General Discussion

@TaliZorahVasNerd

That's... wow, why aren't there more self help books on here? Perhaps they aren't given all that often? I unfortunately have no idea what mine was called, but I'd never rolled my eyes so hard. Everything was: "This person that I knew came to me, and they had this problem. I helped them fix this problem with the power of positive thinking!" Blech.

I like classics. But I had a tough time continuing to read Steinbeck. Might have been partly that the things the teacher kept pointing out didn't really work for me. But the reading itself was... well, boring.

We just finished Catcher in the Rye and it nearly killed me. It was just Holden complaining about everything he hated for the WHOLE BOOK. It didn't help that my batcrap-crazy teacher spoiled the ending literally two sentences into the book.

The Great Gatsby is just about a bunch of rich idiots who need to get their lives together but end up ruining them instead. My teacher gave us obscure quizzes that asked us what Gatsby's schedule was, but never mentioned the green light.

We also had to read a short story called "Where are You Going Where Have You Been". It was about a girl who gets kidnapped and sexually assaulted. There was a PowerPoint about the real life crime that inspired the story. There was a group discussion about it. I genuinely did not want to go school while we were reading that.

A Rose for Emily, about a middle-aged woman who kills her boyfriend (because he was going to leave her) and then keeps the body so she can sleep with it every night. Eventually she dies or something and everybody finally learns why her house smells so funny.

That was just this year, though. On to the bad stories of the past that I can still remember!

Anne Frank disappointed me simply because we had to jump around and skip sections because apparently the school was uncomfortable about discussing a girl questioning her sexuality, but we could talk about the Holocaust for days no problem.

Fahrenheit 451. I thought it couldn't getting any more boring, but then the ending proved me wrong.

The Hobbit was dead boring for me (I think it was the writing style and long descriptions cuz honestly fantasy is my life) but I really enjoyed the movies, even though they're so long I'll probably never commit to watching them again. The dwarf names were so hard to remember and of course they tested us on them.

I can't remember what it was called, but it was a short story about a family that kind of hates each other going on a road trip. Bandits stopped them and took off the side of the road one by one and shot them. Everybody dies, including the readers (of confusion and boredom).

EDIT: remembered more gems

ETHAN FROME

god what a crappy book. completely uninteresting and unsympathetic characters, implications of ethan being Gross, everything is miserable

also we had to read the old man and the sea in 7th grade and i loathed it bc the book is pointless?????? the story is circular but not in a good way

Looking at this thread, I feel like I'm the only person in the world who actually likes Hatchet and it's sequels/alternate ending books. I love Hatchet sooooo much.

I really really hated Joy Luck Club. I don't have any way at all to relate to a bunch of old Chinese immigrant ladies and it was really boring, and the way it's set up was confusing and frustrating.

Wow now I feel really bad about liking Hatchet it feels like I have bad taste or something D:

I would say Cold Sassy Tree but that book got fairly entertaining after a certain point in the story.

Hatchet was pain. We read it in 5th grade and I had no idea what was going on.

The two worst though were The Light in The Forest and Summer of My German Soldier. If you ever have to read these two books, I'm so sorry.

@SodapopQueen:

Why would your school feel weird about letting you read a book with a girl questioning her sexuality? It's a valid literary theme and I think discussing it would be very eye-opening and important for students struggling with their own issues about identifying their sexuality. Unless it was really graphic, I think it's stupid that they wouldn't let you read that, especially since they were OK with the Holocaust bits.

I used to skip chapters. Like I'd read a chapter this day, and then miss a chapter that day. Lol still aced the essays though. The books they made us read were all boring for some reason, eh.

The Education of Little Tree
... I mean really? How old is that book?

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
Inappropriate for 5th grade. Definitely.

@ShadowChaser:

Those bizarre book titles made me curious. Mind giving a Safe For Work summary of both of those books?