required reading fail
two books came to mind when i saw this subject. both of them were given to the class my senior year in high school. i was taking AP English that year and i think my teacher had a hate on for me because i just didn't fit in with the rest of the class. or maybe she just didn't like any of us.
i've always been a strong reader. always. by the time i was in the fifth grade, i was reading at a junior college level. there was nothing that i couldn't read.
until AP English.
our teacher gave us two books that we were supposed to take home and read over Christmas Vacation. that should have been a big clue right there as to what i was up against. i didn't think anything of it other than to be offended that she expected me to read books she required us to read over my Christmas holidays. up to that point, i'd read everything every English teacher had ever required me to read. more often than not, i was ahead of everyone else because a book is a book for me. my cocky attitude was severely damaged that holiday vacation.
the two books i'm talking about? Tess of the d'Urbervilles and The Awakening by Willa Cather. i have never before in my life been so apathetic about a pair of books. it took every ounce of will power i had to get through The Awakening. to this day, i can't tell you what the book is about. seriously. the experience was so tramatic, my brain has blocked it all out to protect me from the horrors. i positively detested the book and thought that being forced to read it was cruel and unusual punishment. but that was nothing compared to Tess.
i could not force myself to get past a hundred pages of the book. i couldn't even force myself to care that i was going to be tested on the material. i just wanted the pain to stop. if reading The Awakening was cruel and unusual punishment, reading Tess was pure torture.
out of my years in junior and senior high school, those two books are the only two that stick out in my mind as total fails. as a result of my horrific experience with these two books, i have a deep and abiding fear of reading anything considered a classic.
i've always been a strong reader. always. by the time i was in the fifth grade, i was reading at a junior college level. there was nothing that i couldn't read.
until AP English.
our teacher gave us two books that we were supposed to take home and read over Christmas Vacation. that should have been a big clue right there as to what i was up against. i didn't think anything of it other than to be offended that she expected me to read books she required us to read over my Christmas holidays. up to that point, i'd read everything every English teacher had ever required me to read. more often than not, i was ahead of everyone else because a book is a book for me. my cocky attitude was severely damaged that holiday vacation.
the two books i'm talking about? Tess of the d'Urbervilles and The Awakening by Willa Cather. i have never before in my life been so apathetic about a pair of books. it took every ounce of will power i had to get through The Awakening. to this day, i can't tell you what the book is about. seriously. the experience was so tramatic, my brain has blocked it all out to protect me from the horrors. i positively detested the book and thought that being forced to read it was cruel and unusual punishment. but that was nothing compared to Tess.
i could not force myself to get past a hundred pages of the book. i couldn't even force myself to care that i was going to be tested on the material. i just wanted the pain to stop. if reading The Awakening was cruel and unusual punishment, reading Tess was pure torture.
out of my years in junior and senior high school, those two books are the only two that stick out in my mind as total fails. as a result of my horrific experience with these two books, i have a deep and abiding fear of reading anything considered a classic.