Whether it was college or high school, what was the book you hated to have to read?

[deutsey]

111. In high school: Hardy's "Return of the Native;" in college, Rand's "We"

The thing about Hardy is, I always like the idea behind some of his books (like this one about an educated guy coming back to teach the poor community he's from), but, maaaan, I can never get past the first couple pages. "Jude the Obscure" is another one.

Rand's book was just boring, plodding, soul-less tripe. We had to read it and some essays from "Virtue of Selfishness," too. It was a philosophy class and the professor was a Randian. I had no idea who she was back then (back in the early '80s), nor did I ever imagine Rand would go on to be the "cult" phenom she is today among the right.

That said, I liked a lot of the books I read in high school and in college, even the ones I wouldn't go back to read today. I liked many of the books posted in this thread, in fact...I think the instructor and the context of the class often helped. I probably wouldn't read "The Awakening" now, but I liked it in the Sexuality and American Culture course I read it in. Same with "Ethan Frome" in the Intro to American Lit class I took.

A lot of the most hated "big" books here like "Ulysses" and "Moby Dick" I didn't read until after college. Yeah, I read them on my own and actually ended up liking both of them (although I needed a lot of "study guide" help with "Ulysses&quot .