Books I Don't Think I Could Bear To Read

[kerravonsen]

... even though they are classics.

* 1984
* Animal Farm
* A Clockwork Orange
* Lord of the Flies
* Catch-22
* The Manchurian Candidate

Comments

[dragonfly]

And I totally agree. I've read three of them, and will never again.

[infiniteviking]

I read the second (for school) and fourth (at someone else's house where there was nothing else to read). Never again. Tried the first and fifth, and didn't find anything in them worth finishing. Idk. Just because something's a classic doesn't mean everyone will be edified by it.

[vilakins]

I had to read 1984 (depressing), Animal Farm (not bad: fairly satirical but very cynical), and Lord of the Flies (hate, hate, hate with a passion) at school. Why do they make teenagers read those when they need hope and optimism in their lives?

I read Catch-22 as a teenager too, but because I wanted to, and I loved it. I've read it since and still do, but when I tried another Heller book on the strength of it, I stopped shortly afterwards as I couldn't handle what happened at the start.

[azulkan2.livejournal.com]

Way back in both high school and college I had to read most of them. I haven't read "A Clockwock Orange' or "the Manchurian Candidate". I hated Lord of the Flies, it creeped me out totally. The others weren't really to bad.
But all in all I probably won't have read any of them if not for school assignments. I should also say I graduated from high school in 1968. I don't think they even consider reading those books these days. I actually think it is sad though.

[kerravonsen]

I had to read "Brave New World" for school; that wasn't so bad.

[ericadawn16.livejournal.com]

1984 and Animal Farm were meh. As for A Clockwork Orange, I listened to the audiobooks by Tom Hollander. It really improved the experience.

[kittylefish.livejournal.com]

i believe i read animal farm and i don't think i hated it. lord of the flies is still one of my worst book memories ever - possibly the worst. i read those for school. never read the others. well, i might have read catch-22, actually, and forgotten it. i'm like that sometimes. pretty sure i never read 1984, and definitely never read a clockwork orange or the manchurian candidate.

[sallymn.livejournal.com]

Animal Farm was grim but good (not kidding, I saw a cartoon version that has given me nightmares...)

1984 simply didn't work for me - it was a dystopia that made no sense, and the characters were bores to boot. I have read a lot more since then about Orwell's war work with the British Ministry for Information that fed into the novel... but still have no yen to give it another try.

Lord of the Flies is vastly overrated but yeah, it's squicky.

[imhilien.livejournal.com]

I had to read Animal Farm and Lord of the Flies at high school, ugh. :(

[jhall1.livejournal.com]

I read 1984, Animal Farm and Lord of the Flies many years ago, not for school but in my own time. They were certainly all very bleak with even bleaker endings. I don't regret having read them, but I wouldn't want to read any of them again, even though at least the first two are fine books.

[feliciakw.livejournal.com]

I have not read any of them. And Geo will not "let" me watch the movie of Clockwork Orange. (He knows my sensibilities and knows it would bother me greatly.) I've seen scenes from it, though, and yeah, totally not something I want to see. (Haven't seen the movie of Manchurian Candidate, either, but I hear it's good.)

I'm trying to figure out how all these books are related other than being social commentary. Allegorical? Political? I'm curious.

When I saw the social commentary commonality, I thought, "Oh, if she wants social commentary, maybe she'd like To Kill a Mockingbird." I had to read that in 8th grade, and really liked it. It's also a really good movie. But if you're looking for dystopian, Fahrenheit 451. The irony there being that I've seen the movie, but I've never read the book. (You might have already read that, though.)

[kerravonsen]

I'm trying to figure out how all these books are related other than being social commentary. Allegorical? Political? I'm curious.

Um, they're books I don't want to read? Even though I "ought" to read them because they're classics?

And I don't want to read them because they are dystopian, dark, brutal, negative, inhuman and without hope.

When I saw the social commentary commonality, I thought, "Oh, if she wants social commentary, maybe she'd like To Kill a Mockingbird." I had to read that in 8th grade, and really liked it. It's also a really good movie. But if you're looking for dystopian, Fahrenheit 451. The irony there being that I've seen the movie, but I've never read the book. (You might have already read that, though.)

Not actually looking for recs, more trying to fend off guilt for not reading Classics.

I'm the opposite of you with "Fahrenheit 451": I've read the book but not seen the movie. The thing about that one was that it had some hope in it, and for me that makes all the difference.

[feliciakw.livejournal.com]

Um, they're books I don't want to read? Even though I "ought" to read them because they're classics?

Yes, of course. I was just trying to pattern together what about each of them made you not want to read them.

And I don't want to read them because they are dystopian, dark, brutal, negative, inhuman and without hope.

Bingo. Though as I said, I haven't read any of them. For the simple reason that none of them have sounded particularly interesting to me. *shrug*

Not actually looking for recs,

That's just how my brain was working at the moment. "She doesn't want to read these. She might like this other thing, though." I didn't mean anything by it.

trying to fend off guilt for not reading Classics.

Ah, okay. I know I should read more books than I do, and I know there are a ton of things out there that I "should" read. But once I left school and being assigned to read things (I think having to do so much textbook reading in college diminished my enjoyment somewhat), I came to the point that if it doesn't interest me (or keep my interest once I started it), it's not a big deal if I don't read it/finish it. (That's probably one of the big reasons I'm not as well-read as I should be.)

[dreamflower]

Read, and hated: 1984 and Animal Farm. Required reading for school; appreciated the "thinky-thoughts", but found the stories disgusting.

Started A Clockwork Orange and couldn't get past the first few pages. Same for Lord of the Flies. (Was supposed to read the latter for a class, was allowed to substitute something else.) The same for Rabbit Run and Deliverance. (The prof. was ticked at me for the number of his selections I refused to read. I recall that one of my substitutions was The Chosen by Chaim Potok, and another was probably about my 40th re-read of LotR, which was on the sub list (I didn't tell him that; it was nice to have a legitimate excuse for another re-read, LOL!)

Managed to avoid the latter two.

[of-anoesis.livejournal.com]

I can agree with you about most of those, but I absolutely adored Catch 22 when I read it. I would recommend it, but it's impossible to enjoy a book that you feel forced into reading.

I wish schools would let you discover these books for yourself, rather than forcing them on you as a disinterested teen. School ruined Hardy for me, too.

[jaxomsride.livejournal.com]

Just because they are Classics doesn't mean everyone will like them. I have tried and given up on reading the LOTR because his style frankly bored me.

I had to read 1984 for school, although the ending was grim the story was told well. I read Animal Farm an preferred that to 1984.

Not read the others and feel no great desire to do so, Classics or no.

[kerravonsen]

I wish schools would let you discover these books for yourself, rather than forcing them on you as a disinterested teen. School ruined Hardy for me, too.

It's a bit of a dilemma, really, since it is good to read books that are classics, and good to think about them, but what usually happens is that one ends up hating them because the way English is taught drains all the enjoyment out of them.

This was brought home to me when I started a particular school (we moved around a lot) half way through the term, so for English I had to catch up on "Twelfth Night" so that I was up to where the rest of the class were with it... and reading it by myself, all at once, I enjoyed it. Inconceivable! It opened my eyes to the Bard. I still loathe "Romeo and Juliet" though, probably because, with all the moving around, and the different curricula, I had to study it twice.

I wish there was some way that English could be taught such that one didn't end up hating all the books one studied.

[dozmuffinxc.livejournal.com]

I can recommend 1984; I remember reading it in high school and actually liking it quite a bit. As for the others? Not so much. I read Animal Farm, but I don't remember much, so it didn't make an impression. But dystopian lit can be quite nice!

[izhilzha.livejournal.com]

I haven't read any of these, myself. (A nice side effect of being homeschooled, I think. *g*)

But I watched the film version of "A Clockwork Orange," and it is to this day the only film I regret having watched, it was so irredeemably vile. A great film, indeed, in the sense of the acting and directing, but I'm quite sorry I saw it.