Which Books Did You Hate in School but Enjoyed in Adulthood?

Started by Admiral Yi, October 23, 2023, 01:09:07 PM

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Admiral Yi

October 23, 2023, 01:09:07 PM
I thought Moby Dick was heavy sledding when I first read it.

I had heard from others that Pilgrim's Progress was the worst book you could be assigned, but I never got it in a class.

HVC

#1
October 23, 2023, 01:12:48 PM
The only book I didn't enjoy as a student was the hobbit and I didn't bother trying to reread it.

Shakespeare was annoying not because it was Shakespeare, but because in grade 11, 12 and 13* we had to do in class plays which I always hated.


*Ontario doesn't have grade 13 anymore.
Being lazy is bad; unless you still get what you want, then it's called "patience".
Hubris must be punished. Severely.

crazy canuck

#2
October 23, 2023, 01:14:32 PM
Shakespeare.  I absolutely hated having to trudge through that in High School.

But after undergrad I had the chance to travel and I took in some performances at Stratford up Avon - and it all suddenly made sense to me.  Now I love reading his work.

Legbiter

#3
October 23, 2023, 01:18:05 PM
Icelandic sagas. Keeping track of all the family genealogies with every other character named Þorbjörn...
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Savonarola

#4
October 23, 2023, 01:25:28 PM
Henry James - The Turn of the Screw; I didn't get it at all in high school but now appreciate it.
I didn't hate "The Great Gatsby," but I do appreciate it much more as an adult than I did in high school.
In Italy, for thirty years under the Borgias, they had warfare, terror, murder and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance. In Switzerland, they had brotherly love, they had five hundred years of democracy and peace—and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock

The Brain

#5
October 23, 2023, 01:25:36 PM
None IIRC. I didn't like Siddharta, but I haven't read it as an adult.
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Sheilbh

#6
October 23, 2023, 01:27:32 PM
Tess of the d'Urbervilles. I did not like it at all at high school (I think AS or A Level - so 17 or 18). It was paired with Jane Eyre in that unit and I remember far preferring Jane Eyre. I think I didn't like the ambiguity. I remember moaning about it to my teacher and her describing Jane Eyre as a more straight forward, say what you see story while Tess was foggy and something you relax into with a glass of red wine - my taste wasn't that sophisticated :lol:

I've since read a lot of Hardy (not least because my mum and dad now live in Hardy country) and loved it.
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Savonarola

#7
October 23, 2023, 01:32:04 PM
Oh, and we had two short stories by James Joyce (Araby and Counterparts, both from Dubliners) in our readers (in junior high and high school respectively).  I didn't get Araby and didn't care for Counterparts; but I really like Dubliners now.
In Italy, for thirty years under the Borgias, they had warfare, terror, murder and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance. In Switzerland, they had brotherly love, they had five hundred years of democracy and peace—and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock

Sophie Scholl

#8
October 23, 2023, 01:32:09 PM
I absolutely loved Shakespeare when we got to perform the plays in class. A lot less so when we just had to read them. That goes for any play, honestly. I remember when we did Romeo and Juliet, I died three times due to playing different characters (Tybalt was my primary but I later filled in as Romeo and Paris). I managed to almost survive Julius Caesar (Brutus). I died once again and also threw on a Groundskeeper Willie-esque accent when we read MacBeth and I took on the titular role. One teacher (11th grade, home of the American Lit year) actually forbade us from reading with emphasis, emotion, or trying to get into character at all when we would read pieces aloud of things like The Crucible and The Color Purple. It ruined them for me.

For anyone trying to jog their memories, I found this list:
of books.
"Everything that brought you here -- all the things that made you a prisoner of past sins -- they are gone. Forever and for good. So let the past go... and live."

"Somebody, after all, had to make a start. What we wrote and said is also believed by many others. They just don't dare express themselves as we did."

Barrister

#9
October 23, 2023, 01:33:10 PM
Not exactly a book, but...

It's the mid-90s.  The Manitoba Theatre Company signs up-and-coming actor Keanu Reeves to play Hamlet.  At the time he was known for, I think, Bill and Ted.  Then Speed hits - big time.  But Keanu lives up to his commitment to do Hamlet.  Fan interest was intense.  I got to go see it.

So look - mid-90s Keanu sucked at "To be or not to be".  It was fast and wooden.

But as a comedy?  As an action movie, err, play?  He killed it.

It did put a whole different spin on Shakespeare for me.  It really was popular entertainment of its day.
Posts here are my own private opinions.  I do not speak for my employer.

Barrister

#10
October 23, 2023, 01:34:43 PM
Quote from: Sheilbh on October 23, 2023, 01:27:32 PMTess of the d'Urbervilles.

I fucking HATED Tess of the D'Ubervilles in high school.  Never had the slightest interest in re-engaging with it.

Who knows - maybe I'd have a different mindset now.  But it'd be hard to get past that memory.
Posts here are my own private opinions.  I do not speak for my employer.

grumbler

#11
October 23, 2023, 01:45:10 PM
I'll second/third Shakespeare's plays, because I didn't "get" theatre in high school and so couldn't readily visualize the action.  It was all just dialogue to me, with no description.

I enjoy plays now because I "get" theatre much more.
The future is all around us, waiting, in moments of transition, to be born in moments of revelation. No one knows the shape of that future or where it will take us. We know only that it is always born in pain.   -G'Kar

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Josquius

#12
October 23, 2023, 01:57:26 PM
We didn't read books in my school.
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Jacob

#13
October 23, 2023, 02:17:24 PM
I don't think I was made to read any books in high school that I hated.

Maybe it's because I was sophisticated and could appreciate the canon, maybe I got a lucky draw, or maybe I'm just not that critical... I don't know. But I enjoyed it all :wub:

Barrister

#14
October 23, 2023, 02:28:25 PM
Quote from: Jacob on October 23, 2023, 02:17:24 PMI don't think I was made to read any books in high school that I hated.

Maybe it's because I was sophisticated and could appreciate the canon, maybe I got a lucky draw, or maybe I'm just not that critical... I don't know. But I enjoyed it all :wub:

You clearly didn't have to read Tess of the d'Ubervilles.
Posts here are my own private opinions.  I do not speak for my employer.
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