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

[Razgovory]

A Separate Peace.  No, wait, I still hate that one.  Also Frankenstein.  That book was terrible.

[Jacob]

You clearly didn't have to read Tess of the d'Ubervilles.

That is correct. I did not.

The ones that I still remember are To Kill a Mockingbird, 1984, Brave New World and a handful of Shakespeare.

[Duque de Bragança]

Some of Balzac's works such as Le Père Goriot are famous for that.

[HisMajestyBOB]

Also Shakespeare for me.

Conversely, I really like Great Expectations in high school, but the books seems to be widely hated in popular opinion. I'll have to reread it and see if I still like it.

[Savonarola]

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

You clearly didn't have to read Tess of the d'Ubervilles.

You might get more out of Tess today, especially given your profession.  Woman who murders her boyfriend/rapist/baby-daddy in order to be with the husband who abandoned her by running off to South America sounds like something you'd encounter. (Plus he briefly wanted to run off with her best friend and marries her sister after her execution, it's a real healthy relationship.)

I think high school is a little young to read Hardy's prose; it's pretty bleak and deals with aspects of human relationships that are usually outside a high school student's experience.  (Actually, if he wasn't a naturalist, some of them sounds like they could have been plots to an episode of Jerry Springer - man sells his wife for a bowl of oatmeal spiked with booze, for example.)  I've heard worse, though, I had a friend who had to read Faulkner's "The Sound and The Fury" for a competition when he was in high school.

[Grey Fox]

I do not remember any of the books I read in highschool. None left an impression on me 23 years later.

[Darth Wagtaros]

A Separate Peace.  No, wait, I still hate that one.  Also Frankenstein.  That book was terrible.

I hated A Separate Peace.

It symbolized everything that was wrong about these English classes. "You have to read this because its a classic!" but no context given about what the fuck was going on in them, or the language changes, or what have you.

[Maladict]

We got to pick most of the books ourselves, which helps a lot. The ones forced on me that I didn't like I never read again.

[celedhring]

For me it's "Mirall Trencat" by Mercè Rodoreda. Found it dull as a brick as a kid, coumponed by the fact we had monthly assignments about the chapter, now I think it's possibly the best Catalan book I've ever read.

I also used to have a hard time with Spanish XXth century freeform poets (isn't poetry supposed to rhyme?), and I appreciate it more now - but I'd lie if I said I'm much of a poetry reader.

[Sheilbh]

I hated A Separate Peace.

It symbolized everything that was wrong about these English classes. "You have to read this because its a classic!" but no context given about what the fuck was going on in them, or the language changes, or what have you.

I looked this up because I'd never heard of it. Found a review in a British paper in 2014 because apparently it had never previously been published here which seems mad for a multi-million selling American classic. The reviewer liked it and thought, for British audiences, it would be a "forgotten gem"

The ones that I still remember are To Kill a Mockingbird, 1984, Brave New World and a handful of Shakespeare.

Yeah I remember the sort of young teen novels - When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit, Noughts and Crosses, Roll of Thunder etc. But I'm not sure if they were actually in class or just books that were in school that I read.

But ones I definitely remember reading for class were Wuthering Heights, Jane Eyre, Tess, The Pearl by John Steinbeck (which I didn't enjoy and I've not revisited so maybe I should ), The Playmaker by Thomas Keneally and Wise Children by Angela Carter (which I absolutely loved and kicked off me reading all of her novels and short stories).

Plus Macbeth, Othello and Lear. Apart from the standard WW1 poets and Carol Ann Duffy I don't remember any poetry we read - but I generally didn't like poetry. I'm not a massive poetry reader now (though I still read some) - but, with the exception of Shakespeare (and possibly post-colonial literature) I think basically every essay I wrote at university was about poetry. So I clearly changed my mind on that.

Edit: Oh and An Inspector Calls There were also texts for drama and in terms of high school appropriate or not, one of our set texts there was the Marat/Sade, plus the Peter Brook film version and lots about Antonin Artaud and the theatre of cruelty - I kind of loved that unit.

[Admiral Yi]

Besides the ones I mentioned, I remember Grapes of Wrath, Huckleberry Finn, The Jungle, and The Good Earth.

[celedhring]

Edit: Oh and An Inspector Calls There were also texts for drama and in terms of high school appropriate or not, one of our set texts there was the Marat/Sade, plus the Peter Brook film version and lots about Antonin Artaud and the theatre of cruelty - I kind of loved that unit.

We once staged Marat/Sade for our directing the actor class - but that was in college.

[Gups]

I Am David, some Sherlock Homes short stories, Animal Farm, Lord of the Flies, Macbeth, Inspector Calls, Look Back in Anger, Great Expectations. Must have been others, but it's a very unimaginative, very English list.

[Sheilbh]

We once staged Marat/Sade for our directing the actor class - but that was in college.

Not sure that's the right unit for it

I think we did it for theory - I remember reading Artaud and Brecht as well. But it was supposed to inform our final  presentations. Which just meant a lot of insufferable final shows for the examiner

[celedhring]

We once staged Marat/Sade for our directing the actor class - but that was in college.

Not sure that's the right unit for it

I think we did it for theory - I remember reading Artaud and Brecht as well. But it was supposed to inform our final  presentations. Which just meant a lot of insufferable final shows for the examiner

That was sorta the point for the teacher. He was (rightly) big on embracing the acting as a moment of creation, not just reproducing the written text - so we ad-libbed a lot to "adapt" the text to current times (the 1990s to be precise). It was pure chaos so I guess it was a success We had a blast tbf, one of my fondest memories of college.