Assigned Reading That Sucks.

The Zephyr Song · **Posted:** Mon Oct 17, 2005 12:52 am

I swear I'm gonna go back in time to 1659 and murder Charles Dickens before he even has a chance to write Great Expectations. I'm getting to hate this book. x-x Probably because we're made to analyze it in English class and said class is the sole reason for my reading it. I read for entertainment, not for comprehension. 95% of what you learn in school exists only to prepare you for the next year OR prepare you to be on Jeopardy.

[Made the title a little more descriptive. - MHG]

Beyond the Grave · **Posted:** Mon Oct 17, 2005 12:54 am

You should have posted this here.

Didymus · **Posted:** Mon Oct 17, 2005 12:58 am

Might be kind of hard to do, considering he wasn't even born until 1812.

Choc-o-Lardiac Arrest · **Posted:** Mon Oct 17, 2005 1:00 am

The Zephyr Song wrote:

95% of what you learn in school exists only to prepare you for the next year OR prepare you to be on Jeopardy.

you......are..........GOD! or atleast a prophit.

Dark Grapefruit · **Posted:** Mon Oct 17, 2005 1:02 am

Ugh, school books can be the worst... or the best. The worst books I ever read for school were The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz and Fifth Business. Both "Canadian classics", which apparently means the trivial details of the lives of characters I have no sympathy for. :rolleye:

But I have also read Lord of the Flies and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest for school. Kickin rad.

Didymus · **Posted:** Mon Oct 17, 2005 1:08 am

I took seminars in college on Dante, Homer, Melville, and Hawthorne.

Not that I'm saying they suck. The name of this thread was changed.

The Japanese Geek · **Posted:** Mon Oct 17, 2005 1:11 am

My philosophy: If it won an award, it's usually going to be really, really, bad.

With a few notable exceptions : The Scorpion king, probably something else.

Ju Ju Master · **Joined:** Wed Jul 06, 2005 1:01 am **Posts:** 6245

The Japanese Geek wrote:

My philosophy: If it won an award, it's usually going to be really, really, bad.

With a few notable exceptions : The Scorpion king, probably something else.

Oh yeah, books that won awards are the worst "Touching, filled with emotion" says some weird guy on the street. "This was a good bok and I liked it and I thought it was good" says the New York Times. "I'll never feel the same about (whatever) again after reading this superb reading material thast I have just read" all mean it sucks and we were paid to say this.

Lunar Jesty · **Posted:** Mon Oct 17, 2005 1:30 am

Ju Ju Master wrote:

The Japanese Geek wrote:

My philosophy: If it won an award, it's usually going to be really, really, bad.

With a few notable exceptions : The Scorpion king, probably something else.

Oh yeah, books that won awards are the worst "Touching, filled with emotion" says some weird guy on the street. "This was a good bok and I liked it and I thought it was good" says the New York Times. "I'll never feel the same about (whatever) again after reading this superb reading material thast I have just read" all mean it sucks and we were paid to say this.

You guys know almost every book has won some kind of minor award?

The worst book I ever read for school... well, let's just say our school was big on the "Girl under limiting circumstances still has fun" books.

Ju Ju Master · **Joined:** Wed Jul 06, 2005 1:01 am **Posts:** 6245

Lunar Jesty wrote:

Ju Ju Master wrote:

The Japanese Geek wrote:

My philosophy: If it won an award, it's usually going to be really, really, bad.

With a few notable exceptions : The Scorpion king, probably something else.

Oh yeah, books that won awards are the worst "Touching, filled with emotion" says some weird guy on the street. "This was a good bok and I liked it and I thought it was good" says the New York Times. "I'll never feel the same about (whatever) again after reading this superb reading material thast I have just read" all mean it sucks and we were paid to say this.

You guys know almost every book has won some kind of minor award?

The worst book I ever read for school... well, let's just say our school was big on the "Girl under limiting circumstances still has fun" books.

If the book has to advertise it's award everywhere on the cover and back to get people to buy it, it's probably a bad book. My Side of the Mountain wa spretty good, and it had an award, and I suppose the Swiss Family Robinson was pretty good, but other than that, not too many books that go crazy with the award advertisings are good (and those two books didn't, they pretty much had the awrad aon the fron and maybe a quote or two o the back)

Shippinator Mandy · **Posted:** Mon Oct 17, 2005 2:50 am

Ooh, finally! An opportunity to complain about some utterly crappy reading material.

The True Confessions Of Charlotte Doyle--My class actually picked this book. It sounded interesting--a girl goes on a ship bound for America and gets accused of murder? AWESOME! Alas, she was not accused until AT LEAST half-way through the book. Also, it was poorly written and confusing.

Journey of the Sparrows--It was about El Salvadoran immigrants in America. It went into a bit too much detail ("brown-stained underpants", etc.), and the ending had no conclusion whatsoever. Of course, even if there WAS a sequel, I would not read it.

Sees Behind Trees--Not only was this a crappy book, it was also inaccurate! It was about some nearsighted Native American kid named Walnut who got renamed "Sees Behind Trees". Also, there's a chick who does things that chicks didn't do back then, and a guy who walks with a limp because he had to cut some of his toes off because they were stuck between some rocks in a river.

The Wild Kid--We STILL joke about this one! It was about some kid named Sammy who has Down's Syndrome or something. He loses his bike somehow and gets lost in the woods looking for it. In the woods, he meets some kid named Kevin, who lives there, apparently. It has a very gory "bunny death" scene. This is pretty much how it goes: "He slit the bunny's throat. Dark blood bubbled up from the cut. It was bloody. The bunny's legs kicked and then they didn't..." and it goes on like that for a few more sentences. Also, they eat garbage at one point. And at the beginning, there's this amusing bit (well, this is just the gist of it): "Sammy didn't understand why 'crap' was a bad word. His friend Dennis said 'crap-a-dap' all the time. Spell 'crap' backwards and it was 'parc'. Spell 'Sammy' backwards and it was 'Ymmas'."

No, I'm not kidding.

We did read some good books in 6th grade (Surviving the Applewhites is still one of my favorites!), but those 4 (the last 2 are from 5th grade) were really, really bad.

Beyond the Grave · **Posted:** Mon Oct 17, 2005 2:56 am

Here is one from my senior reading list.
Wuthering Heights- This book was long drawn out and BORING! It is 300 pages of pure boredom.

ramrod · **Posted:** Mon Oct 17, 2005 3:03 am

Beyond the Grave wrote:

Here is one from my senior reading list.
Wuthering Heights- This book was long drawn out and BORING! It is 300 pages of pure boredom.

290 pages discuss what happened and showed people talking about something. 2 pages were on actually doing something. The last 8 were on what happened after they did something. Can we say crap?

Jitka · **Posted:** Mon Oct 17, 2005 3:25 am

Oh man, books I've read for school and loathed...

Most of them.

Specifially, The Old Man and the Sea, by Ernest Hemingway.

Basic gist: Old Cuban guy talks about Joe DiMaggio with some kid. Goes fishing. Thinks about Africa. Catches a swordfish--for thirty-five pages. Fish gets eaten by sharks. Old guy goes home. The end.

And John Steinbeck is 1 for 3 when it comes to books by him that I've read. Of Mice and Men was good, but The Pearl and The Grapes of Wrath were pretty bad, though I at least found The Grapes of Wrath readable. The Pearl, however...

Ugh.

Worst book of all time: The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier.

Choc-o-Lardiac Arrest · **Posted:** Mon Oct 17, 2005 3:49 am

hrmm.... the Great Chocolardiac War? hrmmm.....

well, the book i hated to read was the book Stranger With My Face by Lois Duncan...... it sucked.

iKipapa · **Posted:** Mon Oct 17, 2005 4:22 am

I hate assigned reading. Its like a sentence of punishment, or something.

Last year I had to read The Legend of Tarik, and I must say that it was the worst book ever. And then, as if that wasn't enough, she made us read A Proud Taste for Scarlet and Miniver. Ugh. Both gave me nightmares.

Choc-o-Lardiac Arrest · **Posted:** Mon Oct 17, 2005 5:01 am

has anyone ever heard of AR points? Accelerated Reader? well, my dumb Reading class makes us read books that arent even verry interesting so we can get theese stupid computer point things that help you make a passing grade. i dont got any cause im making a statement against it. ya know, insted of schools shutting down the music departments before anything else, why not the reading departments? sure we need reading, but if we do have to read we should be able to find any book that we want to read, no matter what book it is.

racerx_is_alive · **Posted:** Mon Oct 17, 2005 7:02 pm

I hated "Heart of Darkness" by Joseph Conrad. His writing style was extremely difficult to get into, imo.

Layla · **Joined:** Sat Apr 09, 2005 8:33 pm **Posts:** 135

Ugh...Great Expectations was the most mind-numbingly dull book. The thing about assigned reading is teachers don't have the first clue what teenagers like to read. Of course, most teenagers I know don't have the attention span. Regardless, I can't understand why someone would think it would be a good idea to have teenagers read MacBeth. Or for that matter, anyone who was born within the last two or three centuries.

Dark Grapefruit · **Posted:** Mon Oct 17, 2005 7:37 pm

The Scottish Play is awesome. Well, maybe I just think that because my teacher jazzed it up with cool interactive bits instead of just having us read it. I always liked the Shakespeare units in school though. In addition to Macbeth, I read Julius Caesar and King Lear.

Wigeon · **Posted:** Mon Oct 17, 2005 7:43 pm

For the next month, I have to read short stories by this guy called O'Henry. Scary.

The Noid · **Posted:** Mon Oct 17, 2005 7:54 pm

Choc-o-lardiac Arrest wrote:

has anyone ever heard of AR points? Accelerated Reader? well, my dumb Reading class makes us read books that arent even verry interesting so we can get theese stupid computer point things that help you make a passing grade. i dont got any cause im making a statement against it. ya know, insted of schools shutting down the music departments before anything else, why not the reading departments? sure we need reading, but if we do have to read we should be able to find any book that we want to read, no matter what book it is.

Yeah, but we have the option whether we want to do it or not.

Xyzzyka Gruefrotzer · **Posted:** Mon Oct 17, 2005 8:29 pm

Wigeon wrote:

For the next month, I have to read short stories by this guy called O'Henry. Scary.

Nah dude, O. Henry (PROPER PUNCTUATION'D!) is cool enough, if your teacher picks the right stories. Which of course they won't. : P Anyways, at least they're short. Have fun...or something.

...I'm not really participating in this discussion 'cause I'ma one of those freaks what that actually ENJOYs reading. :eek:

Gaspeth. I don't really hate books; I just don't give a crap. Vast world of difference. Vast.
Also, I've probably been luckier in book selections than other people here, though I've read "The Pearl" (and didn't give a crap).

Oh, and we had AR points in most of my various elementary schools, and later in the school I attended for the 8th grade. In elementary school you got "prizes" (you know the sort - tiny notebooks, twirly pens and pencil cases); in the middle school you got your name on the wall. Whooptidoo.

Acekirby · **Posted:** Mon Oct 17, 2005 8:35 pm

I had to read a book called "Lupita Manana" for Spanish class.

Bottom line: Don't read it if you don't like randomly going into Spanish with a bad plot.

Prof. Tor Coolguy · **Posted:** Mon Oct 17, 2005 9:39 pm

JohnTheTinyCowboy wrote:

Oh man, books I've read for school and loathed...

And John Steinbeck is 1 for 3 when it comes to books by him that I've read. Of Mice and Men was good, but The Pearl and The Grapes of Wrath were pretty bad, though I at least found The Grapes of Wrath readable. The Pearl, however...

Ugh.

Worst book of all time: The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier.

I liked Of Mice and Men, the relationships of the characters were really believeable. And yes, I also hated The Pearl......so much so that I didn't even finish it.

As for Shakespere and other plays, I liked Romeo and Juliet (the chicks dig a guy that can quote R+J). I also liked A Rasin in the Sun, although it didn't really have a happy ending it was fun getting there. It was like you were looking into the daily life of this working class family.

the_stolker · **Posted:** Mon Oct 17, 2005 9:43 pm

this year i have liked one of the stories we have read in Language arts...
We Have Read:
Plainswoman
THe Necklace
The Most Dangerous Game
and The Scarlet Ibes
and The Most Dangerous Game was the only one i really cared about finishing. I strongly dislike my L.A. book

The Experimental Film · **Posted:** Mon Oct 17, 2005 10:09 pm

JohnTheTinyCowboy wrote:

Specifially, The Old Man and the Sea, by Ernest Hemingway.

Oh, man. That book had NO PLOT.

NO PLOT.

WHATSOEVER.

Everything that happened on page 100 could have happened on page 2. For Pete's sake. I hate Hemingway.

Marshmallow Roast · **Posted:** Mon Oct 17, 2005 11:10 pm

Acekirby wrote:

I had to read a book called "Lupita Manana" for Spanish class.

Bottom line: Don't read it if you don't like randomly going into Spanish with a bad plot.

Sympathy. We have to read a book called Pauvre Anne for French. A basic paragraph:

Anne is a girl that lives in New York. She has long hair and blue eyes. Her hair is brown. She has many problems with her family. She lives with her mother, father, sister, brother, and sister. She has many problems with her family...

...

...

AUGH!

Tompkins · **Joined:** Thu Aug 26, 2004 1:37 pm **Posts:** 1391

I have to read a book called "Pit pony".... augh!

Color Printer · **Posted:** Mon Oct 17, 2005 11:18 pm

Choc-o-lardiac Arrest wrote:

has anyone ever heard of AR points? Accelerated Reader? well, my dumb Reading class makes us read books that arent even verry interesting so we can get theese stupid computer point things that help you make a passing grade. i dont got any cause im making a statement against it. ya know, insted of schools shutting down the music departments before anything else, why not the reading departments? sure we need reading, but if we do have to read we should be able to find any book that we want to read, no matter what book it is.

EVIL! EVIL! AR BAD![/maniac]

Anyways, let us get on with my assigned-reading critique.

The Secret Garden: Is my brain bored out of my head yet? Some people like this book, but to me, this book was incredibly confusing.

Dragonwings: Honestly made no sense. No sense at all. That's all I have to say.

More soon when I can remember.[/b]

Homestar Runner Wiki Forum

Assigned Reading That Sucks.

Who is online