Top Ten Tuesday – Books I Hated But Don’t Regret Reading
Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. Top Ten Tuesday has been one of my favorite memes ever since I started blogging, so huge thanks to Jana for taking over the hosting duties!
This week’s TTT topic is Books I Disliked/Hated but Am Really Glad I Read (maybe just for bragging rights). This topic was actually pretty tough for me. I guess I’ve been lucky in the sense that there haven’t been too many books I’ve read that I’ve just outright hated. That said, when I started thinking about the topic, with rare exception, most of the books that I have disliked have been required school readings. I’m still glad I read them since most of them are classics and classics are often referenced in modern works as as the saying goes, the more you know…but yeah, hated them! And the last two on my list are more recent reads that I just really disliked even though most people I know loved them. I’m glad I read them to see what the fuss was about, but they just ultimately weren’t my kind of reads.
Top 10 Books I Hated But Don’t Regret Reading
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1. THE CANTERBURY TALES by Geoffrey Chaucer
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2. THE SCARLET LETTER by Nathaniel Hawthorne
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3. GREAT EXPECTATIONS by Charles Dickens
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4. MOBY DICK by Herman Melville
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5. GULLIVER’S TRAVELS by Jonathan Swift
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6. THE METAMORPHOSIS by Franz Kafka
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7. ETHAN FROME by Edith Wharton
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8. A SEPARATE PEACE by John Knowles
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9. EAT, PRAY, LOVE by Elizabeth Gilbert
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10. THE NOTEBOOK by Nicholas Sparks
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Now this! This is what my list would have looked like, if I had done this topic. It would have been filled with those required reading books from HS, most of which I did not like, but appreciate having read, because they were classics, and so talked about often. I obviously subscribe in some manner to FOMO. Though, I must say, I liked A Separate Peace and The Scarlet Letter.
I’m probably in the minority on not liking those two. I’m not even sure why I disliked them so much but can’t bring myself to find them again and figure out why, lol.
I actually really enjoyed A Separate Peace and Ethan Frome, but it’s true that that classics are often the books that I’m glad to say I read, but don’t ever want to read again…like Grapes of Wrath. LOL
-Lauren
Ugh, yes. Once was more than enough for me with Grapes of Wrath, lol.
There are some classics I like, but yeah, I agree, a lot of them are ones I’m glad I’ve read and been exposed to, but I wouldn’t necessarily say I liked them. Eat, Pray, Love is definitely one I did NOT enjoy, even though lots of people have!
I enjoyed the EAT part of Eat, Pray, Love but that was pretty much it, lol.
I’m sad you didn’t like a Separate Peace–it was my high school favorite. That said, I’ve promised myself never to read Dickens again. Good list–it’s always interesting to see what people have really thought of classics.
Yes, I think I’m done with Dickens too even though there were a few of his books that I did really enjoy the first time around. A Christmas Carol is the only one I can ever see myself reading again.
I couldn’t get through The Scarlet Letter and haven’t read the others! My ultimate nemesis was Infinite Jest. I hated every minute I spent with that book but I was too stubborn to give up!
Ugh, that one wasn’t for me either.
I had to read Ethan Frome in high school. I really think classics are wasted on the young. I enjoy classics so much more as an adult 🙂
I agree with you. I also prefer being able to choose the ones I want to read rather than having them forced on me as required reading. I probably would have enjoyed a few of these a little more if I had selected them myself.
I actually managed to dodge most of these throughout school. Lucky me. LOL I seem to remember being assigned The Metamophosis (possibly?) but I also know that I never read it. Such a little rebel. 🙂 I did read The Notebook and while it was okay… I’e never understood the hype.
Haha, lucky you indeed!
So completely true about those required reading classics! I can’t say I enjoyed reading them, but I’m still glad I read them anyway, if only to understand the references, like you said 🙂
Right? In that sense I don’t feel like they were a waste of my time even though I didn’t really enjoy them.
This was a tough one! And ooh The Canterbury Tales- that was one we had to read in school too, and I remember loving the idea but not actually enjoying the reading of it! I don’t think I’ve read the rest of these?? I did see the Eat Pray Love movie though 🙂
Haha, that pretty well sums up my exact reaction to The Canterbury Tales. The concept sounded so cool but than I got so bogged down in the Old English that I completely lost interest in it.
Great list. I don’t think I hated any of our required reading but I think I only had two? Back then we didn’t have a reading list here either.
I still have Great Expectations to read on my shelf. More because I just love the look of the paperback (which was a cheap buy) than for actually wanting to read it haha.
I wish we hadn’t had required reading when I was in school. I always prefer to choose my own books and I think having them chosen for me makes me start out biased against them, lol.
Heh, I hated the classics I had to read in school too, but I am split as between regretting some and not others lol And most, I hated were Shakespeare’s tragedies lol I needed a comedy in my life 🙂
I hear you! There are plenty of books that I was forced to read and regret doing so. I did actually enjoy most of Shakespeare’s tragedies though. I think I was an angsty teen and so they just fit my mood, haha!
I’m one of those weirdos who actually loved all of the books I had to read in high school. I really enjoyed Canterbury Tales, Great Expectations, The Scarlet Letter and Gulliver’s Travels. Weird, I know!
I’m actually jealous that you did enjoy these. I remember going into each one thinking it sounded so good and then ended up disappointed. Sometimes I wonder if I read them as an adult if I would better appreciate them.
I read a few of these in school too and also hated them lol. And yep, I’ve also sometimes read popular books just to see what the fuss was about even though I didn’t like them! I also really didn’t like the Notebook.
I’m glad I’m not the only one who didn’t like The Notebook. I tried the book and the movie and didn’t like either one, lol.
Interesting topic, and yes some of those required school readings were though lol. Yikes, especially middle school. They made us read things like The Red Badge of Courage. I haven’t read any of the books on your list except The Notebook, which I loved.
I was not the biggest fan of The Red Badge of Courage either.
It’s been so long since I have read A Separate Peace that I don’t remember if I enjoyed it or not.
I sometimes wonder if I might appreciate more now than I did when I first read it. I was only 14 then.