In the same vein as the "Beloved Movies That You Hate" /message_topic.aspx?topic=627972, here is a thread for classic and loved books, novels, and stories that you despise.

The focus here should more on plot points, themes, etc and not so much style. If you didn't like Shakespeare because it was a hard read or War and Peace because it was long leave that out.


To start:
Catcher in the Rye: What a whiny little bitch.
A Wrinkle in Time: Reading this as a kid I was all WTF is this shit?
The Good Earth and by extension Things Fall Apart
(Seriously, they're the same book just one in China and one in Africa).

[Edited on July 1, 2012 at 6:07 PM. Reason : ]

7/1/2012 6:06:46 PM

any Shakespeare.

7/1/2012 6:11:05 PM

i watched "A Wrinkle in Time" recently.
it was horrible

7/1/2012 6:11:42 PM

Quote :

"Things Fall Apart "

7/1/2012 6:15:38 PM

+1 for Things Fall Apart


what a goddamned bullshit piece of shit book

7/1/2012 6:17:53 PM

Anything by Charles Dickums or Faulkner.

7/1/2012 6:20:14 PM

Charles Dickums sounds like a pen name for someone who writes erotic steampunk fanfiction

7/1/2012 6:21:36 PM

Ulysses by James Joyce.

Screw your Irish Dialect and historical references.

Quote :

"The focus here should more on plot points, themes, etc and not so much style."

Still sucked.

[Edited on July 1, 2012 at 6:24 PM. Reason : /]

7/1/2012 6:23:27 PM

Quote :

"Charles Dickums sounds like a pen name for someone who writes erotic steampunk fanfiction"

Johnny Ryan has a book of comics that parody classic lit and he usually gives the author a name like Charles Dickums or Mark Twaint, H. Pee Lovecrap, etc.

7/1/2012 6:30:48 PM

Quote :

"Faulkner"

7/1/2012 6:53:17 PM

Quote :

" Things Fall Apart"

I think everyone can agree this is the worst book ever written.

7/1/2012 6:54:36 PM

I honestly can't think of of a single pre-20th century novel that I've enjoyed.

7/1/2012 7:02:13 PM

Try mary shelly's frankenstein^

good all the way up and down

7/1/2012 7:15:39 PM

negative

7/1/2012 7:20:24 PM

I really like most classic literature. I did not like:

Portrait of a Lady
Native Son
Animal Farm

I actually liked Things Fall Apart and the Good Earth (and there was a similar one, Nature in a Sieve that would go in this category). Come to think of it, I liked all the books on OP's list...

I've heard Tess of the Durberville's is terrible, but I have not read that one.

[Edited on July 1, 2012 at 7:26 PM. Reason : <3 Faulkner as well.]

7/1/2012 7:26:09 PM

moby dick

pages upon pages on the finer points of mid-19th century whale taxonomy i'm sorry i fell asleep what's your point again

7/1/2012 7:30:57 PM

^^nectar in a sieve

I had to read it in hs and I remember thinking it wasn't terrible, but now I can't remember what the heck it was about.

[Edited on July 1, 2012 at 8:18 PM. Reason : damn autocorrect]

7/1/2012 8:17:49 PM

Moby Dick
Portrait of Dorian Gray
Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
any and all Ayn Rand (although she seems to be more famously unpopular than popular)

7/1/2012 8:24:24 PM

+1 for Faulkner and Things Fall Apart

anything by Thomas Hardy, Nathaniel Hawthorne or George Eliot

oh, and Fahrenheit 451

^ I think you are paying Ayn Rand an undeserved compliment even to mention her in this thread



[Edited on July 1, 2012 at 8:31 PM. Reason : wer]

7/1/2012 8:29:55 PM

ibtbible

7/1/2012 8:31:59 PM

I also did not like Fahrenheit 451. I thought I might be the only one.

7/1/2012 8:33:25 PM

Not considered "classic" but I hated A Prayer For Owen Meany

7/1/2012 8:33:35 PM

LOL Reading.

There's a reason why classic literature has never come out as a movie. It all sucks.

7/1/2012 8:35:40 PM

^^^ no...found it to be implausible, amateurish and cheesy


[Edited on July 1, 2012 at 8:35 PM. Reason : ^]

7/1/2012 8:35:43 PM

Frankenstein makes no sense. A reanimated monster learns to speak like an aristocrat in three months? Come on.

7/1/2012 8:37:23 PM

Quote :

"^^nectar in a sieve"

That's what it was!

7/1/2012 8:37:54 PM

Quote :

"any Shakespeare."

7/1/2012 8:39:28 PM

Quote :

"I've heard Tess of the Durberville's is terrible, but I have not read that one."

Yes, Tess of the d'Urbervilles is awful. Then again I was in the 12th grade and I had to read it for AP English...maybe it would be enjoyable now, who knows?


If I had a time machine, I would have to go back and punch James Joyce right in the face.

Quote :

"Catcher in the Rye: What a whiny little bitch."

Agreed. I never understood why this book was banned, either. I mean...it wasn't exactly The Tale of Scrotie McBoogerballs.

[Edited on July 1, 2012 at 8:44 PM. Reason : ]

7/1/2012 8:42:44 PM

^^^^ no more implausible than any other scifi movie.

[Edited on July 1, 2012 at 8:43 PM. Reason : .]

7/1/2012 8:43:05 PM

oh wait...counting the ^s you are referring to Frankenstein, not Fahrenheit 451
never mind all this babble

v Wuthering Heights is my all-time favorite novel


[Edited on July 1, 2012 at 9:16 PM. Reason : wreiouw]

7/1/2012 8:48:22 PM

Wuthering Heights

I have always loved books. It never made sense to me that some people did not like reading. But when we studied that fucking book in high school I finally, finally understood why people don't like to read. For them, every book is like Wuthering Heights!

7/1/2012 9:10:22 PM

My degree is in English Education...I'm not sure if I should admit to my dislike of some of this...

The Red Badge of Courage
Catch-22
All Quiet on the Western Front
Billy Budd
Moby Dick
The Pearl
Lord of the Flies
Gulliver's Travels
Don Quixote

Things Fall Apart would have been on this list had I not taken a lit class taught by Chimalum Nwankwo, who is Nigerian. Having that book taught to me a second time around by someone who did a far better job putting it in cultural perspective than the little old white lady who taught it to me in HS made all the difference in the world.

7/1/2012 9:11:22 PM

Siddhartha. What a waste of time.

7/1/2012 9:25:49 PM

^^all boy-adventure books huh?

Portrait of an Artist...
Jane Eyre
Pride and Prejudice
Canterbury Tales

Essentially British Lit

7/1/2012 9:34:20 PM

this thread is shameful

7/1/2012 9:35:20 PM

Actually, I'm mostly a Brit Lit, 19th c., Gothic Literature fan.

7/1/2012 9:41:59 PM

Quote :

"There's a reason why classic literature has never come out as a movie. It all sucks."

What? There are plenty of movies based on classics.

I actually like and respect a great number of classics, though I do not like:
Catcher in the Rye (to his credit, I actually like Franny and Zooey)
most Dickens, with the exception of Great Expectations (e.g. Hard Times, Bleak House)
Chaucer
Heart of Darkness

7/1/2012 10:33:42 PM

aha, merbig continues to solidify his role as tww's biggest buffoon

7/1/2012 10:35:02 PM

Wuthering Heights

7/1/2012 10:35:34 PM

^yes, and howards end

[Edited on July 1, 2012 at 10:40 PM. Reason : really any 19th century gentry love story (little women, sense sensibility etc)]

7/1/2012 10:38:11 PM

The Scarlett Letter

7/1/2012 10:42:03 PM

FUCK paradise lost

7/1/2012 10:46:12 PM

I came in to post ^^that. fucking horrible.

[Edited on July 1, 2012 at 10:46 PM. Reason : ^]

7/1/2012 10:46:24 PM

Tess of the Durberville's

Lol yes! Damn Hardy!

7/1/2012 10:50:44 PM

Great Expectations. Fuck that shit

7/1/2012 10:53:36 PM

I am an English teacher. There are certain books I will never teach:

The Scarlet Letter
Wuthering Heights
The Return of the Native -- This was my summer reading assignment for AP English Lit when I was a senior, and I couldn't even get through the CliffsNotes.
anything by Dickens
any novel by Faulkner (although I always teach "A Rose for Emily" when I have juniors)

7/1/2012 11:02:22 PM

Quote :

"Great Expectations. Fuck that shit"

7/1/2012 11:11:24 PM

I forgot great expectations, fuck that shit as well

7/1/2012 11:12:06 PM

East of Eden

7/2/2012 12:16:51 AM

Hemingway. Fuck that guy.

7/2/2012 12:44:45 AM