Book Summer Fun Q3: What book from your "required reading" days do you still remember because you really, really didn't like it?

[CYBILS]

And the follow-up questions:

* What about it didn't you like?
* Did you ever try to re-read it when it wasn't "required

[Ms.]

I'm in the minority here, but I was not a fan of To Kill a Mockingbird. I read it in 1979, and it seemed old even then. When my own daughter had it assigned in 2010, I couldn't believe it. I reread it, and while it is decently written, I think the thoughts and opinions in it are too dated to be useful to high school students unless it is for a history class about how things used to be.

[CYBILS]

No, Karen, you aren't alone. We must be close to the same age, as I remember reading it late 1970s and thinking that while it told an important story, it seemed "outdated."

It probably sounds cliché, but Shakespearian plays. I loved the sonnets and parsing them out, but reading the plays was just drudgery. Then I went to college ... and got more context as part of an "English Lit" course and my opinion changed. A little.

[Ms.]

We had a substitute teacher who did Shakespeare with 8th graders at the end of the school year and they were all... a little appalled. I was happy that they were polite enough not to have an uprising, but I can't say any of them really care much for Shakespeare now!

[CYBILS]

Not sure why the Bard is still in classrooms. BUT there are other ways to teach his works ... some really good young YA novels come to mind.

[Mark]

I agree with the Shakespeare comments but I still love To Kill and Mockingbird. Maybe it didn't feel as outdated when I read it. Haha!

[Cheriee]

Lord of the Flies. I am so very thankful for Libba Bray's Beauty Queens: the perfect antidote to it.

[Hilary]

My memory of required summer reading is very hazy because it was so long ago. I can't think of any that I really didn't like, but one that I did like and I never forgot was The Liar's Club by Mary Karr. It was for an AP English class my senior year of high school (1996). Karr had a really hard, dysfunctional early life, and then was able to write about it with such clarity. I think she wrote the book when she was in recovery for alcoholism, or at some point after that. She is a phenomenal writer.

[CYBILS]

Cheriee wrote: "Lord of the Flies. I am so very thankful for Libba Bray's Beauty Queens: the perfect antidote to it."

Yes! I think I disliked it so much I repressed the memory of reading it. Ditto Animal Farm. Ugh!

[Ms.]

I actually liked Animal Farm. I've never felt like I SHOULD have liked it, so I've reread it several times... and always find it intriguing. Weird. Never made it through Walden, though. Finally gave up trying.