It’s a question inspired by this post https://www.reddit.com/r/books/s/s2jK2DzFrA by u/oh_sneezeus
Is there any book that is considered a classic or regularly shows up on the “100 books to read before you die” lists and such, you had high expectations before reading and then you ended up absolutey detesting?
For me it’s Blindness by José Saramago, it started off good and then page after page it was becoming more unbearable for me to read, I hated the characters, the things they were doing and the conclusions of the book. I was really disappointed because the plot seemed really good and all I ended up with was frustration.
Is there a book that did the same to you?
Some books just come to us at the wrong moment of our lives. I absolutely hated both the book My Antonia and the play Our Town when I was in high school. As a university senior and English major, I had a lot more life experience, such as leaving my home community, coming back, and despairing at how much had moved on in my absence. That life experience made me “get” those two texts I couldn’t have appreciated as a 15 year old.
I’m not saying there’s no such thing as poorly written books. I’m just saying, optimistically, that perhaps we read the right book but at the wrong time.
Yep. I was bored out of my mind by Titus Groan in my 20’s, but in my early 40’s i couldn’t get enough.
…ever read Atlas Shrugged?
There’s a point there where I just went “ok, this is just a classroom lecture, and rather than showing us through character development, plot etc you’re having to literally spell it out”, which is the hallmark of a poor author.
Many students read Death of a Salesman in high school, and this feels so wrong to me. You just can’t really understand Willie Loman until you’ve had a few good solid failures under your belt.
I remember reading Lord of the Flies in high school and thinking it was so, so dumb and boring and pointless.
Tried it again a decade later and found the whole thing absolutely chilling.
I hate My Antonina. It was my first ever DNF at the age of 15 when it was assigned to me. Tried to read it again and imo it still is not the one for me.
I tried reading 100 Years of Solitude about 20 years ago and slogged through about a quarter of the way before chucking it at a wall.
Maybe now with a little more life experience under my belt, I’ll feel differently.
This is how I feel about TKaM, that book for me is like a 2/10. But I feel like it was just not the right time to read it, it’s so beloved. But who knows, maybe it’s just not for me. Worse, maybe I’m racist.
Ok, I’ll bite…what TKaM?
To Kill A Mockingbird
I like Dickens but hated studying him for an exam simply as the book devoured so many hours of mental energy.
Haha, my Dad often read Our Town to me, and when I discovered Willa Cather early in college, I really loved her work.
I was like this about Lord of the Flies. Studied it in secondary school for GCSE English and it was a slog. Could not see the appeal of a bunch of kids living on an island. Now as an adult I see it as the masterpiece it is.
It’s such a mistake to make high school students read some of the books they require. Many of us are way too young and inexperienced to appreciate a lot of the books they make you read
I read Walden in high school and disagreed with him wholly. My friends surrounding me were privileged compared to myself and my ideologies supported capitalism and whatnot. While I’m happy this worked out for them, it did not for me in the grand scheme of things.
I’ve reread it since then and it resonates a lot better than it did back then.
Yea, this kind of resonates with my experience with Independent People by Halldór Laxness, as I hated the characters and didn’t get that the point of the story was to hold a mirror to Icelandic society when I read it in high school. Not to say that I like it, it does drag quite a bit, but I appreciate it that much more having read it with that lens.
Love this perspective. Some works will never click with you, no matter where you are at in life, and that’s ok. But if you had a strong reaction to a text, positive or negative, give yourself some space and come back to it. Explore why. You might be surprised.
Pretty sure that’s why I didn’t like Jane Eyre. I think if I were younger when I first read it I would’ve loved it.