Worst Book You've Read for School

[KingArmery]

Lord Jim by Joseph Conrad was incredibly well-written, so in terms of literature it was good. However, trying to read that book was one of the worst and most boring experiences I have had in recent years. He managed to write a grammatically correct sentence that ran for 150 words.

 

[EboMan7x]

A little book about teenage suicide that on numerous occasions made me want to set fire to the school, not helped by the fact that this book had actually won a fucking award. It was called "Tears of a Tiger".

 

[Verex]

Its a tie between Tuck Everlasting and The Catcher in the Rye.

Ooh, I hated Catcher in the Rye. Didn't like the Steinbeck novels we had to read either.

Did you have to read Grapes of Wrath?
Holy shit that novel was long.

 

[lukemdizzle]

7 habits of highly effective teens.

absolutely no redeeming qualities, worst book ever

I remember seeing like every girl in my school reading that in like 8th grade. A lot of Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul too. It got a bit annoying... I can't stand a lot of self help books, they all have that optimistic dribble to them that doesn't really say much.

For me, it was probably Lord of the Flies. I didn't outright hate it though, it was very well written and I enjoyed it for that, but the message of it, while having it's good points, seemed a bit hollow to me. Sure, I can get in on the whole "deep down we are all animals" thing, but I think there is more to it then that, and that many of our animal-like, selfish and harmful attributes are also formed around the way our society is set up. And it wasn't really the book itself, it was the incredibly simplified version of the book's message that was fed to us in the classroom, and that no class time was allowed to actually discuss the book's message beyond what we needed to know for the test (the conch is law and order, ect). I mean, what's the point of reading a book with a message if we can't go in and pick the message apart, criticize it, expand upon it and discuss it?

lord of the flies was probably one of my favorite books. maybe its because Im a pessimist and like the pessimistic message, or maybe its because I had a great english teacher but that book really did it for me. especially the ending, that was one of the best endings ever

 

[drisky]

Old Man and the Sea

Noting ever happens, in explicit detail.

 

[oxiclean]

back when i was in 7th grade, our English teacher made us read "sees behind trees", and it was written for elementary school kids. it was awful, and made worse by the fact that we had to read it as a class, so i ended up getting through it about 6 times in the 2 months in took to read it.

my english teacher in 8th grade, however, was awesome. she didnt really act like an English teacher. we read good books that were meant for our age.

 

[NickIsCool]

Eugh... What's the name of that book.. It's a movie aswell..GRawg!

Ah! Stormbreaker! Man that book was bad...

Maybe its cause I was younger when I read it, but I love that book. haha, however, the movie was an atrocity.

i loved the book too, havent seen the movie though... based on your comments, i will pass

 

[likalaruku]

Its a tie between Tuck Everlasting and The Catcher in the Rye.

Ooh, I hated Catcher in the Rye. Didn't like the Steinbeck novels we had to read either.

Did you have to read Grapes of Wrath?
Holy shit that novel was long.

& boring!

 

[Hap2]

Fugitive Pieces and To Kill a Mockingbird were poorly written, they had good content, but they presented it in such a bad way that ended up making both very boring.

I find most textbooks and articles I read for university classes to be redundant, sometimes worthless, and often making too hard of an attempt to make the ideas presented much more 'intelligent' than they really are. It seems as if many studies are no longer for the sake of knowledge, but a quick method to get research money, write a useless argument for a paycheck and move on.

I also found Shakespeare to be quite dull. Where most people in my classes found it so because they had difficulty understanding old English, I found it boring because I do understand old English. There are much better pieces of literature today to learn from than the dusty old plays of one of the great pioneers of redundancy. I understand they were plays, but seriously, if someone stubbed their toe in the story, he would have gone 5 pages on it, and would have brought it up again in the climax somehow.

 

[Infernai]

Remembering Babylon...i swear if i ever have to read that book again, i'll lose it.

 

[Blemontea]

9th grade The last of the Mohiccans

 

[JWAN]

The history textbooks, all lies and mistruths

^ very true, it takes a lot of unlearning before your ready for college.

 

[CK76]

Yes, that's the point, and I'm not saying that Salinger did a bad job getting said point across. But I just couldn't stand it. It truly was one of the worst books I've read for school. Not one of the worst books ever made, mind you. But I didn't enjoy it.

Also, awesome avatar. I love me some Dexter.

Ah, that's fine, plenty of things I respect but don't enjoy and Rye is one of them so we're not so different.

Aye, as do I, season 5 can not come soon enough.

 

[Romblen]

It's a toss-up between The Great Gatsby and The Scarlet Letter. Both were very dry.

EDIT: There's also the poetry we had to read. It always sucked. We would read some short boring poem, then a few of the kids in the class would go on and on and on about what the poem could mean.

 

[stinkypitz]

Im surprised at the Catcher in the Rye hate, I love that book. Anyways, The Red Badge of Courage. What a terribly dull and tedious romp through cowardice.

 

[ErcTheMerc]

There was this one book, The Perilous Guard, my 5th grade class was going to read but after the first chapter, not even the teacher wanted to go on.

But, the worst book I ever read through for school is easily The Veiw from Saturday

 

[automatron]

It's a tie between atonement and lord of the flies.
God i hated those

 

[CK76]

Bridge to Terabithia, The book was terrible. Most of my class cheered when the girl died, just because we hated the book so much and were glad we were finally done with it.

Odd thing. I hated it as a kid, but when I re read it years later with retrospect I saw how much I was like Jesse at that age. I understood why I hated it back then, it put a mirror up to me and all my social shortcoming before puberty and my desire to have a best friend.

You may have cheered when Leslie died, as a kid I felt indifferent. As an adult it was one of the most intensely sad moments I've ever read. To understand what she meant to Jesse and what a friend can mean (I lost a good friend suddenly at 17 to a car accident) it resonated much more and still does.

I'm not saying you'll ever like "Bridge to Terabithia". What I'm saying is give it time, experience things in life and maybe revisit some of these stories by your own volition and may find perspective has changed. I had a similar experience with "Brave New World".

 

[Marv21]

"Their Eyes Were Watching God"

I have no idea why that is part of any curriculum.

Either this one or "A Seperate Peace" by John Knowles.

I hear you bro, I thought that the book was on the virge of an interesting connotation about WW2 society, but all the subtle homosexuality and confusing characters threw me off...those books have the privilege..no the RIGHT to be burned!

 

[jmd102993]

Secret Life of the Bees, damn you freshman year >.>