Book Riot's Read Harder Challenge discussion
2018 Read Harder Challenge
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Task #24: An assigned book you hated (or never finished)
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Book Riot
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Dec 19, 2017 12:10PM

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I didn't even have to think about this. I saw the task and immediately thought of Gatsby and how much I hated it when it was assigned in high school. Of course, I don't *want* to read it, but I suppose that's the point of this task.

I hated Of Mice and Men and The Old Man and the Sea. Or we never finished The Canterbury Tales, we just read parts of it, same with Beowulf, both of which I enjoyed what we read of them. What I choose will depend on how much of a glutton for punishment I'm feeling when I get to this one.



If that doesn't count, I'll go with The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck. I got about two-thirds of the way through it before realizing I'd never finish it in time and going with something shorter for the class deadline. I was enjoying it, though!

That's actually a good idea. I change my mind. I don't want to read a book I hated; life is too short. I *was* supposed to read A Tale of Two Cities in English class but never did so I'll give that a try. Plus one of my groups is reading it in February so win-win.





The only one I DNFd was Moby Dick. Ugh.







The only books I remember truly hating were Frankenstein and The Scarlet Letter. I'm not that eager to revisit either of them.

I say reread and finish Grapes of Wrath! I was the only person in my class that enjoyed it, but it's definitely worth revisiting, especially since you were enjoying it.





I could also do Wuthering Heights, which I have tried multiple times to read, both before and after it was assigned to me. Or Jude the Obscure, which I did not finish and have no desire to ever try again. I hated The Scarlet Letter and The Old Man in the Sea with intense passion that has not faded with time. Honestly, the amount of books I enjoyed reading for school is so small in comparison to the ones I hated, it's quite sad.


I have this problem too--both the long time ago and the not-finish part. I know I skimmed a lot of the end of "The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire," but that's not quite the same as not finishing. I think I also skimmed Le Rouge et Le Noir, and I know I didn't finish Du Cote de Chez Swann (sorry no accent marks) (didn't like that French professor), but I am just not going to read Proust, especially not in French, not when I have so many other books waiting.
What I'm thinking of doing is this: I avoided a basic American Lit course in HS because I didn't like that teacher so I took other courses ("Frontier Lit," for example) that filled that requirement. So there are several basic classics I never read at all, not because I didn't like them, but I didn't get a chance bc I didn't like the teacher. So I'll probably do one of those. Not sure what was on the reading list, but I'm thinking stuff along the lines of Hemingway, Faulkner, etc.
I always love how almost everyone doing the Challenges is so careful to try to find out if something fits the rules. We're all such good people! ;-)



I was homeschooled too, for my last five years before college and it definitely made it harder to think of something for this challenge! I can only remember one book I was supposed to read as a homeschooler that I didn't finish.










Me too! I'm reading Romeo and Juliet.



That is my question as well. Because I can think of a book-club "assignment" that I never finished and would love to try again.

I would think yeah- any book you were "supposed" to read at some point for whatever reason, but hated or didn't finish...

The only one I DNFd was Moby Dick. Ugh."
I bought this book because of all the references to it and I had never read it. I remember it being boring and I don't think I finished it so perhaps I will pick it up again for this challenge.
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