick or, The Whale, toward the end of the year, be..."

I already did this one, but I love the countryman idea. I really do not enjoy Dostoevsky but I can read Tolstoy all day every day.

[Octavia]

Hafsa Z.U wrote: "People I'm stuck on this! The 4 books that have ever been assigned reading in my life are Matilda by Roald Dahl, Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne, A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dick..."

There are a few related to 80 Days that you could read, and tell yourself it's a continuation of the assigned story that you haven't finished reading yet.

If you like sci-fi/steampunk, there's The Other Log of Phileas Fogg by Philip Jose Farmer.

Or if you like real life, in 1889 reporter Nellie Bly tried to travel around the world in 80 days herself, meeting Verne on the way. Around the World in 72 Days. Or, more recently, Michael Palin, in Around the World in 80 Days: Companion to the PBS Series.

[Julia]

I already did this one, but I love the countryman idea. I really do not enjoy Dostoevsky but I can read Tolstoy all day every day.

I like Fyodor Dostoyevsky, but I liked his shorter novellas like Notes from Underground.

I like your idea Octavia, that Hafsa Z.U read books related to the assigned books she already read.

[Stina]

This is a hard one for me because I read everything I was assigned, and I can't think of anything I hated. Several things I was meh on, but no real hatred. I am thinking of a few different approaches. One is to read a complete work that I was assigned only sections of. Like Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. Or a grad school tome of essays on criminal justice.

Or I could re-read something I liked, but in its original language. Maybe Le malade imaginaire.

Or I could go with the book club assignment interpretation. Heaven knows I have left plenty of those unfinished, and not always because I was hating the book.

[Hafsa | حفصہ]

Octavia wrote: "Hafsa Z.U wrote: "People I'm stuck on this! The 4 books that have ever been assigned reading in my life are Matilda by Roald Dahl, Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne, A Tale of Two Citi..."

Julia wrote: "I'm going to read Lord of the Flies, because many people were assigned to read it. I never was.

I might also read Moby-Dick or, The Whale, toward the end of the year, be..."

Thank you both for these amazing ideas! I actually figured something else out - asked my language teacher since she had Lit in uni about what book she would suggest for this prompt and she said The Bell Jar which was an assigned book she couldn't finish and since I've been meaning to read it for quite a while, I think I'm going to read that! You never know though, I might just end up splurging and buying some books which fit your suggestions to complete this challenge.

[Octavia]

That's great! I really enjoyed The Bell Jar, and I hope you do too.

[Harper]

Does this count?
In 10th grade, half the English classes in my school read Their Eyes Were Watching God, but my class did not. Then, I took an African American Literature course in college which stopped right before we would have gotten to Zora Neale Hurston. So I figure I've almost been assigned Their Eyes Were Watching God, twice, but never actually.

If not, I plan to revisit a book that was assigned in aforementioned African American Literature course but skimmed or DNF, such as:
Clotel: or, The President's Daughter
The Garies and Their Friends
The Souls of Black Folk

[Ari]

I'll be re-reading Into the Wild. I HATED this book in high school and failed my summer reading test going into AP Lang because I wasn't invested enough to remember characters or plot or anything. It all turned into mush in my ADHD brain. I HATE HATE HATE THIS BOOK and tbh I hate this "challenge" because it's supposed to be about discovering books to love and expanding your bibliophilia, not torturing yourself. And re-reading Into the Wild WILL be torture.

[Caleb]

I hated A Sand County Almanac and Sketches Here and There when I was assigned readings in school. Enjoyed it much more this time around...

[Darlene]

I didn't like All Quiet on the Western Front when I read that in school. I've recently acquired an interest in wartime era books so now is a good time to give that one another shot!

[Julia]

"They" say that All Quiet on the Western Front is one of the best World War I novels. In this year that is 100 years after the end of the War to End All Wars it seems very appropriate.

[Janet]

I really appreciated this book. Read it as a “mature” adult.

[Darlene]

Thanks, Julia & Janet! I will definitely put All Quiet on the Western Front for this task!

[Darlene]

Catherine wrote: "In school I did not like Jane Eyre or Ethan Frome. Really, really disliked Ethan Frome."

Oh, I loved Ethan Frome in school! I think it was because we had a great teacher to discuss the novel with.

[kimberly]

Okay I'm struggling with this one because I:
1. Hate being told what to read, so I rarely read the books I was assigned. (Yes, I know this should make it easier, but I guess the rebel in me is still strong.)
2. Actually really hate wasting time on books I'm not enjoying.

This is what I've come up with from what I can remember.
DNF/DNR: Frankenstein, Gulliver's Travels, The Alienist, Night, Raisin in the Sun, Death of a Salesman.
HATED: The Scarlet Letter (pretty sure I finished this but I distinctly remember it being the most boring book I've ever read).

Any opinions are welcome. I'd like to make this as painless as possible.

[Ari]

Kimberley, I really enjoyed the abridged version of gulliver’s travels which was what was assigned to me. I also liked of mice and men.

[Allie]

Kimberly wrote: "Okay I'm struggling with this one because I:
1. Hate being told what to read, so I rarely read the books I was assigned. (Yes, I know this should make it easier, but I guess the rebel in me is stil..."

I also hated Frankenstein, so I get that! At least Night and A Raisin in the Sun are short, if you want to look at it that way?

[Allie]

Just realized I never came back to say I finished this task, with Fahrenheit 451! I liked it, and was pleasantly surprised.

[Sarah Jean]

Death of a Salesman would probably be your quickest option if you want to get this task over quickly. Plays always read quickly, in my experience.

[Sophie]

Ohhhhh! Peek here reminds me I somehow skipped reading Night during the business of senior year of high school. I was terrified I was going to have to go back to either Last of the Mohicans (which I hated and definitely did not finish) or Cry, the Beloved Country (which I hated, but I'm pretty sure did finish). Night! Ha! (I mean, not ha, more mournful thought provoking, but still happier than meeting up with Fenimore Cooper again).

[Ashley]

I have the same problem as many here: there were no books that I didn't read, and the ones I hated, I hated with a passion (Lord of the Flies and Snow Falling on Cedars are at the top of my hate-and-will-never-read-again list). So for me, I think I will try one of the books assigned in my Master's classes that I never finished because I quit my MA altogether.

[Serendipity]

I'm another who can't remember hating an assigned book. And I was a very diligent and compliant type so I'd never have not finished anything. So I may go the self-assigned route. I signed up for a 50 book classics challenge where we had to pick 50 classics and read them in 5 years. One of my choices was Dante's The Inferno. Definitely did not like at all - any thoughts I had of overachieving and reading the entire Divine Comedy went right out the window.! Or I could go with something other people were assigned and hated. I see Ethan Froome popping up a lot in that regard.

[Serendipity]

I'm another who can't remember hating an assigned book. And I was a very diligent and compliant type so I'd never have not finished anything. So I may go the self-assigned route. I signed up for a 50 book classics challenge where we had to pick 50 classics and read them in 5 years. One of my choices was Dante's The Inferno. Definitely did not like at all - any thoughts I had of overachieving and reading the entire Divine Comedy went right out the window.! Or I could go with something other people were assigned and hated. I see Ethan Froome popping up a lot in that regard.

[Stephanie]

The Call of the Wild came to mind. Looks like it's a shorter book and my library has the ebook and audio download so...ugh :)

[Amy L.]

Yet another diligent student here who read everything assigned....for the most part. It's been interesting to see that people's opinions of books change with age (age of the reader, that is.) I am 58, which is old enough to know that I made a lot of stupid comments about books in my younger years (and probably will continue to do so.)

Anyway, for me on this task, it's a contest between *Orlando* by Virginia Woolf, and *White Teeth* by Zadie Smith. Both were assigned in a graduate 20th century British literature course. I read just a few pages of Teeth, and the manic prose was impenetrable (my dad was dying at the time--perhaps a factor.) I completed Orlando but hated it.....and even wrote my term paper about how much I hated it....which means it's time, after 15 years, for a re-read of Orlando!