Literally any book that you now dislike due to school. This also applies to other literature styles as well.
Mine is The Hunger Games. I had to read it las year in school and it drove me insane. We started doing the novel study in early February and didn’t finish until May. I finished the book in less than two weeks, so I was pretty much just reading personal books all through English class for close to two months.
It’s not even like we had to analyze it super intensely. It was projects like ‘Make a playlist for a character of your choice’ and we had vocabulary tests every week, that were a joke. It was multiple choice for words like quest and forage. I know that English wasn’t everyone’s first language but come on.
I didn’t even like the book that much in the first place, so all of this was just adding to the misery.
The opposite for me. I had to read Watership Down in Year 7 and it came in a year of personal tragedy. It really helped me escape my reality and, while I don’t think I did that well in the assignments for the book (can’t recall, but did pretty badly at school that year), I loved the book enough to buy my own copy and have regularly reread it over the years, including quite recently. I still love it and would be happy for it to be the last book I ever read when that day comes.
I have a sixth grader who muttered “oh embleer Frith!” when the pencil sharpener jammed the other day.
So, when I was asked which of the key framers of the Declaration of Independence I liked best, I ranked them all, then pointed out that while one had [various notable virtues,] he also had [notorious unforgivable flaws,] and as such, on the balance, I must invite him, at his earliest convenience, to silflay hraka.
The students looked at me blankly and this one kid just frickin’ lost it.
I didn’t explain a damn thing.
But now I get these badass little bunnies in ‘Hamilton’ costumes, looking like Beatrix Potter went street, drawn in the margins of kids’ notes and our librarian has ordered four more copies of Richard Adams to keep up with demand. Good year so far.
You are a deity among teachers!