Literary Blog Hop: The Despicable

Discuss a work of literary merit that you hated when you were made to read it in school or university. Why did you dislike it?

Oh let me start listing. There were many books I was forced to read in high school which I found hate-worthy. These are the two books which immediately pop into my head when people ask questions like this; they even made a bad classics list here on eclectic / eccentric last year. I don't know if it was my age, or being forced to read, or actually crappiness of book, but here are two that I just could not stand.

The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane
This was actually a DNF for me in my senior English class. I only made it a few chapters in before I just couldn't take anymore. Being as that experience was over 10 years ago, I don't remember exactly why I disliked Crane's war book so very much, but I know that ten years later, it is still one of the first books to pop into my head when I think of horrid reads.

I have been given many reasons by others for why I didn't like this one, mostly done in a placating, you would like it now, sort of voice. Some argue that as a teenage girl, I just didn't like war stories. That argument is out the window since one of my favorite reads from high school is My Brother Sam is Dead by the Colliers, which is a war story.

Since I can't remember the details, I went googling around. Jennifer, over at Reading with Tequila, gives me a possible reason for hating this one: "The dialogue was an atrocious mess of apostrophes. It was so bad that I could only barely decipher what was being said in some passages. The storyline itself seemed mildly interesting and it is quite possible the book is very good in a literary sense. Unfortunately for me, the speaking style was barely tolerable and I found it very hard to stay involved in what was going on." This one will not be getting a second chance.



The Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
I know, I know, this is another one that I am "supposed" to love, and I will admit, that unlike for The Red Badge of Courage, I actually do think that I should give this one a second chance. But in high school, I hated it. I thought it was a giant waste of time, too short, too prosey, and too dull. I read the entire book since it was extremely short and I could knock it out pretty quickly (possibly one reason I didn't enjoy it), but I regretted it immediately.

Some of my favorite bloggers have written positive reviews on this one. Trish, back at the Nook, has a gushy review of this one; Julie over at The Blue Bookcase would even bring this as one of her ten to a deserted island books; J.T. over at bibliofreakblog adores it and the pseudo-adaptation Apocalypse Now; Lenore, from Presenting Lenore, confessed in her 20 Questions post at Rebecca's Lost in Books, that she has re-read Heart of Darkness more times than any other book. A re-read for me may be in order.

So I am curious: what books did you guys despise while in school?