/lit/ - Literature

I hated Ethan Frome

>>4052230
That book had a good /b/ level gore scene.
>dem Wallacez

>The Catcher in the Rye

>Too Late the Phalarope

Pretty much any book about racism.

read one, you've read em all.

Fucking Silas Marner. What the fuck is that shit.

Chemical, Biochemical, and Engineering Thermodynamics

Stanley Sandlar

trashman.jpg

Jesus fucking Christ.

>>4052271
Mine was A Lesson Before Dying. What a frightful load of bollocks.

Possession by A.S. Byatt. It's like she wasn't even thinking about the words she used

>>4052230
I forget the author, it was titled Rising from the Plains, though, and it was about the geological-scale history of Wyoming. If it weren't for that book, I may have become a geologist not knowing of how boring they all are.

>>4052230
Pride & Prejudice.

in order:

>Freshman
The Kite Runner

>Sophomore
Life of Pi

>Junior
The Color Purple

>Senior Year (summer):
Man's Search for Meaning

I tried to read The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy for a book report in middle school.
You can guess how it went.
Teacher was understanding, let me slide with a C-

All the books I was forced to read about the Holocaust. I prefer non-fiction books.

Our 11th grade teacher told us we were too stupid for the normal books.

Instead of reading 1984/Tale of Two Cities we read
>Finding Forester (The novelisation of the film, not the real book)
>The Pigman

>Our classes face in 12th grade when we started our course with The Scarlet Letter and our teacher wanted paragraph answers on the test where questions were about subtle symbolism.

>Thier face when 2/3 the class was failing by the final (We read Beowulf/Scarlet Letter/Lord of The Flies/Animal Farm/Antigone/A Seperate Peace) ad I had 97%
>Couldn't piece together the fact they were gay in Separate Peace.

No, none of those are hard reads, but compared to the young fiction we had to read before it fucked people

>>4052469
that's pretty funny but christ a teacher giving C- to middle schoolers!

>>4052230
I am the Cheese was fucking horrible to read.

>>4052237
>hating Ethan Frome

>>4052446
Frankl's book is the best of the bunch there, but by no means enjoyable

I don't particular have strong feelings towards books I dislike, but the Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time was pretty boring and didn't seem at all well thought as a novel. The protagonist was alright for the most part.

>>4052539
That's because it's literally impossible to write a good book in the present-tense.

Honors and AP guy here
Freshman Year
>Romeo and Juliet
>Bland and probably the worst Shakespeare play. I grew to love the others though
Sophomore Year
>Wuthering Heighs
>Amongst the most agonizing pieces of lit I have ever had the misfortune of reading. I despised the characters, the prose, and the fangirls of Heathcliff
Junior Year
>For Whom The Bell Tolls
>I would say the Great Gatsby, but FWTBT was far more more grating. Hemingway is rather overrated.
Senior Year
>The Awakening
>This turned into a big feminist circle jerk, and the characters and motivations were loathsome. The class experience didn't help. Not as bad as Wuthering, goddamn near close.

>>4052543
What did you like about it? Maybe it was because I was only a sophomore but I just didn't seem exemplary in anyway to me.

>>4052581
I just read it last month for no reason. Im not saying it's the greatest book ever written, but I did like how at the end Mattie, Ethan and Zeena would rather be dead than in their current position

It's such dark humor when you think about it, at first Zeena was the bad guy, but she has to treat Mattie and Ethan for the rest of her life

It's a reversal of fortune, I thought it was a good story, albeit drawn out.

ender's game

ITT: High school faggots talking about books that they had to read. BOO FUCKING HOO

>>4052588
That's the reason I hated it honestly. Like you said the story and the ending were top notch but it just took so much longer than it needed to. Would've been a brilliant short story but as a novel it seemed needlessly dragged out.

The amount of time we spent on it in class also made it seem even longer.

>>4052595

Get out.

>>4052539
One of Robert Cormier's worst books, to be sure. I loved The Chocolate Factory, though.

>>4052596
Ayup. Not a single interesting or new thought about any of the books mentioned so far.

>>4052600
i don't like children's books. read andromeda strain for the same class. now that was bretty gewd.

Probably....A Raisin in the Sun
It's about black people acting like black people.

>>4052611
And I HATE black people

Their Eyes Were Watching God

every year i had a book about black people and why white people are continually to blame for all of their modern-day failures.

>>4052596
Well the issue is that often times subpar books that are inserted because of either:
A) Racial and/or Gender Quota
B) Recently popular-yet-average novel to keep people interested
C) Reading books "Just Because"
It can be detrimental and do more harm than good for a student.

Plus, people have different opinions. Eat shit you whoremonger.

I had to read the novelization of Lynch's film The Elephant Man.

yes it was as bad as it sounds

>>4052574

Oh wow I totally forgot about the Awakening(I even read it this year). I'm a feminist and thought it was absolute garbage. The beginning was mildly interesting, but as soon as she got back to the city and became a selfish cunt who cared about her side piece dick that it became hell to read.

>>4052615

>>4052614

what book did you read, it wasn't even really about racism. it was about a woman and her community of busybodies judging her for her coices

I don't have a particular book, but this was my class in particular
>While reading "Huck Finn", we weren't allowed to say "nigger"
>We needed to write an essay on our favorite feminist book
>Sometimes refused books in our curriculum because it wasn't "diverse enough"
>Half the books dealt with race relations (big bad white man), nearly voided a Shakespeare play because it supposedly "insulted" Arabic people.
Needless to say, I never had such an adverse reaction to literature in my life, stopped reading for 2 years. I did say nigger while reading it, because fuck the police.

>>4052629
edgy

Man where do guys live that you needed to read all these terrible book for diversity's sake?

I only had to read 3 tolerance type books Night by elie wiesel, native son by richard wright, and invisible man by ralph ellison.

>The Pearl by Steinbeck

Maybe it was because I was young, I haven't read it since then but holy fuck did it put me to sleep.

>>4052605
>coming to 4chan for interesting and new thoughts

>>4052648
No, that book is horrible. It put me off steinbeck and to this day it still stains my opinion of him. The most obvious "symbolism" ever, thrust so obviously into your face. Man it was terrible. And it had nothing but that, really.

Our Town by Thornton Wilder. What a shitty, boring play. Had to read it and do papers on it two years in a row for two different classes. Why? Why the fuck would out school make us read that dull pile of shit when there are so many other amazing plays out there? Why do they want us to hate reading?

Had to read it in elementary school
I'll never forget it

>>4052739
what book you talking about m8?

>>4052746
Forgot the image as always
Sign of The Beaver it's called, absolutely repulsive

>>4052550
You liked that sperglord. One of the most cringe-inducing books I've read alongside The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian.
Junior year sucked cock.

>>4052698
You bastard.
I ...I fucking loved that play.
It was FUCKING BEAUTIFUL GODDAMN YOU

>>4052698
My school was all Arthur Miller plays. It was fine in the beginning, we did The Crucible and the class was ambivalent. Then time went on and we had to read more and more. By the time we got to Death of a Salesman I was convinced there was going to be a revolt.

>>4052750
dat cover

>>4052755
i didn't exactly like him, the constantly freaking out was fucking annoying, but because he's autistic i didn't really expect him to act like a normal person.

>>4052654
I know. I'm pretty ashamed of myself.

>>4052614
>>4052623

Yeah, if you thought that book was about racism, you basically missed the whole book and have shown yourself to be basically illiterate.

>>4052617
>feminist
>cunt

Oh wow.

Everything is Illuminated and The Shipping News.

Enders game.

Twice.

That or Catcher in the Rye

Twice.

Moby Dick might also be up there. But i really cant bring myself to hate it, its not a poorly written book its just dry and fillied with unnecessary shit, But remains one of the worst Experiences of my school days given how we needed to analyze and draw illustrations of it.

The Bluest Eye.

One of the most painful experiences I have had in my life.

>>4052887
cunt is too good a word to give up for ideology.

I had three diversity quota books in school. Roll of Thunder and a book about the integration f blacks into white schools. I forget the title, it had the POV of a black girl in a white school. Both were pretty boring. Then there was To Kill a Mockingbird. I have a feeling most books can get away with being middling quality if they say something "important" about race or gender issues.

>>4052614
>>4052614
>>4052614
>>4052614
>>4052614
fucking book was so dogshit.

>>4052320
HAHAHA
You have no idea what goes on during geological field expeditions. But it's okay, we don't want you along, anyway.

>disliking Catcher in the Rye or Ender's Game

This fucking book

Who Will Run the Frog Hospital. That book was fucking garbage.

>CTRL+F
>"The Fountainhead"

Well that would be mine. I simply can not understand her appeal. Her fiction is poorly written and her philosophical acumen is well... It's like the literary equivalent of tawdry mail order Ronco kitchen gadgets.

>>4053084
It takes a certain kind of genius to truly understand Rand

>>4053088
Go on.

>>4053094
Sorry, the image wasn't intended as sarcasm. I genuinely want to know, because I'm not clever enough to figure it out for myself.

>>4052253
>The Catcher in the Rye
yup

>>4053097
The nature of libertarian philosophy takes a certain kind of moral rigor which most people find impossible to live up to. When establishing rules, especially moral rules, their universalization can and most likely will result in the damaging of some or all of a person's personal relationships.

This is especially true with Rand's philosophy, which is not perfect I will admit; Her flaw being her failure to see the root of politics and the state in the family. Even though she did not stress the importance of the family in her works, her philosophy still held severe implications for a persons personal life. By rejecting the legitimacy of superficial authority figures and those who live second-hand lives she takes away any sort of power those people would have over others who come to understand her philosophy. The difficulty of this is that people are propagandized on an incredibly personal level from the moment they are able to comprehend language to obey their parents, to obey their teachers, to obey the state. They are told that it is morally virtuous to give to charity, to help the poor, to donate their time and money for the sake of the 'greater good'. They are told that it is evil to be selfish, and if you are to value yourself over others who have no importance to you, or to which you owe no duty, you are the worst moral criminal.

You see this everywhere in life, people talking about their careers as something they do to benefit society, businessmen who donate and say they are 'giving back', as if what they have isn't there's to begin with.

To break with that kind of propaganda from your youth is incredibly difficult unless you were raised somewhat free of it, or have come to deal with it through some other means. Taking it as a rebellion against authority for rebellions sake is a teenagers folly, those who do this are the ones you'll encounter who'll tell you they loved her when they were younger but 'grew out of it', as if they understood it in the first place. They never uprooted the seeds of corruption that were buried in them in their youth.

>>4052230
Can I say To Kill a Mocking Bird?

>>4053125
This was a ton OF BULLLSHIIIITTT. You didn't even really explain how it take a genius to understand Rand. Which is total BS too. Anyone can understand Rand. Read her works and comprehend.... It doesn't take a special brain to read for comprehension. Hipster faggot.

>>4053147
I read the fountainhead when i was 13 or so. Obviously didn't understand all of it but I thought Roark's sense of elegance and fuck da police were pretty cool. Personality wise he was pretty much non-existent.

Kind of a good book to justify doing shit for yourself and not others, I don't know why it's so controversial, I think when people make opinions about Rand's work they associate it with her personal life and political leanings too much

>>4053161
Yeah her books, especially The Fountainhead. Aren't as deeply political as her personal life was. Atlas Shrugged and Anthem are the most political of her novels.

>>4053125
Nice attempt, but I would say most ethical systems people will find impossible to live up to. Utilitarianism, the antithesis to Objectivism in my opinion, requires the exact same rebellion against social norms and is provides a more universal value system. In fact, any ethical system different from whatever culturally indoctrinated morality you think exists would require the same type of mental fortitude.

I would argue that what Rand would describe as collectivist morality is a straw man argument, primarily against the Soviet propaganda she experienced during her youth. There are many parts of Rand's philosophy that I value, namely her tremendous respect for the individual. However, I feel she often simplifies opposing views, or even worse creates opposing views out of thin air that she can then tear down.

>>4052253
can't believe they teach that garbage in school

I mean, who thought it was a good idea to teach kids that a self-centered, misanthropic prick is a hero? I mean, they could point at him as a laughingstock, but they'd still be much better served by being shown what is good rather than what is bad.

>>4052230
The boy in the striped pyjamas was awful

>that fantastic feel when Divine Comedy, The Betrhoted and the Late Mattia Pascal

>>4052498

>>4053253
if you actually went to /pol/ you would know that it is pretty laidback and lighthearted, and that the Jewish thing is serious but in a kind of tongue-in-cheek way. Yes, they are blaming jews for things, but they are also aware of how absurd it is to even try and blame the jews for anything in a culture that demonizes "anti-semitism". So when they post those happymerchant.jpgs it's a kind of sad comedy, all it is is poking fun at jewish authority, while at the same time admitting that nothing can be done about jewish authority.

I can't understand the people that get pissed off at the happymerchant.jpgs. They seem to be really dense and not realize that it's just another caricature used for humor, like fedoraatheist.

Clay's Quilt.
That book is to me being from Kentucky what Li'l Wayne's existence is to an intelligent black person.

>>4052230
The trustworthy witness, a book about the new testament.
I'm not even kidding.

I just realised that, aside from Shakespeare, almost every single book I read or film I watched in secondary school was sympathetic to non-whites and/or portrayed some white people as malevolent race-haters

Boy Overboard
Ten Things I Hate About Me
To Kill A Mockingbird
12 Angry Men
The Rugmaker of Mazar-e-Sharif
Freedom Writers
Remember the Titans
The Book Thief

>>4053312


>go to /pol/
>not even once

literally the most cancerous, embarrassing board on the internet. ws have gone from the third reich to crying on a forum where everybody hates them, lol, some supremacy

>>4052614

>book not even about racism
>poltard crying about it anyway
>using caps
>facepalm.jpg

and this is why everyone hates you /pol/

>>>/pol/

>>4052629

is this board infested with /pol/ or something?

edgy children seem to be making 90% of the posts here

>>4053356
>white people portrayed as malevolent race-haters

>implying they're not

>>4053312
None of this post is correct. They're legitimately retarded over there.
Believe me.
I go
occasionally

>>4053374
the only reason people hate pol is because they hold liberal dogmas that they are very stingy about, to the point that they "can't take a joke".

>>4053387
Either that or we're sick of people constantly turning every thread they can into a race war of some sort. It's just tiresome.

The Long Song - Andrea Levy.

What a waste of perfectly good paper. Think of all the great ideas which could be expressed through text on those pages.

>>4052230
I have always hated Catcher in the Rye - I hated the main character, how he "spoke" and overasll, it just made me want to toss the book out the windows, but I couldn't because it was for school.

When I finished it and did my test, I told the teacher I'd rather read the Silmarillion instead of this crap. He gave me his copy.

>>4052648
I didn't have to read it for school, but yes it was awful.

>>4053142
You can, but then you'd be a goddamn idiot.

So

Watch out.

>>4053171
Ugh, and Anthem was so fucking boring. Like, the worst of the worst. At least 2112 had some decent music to go along with the story.

The Handmaid's Tale

What a load of wank. Had its moments tho

>>4053207
Have you read A Fault In Our Stars? It's the same kind of book, like Perks of Being a Wallflower: a coming of age story, focused on some emotional situation that resonates with kids and opens their eyes to the "power" of writing.

My mother read A Fault in Our Stars, and she said she thought the kids were written honestly and accurately. I read it, and thought they were written by a middle-aged guy who has no idea how kids think. And my 12 y/o sister read it, and cried and cried and cried and thinks it's the best.

It's just how these kinds of books go, I guess. I can't stand 'em.

>>4053356
You do realize Shakespeare did the same, right? Or are you some sort of pleb who doesn't actually understand Early Modern English?

>>4052614
> Didn't get what the book was about
Most of the main character's problems were caused by other black people. White people were barely in the story. You're just so self-centered that you see yourself as the most important person in any story.

If you had whined about feminism you'd still be a retard but at least you would have understood the meaning of the book superficially.

>>4053147
rused splendidly

>>4053250
Miglior feel è migliore.

>>4053387
People hate /pol/ because they can't tell the difference between shitposting and a joke

>>4053356
Some white people are that though where have you been for the last century?

Go Ask Alice my sophomore year. Fucking terrible book.

>>4053503
Anthem was an interesting science fiction story. I couldn't stand any of her other book though. I put down Atlas Shrugged half way through and just never picked it up again.

>>4053628
I though that was a website.

iBoy. Fucking Apple propaganda.

>iPhone lands on your head
>chip embedded in your brain, go to the hospital scans show nothing
>gain access to the Internet and other people's phones through your head
>oh did I mention you have electricity powers now lol
>go kill gang members who raped some chick you liked
>she loves you for it after he finds out

Never read that piece of shit, I had to force myself to finish it.

>>4053726
Why would you even read such a piece of crap named iBoy? You didn't look at the fucking back of the book for the plot before you started it?

I didn't actually read it. I relied on my friends to update me on what happened in the book (for tests) and it sounded pretty shitty.

>>4053747
great book/movie. been meaning to read bonesetter's daughter

>>4053747
I saw the movie and it portrayed every Chinese relationship as abusive and Asian families as like prison gangs.

Then I met actual Chinese people and this was completely confirmed :)

>Great Gatsby

>>4053744
>implying there was a blurb

Nigga please, I was bored and I picked out the first thing that caught my attention.

>>4052230
House on fucking Mango Street, man.

>>4052271
mine was jasper jones
which also combined with a equally cringefully bad coming of age in outback australia story

catcher in the rye

>>4052230

> The Great Gatsby
> Night
> To Kill A Mockingbird

> Crime and Punishment
> On Tenth Grade
> Very strict schedule

The Kite Runner
the most syrupy, trite, heart-whoring, black-and-white, poorly written piece of literature I've ever had the misfortune to read

I mean it was okay but fuck that book

>hating Catcher in the Rye, Gatsby or Mockingbird
Americans being plebs as always

So guys which one would you rather read in High School if you were forced to choose

> Pride and Prejudice
> Wurthering Heights

>>4056134
both of those are fantastic books, but probably Wuthering Heights, because the sparkling class comedy of P&P is more likely to be wasted on high schoolers than the brutally emotional Gothic style of Emily "awful people are sexy" Bronte

In my life? Parenti's Assassination of Julius Caesar. Never seen more compelling proof that Marxism is a mental disease.

In my education, uh.. aside from scam textbooks that are just compilations of shitty JSTOR articles sold for $120.. and aside from scam textbooks that are written over a weekend by a PhD and sold as survey textbooks by his tenured friends.. um. Maybe Goldhagen's Hitler's Willing Executioners.

>>4056131
These books are good, entry-level literature.

>>4052769
What's wrong with Death of a Salesman?

I for one think it was very optimal work to study in tenth grade, combining the pasts mundane analysis to futures abstract.

> Don't go to American High School
> We only read western canon with popular fiction ("Not everything has to be so high brown students!" )
> Never understand why Americans do so much race/sex issue literature

>>4056156
I think doing stuff about race and sex is good, but they seem to have some shite books
if they did Jane Eyre and Invisible Man, or even Beloved, I don't think anybody could complain, but as it is it seems to be a weird literary equivalent to affirmative action that's only going to jade impressionable students

>>4056140
Marxism isn't a mental disease. It's a method of socio-economic inquiry based upon a materialist interpretation of historical development, a dialectical view of social change, and an analysis of class-relations and conflict within society.

Invisible Cities. Not that it was bad. Or perhaps it was - I could not understand the novel on any level, all of my theories being debunked by the abnormal chapters. All arguments of themes, motifs and symbols destroyed by the semiotical nature of the plot. Two men carrying a discussion shown from an unknown point of view without words, only objects being moved.

I still don't know why our German teacher thought it was a good idea to have us read this pile of shit.

>>4052253

I understand what the book was trying to get across, but it's just so... gah I hate it so much

>>4052253
I swear that book is basically a green text story found on /b/

>>4056170
go to bed Stefan

>>4052574
>Wuthering Heights
god damn, I fucking hated that book. I hope Emily Bronte is burning in hell

>>4052271

Mine was a Story about a gay-teenage rapper who happens to love a black dude. It was one of the worst experience i ever had it was basically Wrong: The Novel

Beloved
And
Song of Solomon.

FUCK Toni morrison