DVDizzy Forum

This thread is an idea stolen off another forum, and it essentially asks the question of what the best and worst books that you had to read were.

Best: I really enjoyed Of Mice and Men, and I have to admit that I liked Romeo and Juliet. Other favourites include The Handmaid's Tale, Animal Farm, Othello and Gulliver's Travels. I'm also reading Birdsong at the moment, and I'm lovin' it.

Worst: There were a number of really lame crappy kids' novels that I had to read up until around 2001-ish, most of which were truly bad and I can't even remember the names of (I think a book called The Pram Race sticks out). One adult book that drove me nuts was Hamlet. I really don't see the popularity. Oliver Twist was also pretty lame; call me blasphemous, but I prefered the musical. Oh, and Strange Meeting...I had to read it over the Summer, and can't even remember what happened.

Being forced to read anything is hardly a way to get a liking, therefore all of my set-books for English at school are worst:

Hobson's Choice (a play)
A Taste of Honey (a play)
The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe (yes, I hated it because of all the class discussions we had to have, which often reverted to religion )
Treasure Island (It didn't do much for me, and dragged on for weeks)

However, we also had to read
A Christmas Carol, which I loved. And I loved all the discussions, essays and even did my exam using it. I think its one of the true classic stories of our time, both in plot and characters.

BEST- A Tale Of Two Cities, A Wrinkle In Time, Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince.

WORST- The Scarlet Letter, Great Expectations, Socrates

Best: LWW, Fahrenheit 451

Worst: The Great Gatsby, by far!

Best: Farenheit 451 (agreed)

Worst: The Pearl. The guy goes through all of that just to throw the thing back into the sea? WHAT?!?

Best - Bambi (EXCELLENT NOVEL!, anyone who hasn't read it should order it off eBay ($5) and read it, you won't be sorry, my fav. book), Bambi's Children, Of Mice and Men, Silence of the Lambs, Red Dragon, Cash (Johnny Cash Bio), To Kill a Mockingbird, Animal Farm

Worst - Shakespear (anything), boring and too hard to read...

All are from school
Best: The Giver, Number the Stars, The Outsiders and To Kill a Mockingbird
Worst: The Pearl

Yeah, Steinbeck is pretty tedious as well.

Best: To Kill a Mockingbird, Treasure Island, Macbeth, and Where the Red Fern Grows.

Worst: A Separate Peace, The Great Gatsby, As I Lay Dying, Hamlet, and Great Expectations.

I know I was forced to read more than those books in school, but I can't recall anymore at the moment.

numba1lostboy wrote:BEST- A Wrinkle In Time, Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince.

I am in love with you! Okay, I'm not gay, but I love these two books. A Wrinkle in Time is my all time favorite book that I have ever read.

For me:

WORST - The Outsiders - Quite boring, and totally................ boring!
The Pearl - Haven't read it yet, but the first 2 pages seem to me......... utterly boring!
The Lady and the Tiger - Sure it was a short story, but man it sucked!
The Raven - I completely hate this poem. It truly proves that Poe was an insane xenopsycho-path

The list really goes on, and this is just of this year.............................

Edited: From the 4th grade I remember this book called: Shiloh. I absolutely positiviley supercalifragilisticexpialidoceously hate this book!

Best: First year of uni we read The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco. I discovered a whole new way of reading, and writing for that matter. At school, I guess it was Of Mice and Men as well.

Worst: Final year of school, we had to read a local author named Peter Goldsworthy and his novel Maestro. Really crap 'coming of age' stuff. I also never cared for any of the Jane Austen we had to read. I still despise Austen to this day.

Best: Catcher in the Rye. If fact this book has become one of my favorite of all time.

Worst: The Old Man and the Sea. This book was pointless. The analogy may be "important", but Heminway is just a stale author. Also, The Scarlett Letter isn't far behind.

castleinthesky wrote: Worst: The Old Man and the Sea. This book was pointless. The analogy may be "important", but Heminway is just a stale author. Also, The Scarlett Letter isn't far behind.

OK..............Hemingway is anything but stale and as far as I'm concerned, The Scarlett Letter IS the American novel.

TheSequelofDisney wrote: WORST - The Outsiders - Quite boring, and totally................ boring!
The Pearl - Haven't read it yet, but the first 2 pages seem to me......... utterly boring!
The Lady and the Tiger - Sure it was a short story, but man it sucked!
The Raven - I completely hate this poem. It truly proves that Poe was an insane xenopsycho-path

You're KILLING me, Gideon! How could anyone hate The Outsiders???

Anyway, my best and worst from middle and high school based on what I remember:

Best in Middle School:
The Westing Game - loved loved LOVED this book. Still read it every so often.
The Wave - a bit creepy, but a it's a very enthralling story.
The Giver - like The Wave, creepy, but a powerful story.

Best in High School:
The Sun Also Rises and A Farewell to Arms - The two Hemingways I had to read during my junior year. I think I was one of 5 in my entire class who actually liked both of them.
The Great Gatsby - I really enjoyed this book, even if others didn't.
Romeo & Juliet, Hamlet, Macbeth - those were the only 3 Shakespeare plays I had to read in high school, and I actually enjoyed them.
The Cantebury Tales - Don't really know what to say here except I found them amusing.
The Good Earth - I loved the first half, got bored with the second half, but wouldn't mind reading it again.

Worst in Middle School:
The House of Dies Drear - hated hated HATED this book!
Hatchet - I wouldn't exactly call it worst, but I was bored to tears with it.

Worst in High School:
A Separate Peace - glad to see someone else hated reading this! (CJ). I was so glad when we finished...except of course our teacher made us watch the movie version too. So for 3 days straight, I had 40 minute naps...

I didn't really hate any books in high school except for A Separate Peace...

Escapay

Best- Animal Farm

Worst-not a book but a poem Robert Frost's "The Road Not Taken" if I have to read that poem ONE MORE TIME, I'm gonna scream! I had to read that poem all through middle school, all through high school and in a couple of my college English courses.

Mushu2083 wrote:Worst-not a book but a poem Robert Frost's "The Road Not Taken" if I have to read that poem ONE MORE TIME, I'm gonna scream! I had to read that poem all through middle school, all through high school and in a couple of my college English courses.

I loved that poem! Along with "Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening" (I think that's the title). We had to memorize both in middle school, and I always preferred Stopping by Woods. Both have wonderful endings:

And miles to go before I sleep
And miles to go before I sleep

And I, I took the road less traveled by
And that has made all the difference

Escapay

I think the only book I've ever read in High School that I hated was "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn". Seriously, boring, overlong, confusing... just all in all BAD.

Then again, I haven't had "The Great Gatsby" yet...

Best: The Da Vinci Code
Angles and Demonds
The Metamorphosis
Tartuffe
Don Quixote
Hamlet
To Kill a Mocking Bird
20000 Leagues Under the Sea
Bambi (of course)
Lord of the Rings
The Green Mile
Worst:
Lord of the Flies - ewwww
Romeo and Juliet - boring

To Kill A MockingBird and A Lesson Before Dying were also reeaalllly good. They were both about essentially the same thing, but they were still really enjoyable.

Shakespears is also boring. I like reading the summarys of his stories, but to actually read Shakespeare is something that I will never have the patience for.

But by far the WORST book I have ever read is Scarlet Letter. Not only was this book slow-moving and utterly boring, but it made me sick! Those people had serious problems!!

And TheSequelOfDisney....I love you too.

Aw man, how did I forget Lord of the Flies? I read that my senior year and loved it!

And what's with all the Shakespeare hatin' going on? It makes me die a little...

JM, if you hated A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, I doubt you'll like The Great Gatsby, but give it a chance. And of course, if you can't get through the book, rent the movie (but not the Robert Redford version. Get the A&E version witih Mira Sorvino and Paul Rudd).

Escapay