“The Bookworm’s Table” – Claude Rauget Hirst |
Inspired by a recent Slate article that asked prominent book people to name which books they don’t think are that great, I thought I’d turn it over to you.
Which books should be removed from the canon? Which classic books that everyone is expected to read just aren’t that great?
Speaking personally, I’m a big fan of James Joyce’s Ulysses, which I think is an amazing technical achievement. Finnegan’s Wake, on the other hand, just felt like gibberish.
What about you?
Selena Robins says
Moby Dick. It was painful getting through that book.
Caroline says
Anything by George Orwell. I'm sorry, but I'm just not that interested in talking animals or the author's view of the future.
Joanne says
I also first thought of Moby Dick! I had to read it in college and, I admit, skipped over the chapters that seemed like little more than a how-to guide for whaling. :-/
Michelle says
Wuthering Heights & Lolita. The former because of the godawful unsympathetic characters and the latter because I really have no desire to spend that much time inside the mind of a child molester.
Daniel says
I wouldn't recommend putting any books in a Cannon at all! They tend to crumple on impact. Well I suppose bibles might work against ghost ships but your probably better off blessing the cannon balls.
😛
Cyndy Aleo says
I shouted with laughter about ULYSSES. I'm glad I got to meet you BEFORE I read that, or I may have approached you as one approached you as one does a potentially rabid animal. ULYSSES would top my list.
Moby Dick I LOVE! It's like a compendium of crazy on the part of the author as well as the MC.
I was thinking about this even before reading the Slate piece, though, simply because I just (finally) read Ann Patchett's STATE OF WONDER. I love her, but I'd been avoiding because of the inevitable comparisons to Conrad's HEART OF DARKNESS, which I could actually get behind burning. But then I finally read it, and go to thinking how many books like Conrad, which torment students, could (and should) be replaced by these modern books that are SO MUCH BETTER and explore the same themes but in a much more relatable (and arguably better written) way.
Scott Stillwell says
I hate to admit it, but I agree with the aspersions cast upon Cathcher in the Rye. I loved it when I first read it as a young man, but now that I've grown up a bit, Holden's whining makes my eyes roll so far back I can see my own brain.
Nico says
Anna Karenina. No one needs to know that much about Russian farming.
Crystal says
The Sound and the Fury. No question.
Mira says
I'm not really trained to read literary fiction, and even if I were, I'd probably still dislike it, just not my cup of tea. So I'm hesitant to offer an opinion. I find many of these books boring and irritating, so I'd probably list off way too many books that were still great, but I just didn't like.
To name a few, D.H. Laurence's Women In Love made me so angry, well, years later I'm still angry. Gulliver's Travels and the Odyssey bored me to tears. But these are probably great books.
So, I'm going to tenatively go with that Shakespeare guy. Maybe it's just me, but his command of the English language appears to be sorely lacking. It's the 21st century, Bill. Get with the program.
(and yes, of course I'm joking. The last time I made that joke someone tried to convince me that Shakespeare was a great writer. And, yes, I will make this joke again, I never tire of it.)
Jennifer Cary Diers says
"Great Expectations." I love Dickens– I'm a fan of everything else he's written– but I cannot appreciate this book. I've read it through twice, with no improvement.
dmc says
The Scarlet Letter is not good. And Winnie-the-Pooh is terrible too.
Just Another Day in Paradise says
Ah,One man's ceiling is another man's floor. Surely someone will want to remove "To Kill a Mockingbird" from the children's book list,at least. I take more exception to some of the current Pulitzer prize winners. Are you kidding me? Who gives out these prizes. Some of these books need a mental health warning. I wouldn't mind beating an author or two "over the head with their own shin bone", and I wouldn't be digging them up to do it.
E.B. Fyne says
Naked Lunch. Don't know if it's technically a "great book," but I've heard people going on about it. I thought it was perverse and incomprehensible.
Goddess on Training Wheels says
Les Miserables. I love the story of Jean Valjean and Cosette. But it bewilders me how anyone discovered this wonderful story buried in Hugo's social, political and historical tangents. I read this book because I thought I'd enjoy it. I finished it just to say I did.
Allan Petersen says
It's a little frustrating to see people bash Beowulf. Obviously, it's not the best example of storytelling. That's not why it's important, though. It's (debatably) the oldest surviving work of English language epic literature.
E.B. Fyne says
I completely agree with Just Another Day in Paradise re Pulitzer Prize books. American Pastoral was the most painful book I ever read. Made me want to shoot myself.
Ellen Brickley says
I didn't like Great Expectations. It was mildly entertaining but does not deserve to be lauded as a work of genius. The work of a genius, perhaps, but there isn't much genius in it.
I've seen a few of my own favourites on here already. Seems everyone has their own canon 🙂
Josin L. McQuein says
Anything written by Thomas Hardy. His writing could be used as punishment.
Second offenders have to read the collected works of John Steinbeck.
E.B. Fyne says
I'm by no means saying American Pastoral was badly written. I'm just agreeing it could use a mental health warning.
Katie says
I recently had lunch at The Brazen Head in Dublin, which is mentioned in Joyce's ULYSSES!
LK Hunsaker says
Lady Chatterly's Lover by D.H. Lawrence. Yes, so it's supposed to be the first graphic "romance", but it's not romance. It's lust and vulgarity … well, maybe it does fit today's definition of "romance" novels, but how about we throw out that book and that definition and get back to actual romance?
Mr. D says
As a teacher, I hate to admit this, but when I was in school and assigned to read most of these classics, I really didn't.
magpiewrites says
Candide – the only book I ever had to get Cliff Notes for because I thought, I MUST be missing something. Nope, just an awful book.
L. Shanna says
I think Taming of the Shrew is Shakespeare's weakest and least relevant work, at least to a high school English teacher. And at the risk of public flogging, I never saw what was so great about Catcher in the Rye.
Bane of Anubis says
portrait of the artist as a young man (based on that alone, I will never touch another Joyce book)
Stephanie McGee says
Wuthering Heights
Frankenstein
War of the Worlds
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde
Gulliver's Travels
That's all I got for now.
Stephanie McGee says
Of Mice and Men
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Christian says
I think there are good reasons why these are called classics. That said it certainly is fun getting to vent on ones that don't fit with my tastes. For me I agree with Mark Twain, and find Pride and Prejudice a drudgery. I would also add Great Expectations to the list.
Unknown says
I thought of Moby Dick as well! And to think I actually finished it once, too.
Not Gulliver's Travels, that's a great book!
janesadek says
Didn't even have to hesitate: Thomas Harding's Jude the Obscure. Every paragraph got worse than the last! My Brit Lit teacher challenged me to write, Jude, The Good Years. I may do it yet!
Laura Marcella says
I'll probably be stoned for writing this because I know I'm definitely in the minority: The Catcher in the Rye. Everyone raves about it so I tried to like this book, I really did. I've read it three times at different ages (14, 17, & 20) thinking growing up may help me see what everyone else sees in it… It didn't. I just don't like this novel and won't torture myself to try liking it anymore, LoL.
Amanda K says
I'm quite surprised by the choices to remove posted in the comments. Of course, many of these books are difficult or very displaced by today's standards, but without them we would not be the literary community that we are today. [Albeit very simplified] Frankenstein helped us think about man's obsession with playing God and 1984 forced reflection on the role of government in our lives.
If, under a critical eye, any of these books have no real human moral to teach, then they should probably be removed. But all of these books have helped shape our standard of writing and reading today. That doesn't mean you have to LIKE them, but every writer should appreciate what our mentors had to offer.
Kathryn Elliott says
Ironically, I’ve just returned from my son’s High School orientation –where a very, very dry (I’m talking Sahara) lit teacher droned on about the 9th grade reading list. The top two were Great Expectations and Moby Dick. (Intrinsic cringe). I plodded through GE, but MD was torture. I was pleased to see The Help as newly required – progress!
Noel says
Catcher in the Rye; Wuthering Heights (completely unsympathetic creatures); Heart of Darkness (or anything by Conrad, for that matter); not much of a Steinbeck fan, but I can understand the importance of bringing the plight of the migrant worker, the poor farmer, etc. to the world, but does it have to be the same story every time?; Hunchback of Notre Dame (reads like a soap opera)…and I may be one of the few people that loved Moby Dick–one of my favorite books. On a different note, what modern books should be placed in the Canon? Which books now will be deemed as "classics?"
Hart Johnson says
So funny about the eye of the beholder. MANY of the books mentioned, I've loved. Writing styles change and I think as readers it is good for us to be adaptive and read great works from other era. That said, the two i got stuck with and hated were The Sound and the Fury (anybody who can't find a sentence ending by page three really is just being pretentious) and Red Badge of Courage (though I can't really read anything from World War I–the writing style of the time and content combination is just painful, but from a historical perspective, it's possible we shouldn't banish them all, in spite of that)
Sierra McConnell says
Why should we be /forced/ to read anything? I think it's ridiculous. Reading should be for fun. Learning comes naturally on account of everyday experiences. Hasn't everyone heard of the old adage, you can lead a horse to water, but if you shove their head under it's gonna drown the damn thing?
Or something to that effect…
I always loved to read and often read ahead. I could fall asleep in class and still know where we were in the book, much to the ire of my teachers. But I would hate to make someone do something they didn't want to do. Like maths. Oh, maths, I love you when I understand you but otherwise I put the pencil through the book.
slweippert says
Silas Marner, never in my life have I read a more boring book. The plot is barely long enough for a short story.
wolfqueen927 says
Since no one has mentioned these two, I'll probably be stoned, but On the Road by Jack Kerouac just didn't do anything for me. The other one I couldn't make it through that has received raves over the years is Catch 22. Enough already with all the characters – what are they doing? Where are we going with this?
Darley says
Tolstoy. Take your pick.
Taylor Napolsky says
Is this list painful for anyone besides me to read? People debasing Wuthering Heights, Catcher, Moby Dick??
Frankenstein?? Freaking Frankenstein??
Sorry, but it makes people sound simple. It just does.
I can't take it!
Nicole Zoltack says
Personally, I am not a Dicken's fan. I love his plots, it's just the execution that I find faults with. I never did read Catcher in the Rye. Picked it up several times to read it and never got past the second page.
April says
I totally understand how times change, and with it our views, beliefs, ideals…and hence our actions and the art that comes from them.
However.
I hated reading The Iliad, and I couldn't get into Wuthering Heights. Honestly…there are so many classics I'd love to try to read, but I have way too many modern books competing for my attention! So, I can't say I've read many of the classics out there.
Dara says
Well, if it were up to me, forget anything Hemingway 😛 Yes, he's considered a literary god, but I loathe every single thing that man wrote 😛 I've tried to like his stuff, but I just can't.
As someone who was an English major, there were lots of books and short stories besides Hemingway I wondered why they were considered so significant. I guess I'm just not literary enough 😛
Sommer Leigh says
Anything by Charles Dickens? Can I say that? I usually get chased out of the room with torches and pitchforks when I say that, but I can't tell you how much I mean it. There's something about his voice and writing style that makes me want to do violence to my eyeballs. One of only two times I was ever kicked out of class in high school was when I told my sophomore English teacher I'd read Great Expectations because I had to for her class, but she couldn't make me like the book.
Charles Dickens, as it unfortunately turned out, was her favorite author of all time. Go figure.
She actually threw me out both times, but Charles wasn't responsible for the second time.
My husband the English teacher says Moby Dick is the worst book he has ever read and would never make a student trudge through any part of it.
Cathy Yardley says
Yes, I think that you should be "forced" to read in school. It's like saying to a personal trainer "you can't force me to exercise!" I'm not saying that it should be draconian: I think popular genre books can be studied as well as literary classics. But it would be irresponsible not to introduce kids to things outside of their comfort zone.
On the other hand, I also disagree with the idea of a cannon. Telling kids that these books have been considered "classics" is one thing, but suggesting that there's something wrong with the students — that they're stupid or wrong, say — because they don't like or don't "get" a book is another. Standing up for their opinions is probably just as important to learn.
Steph Sinkhorn says
I have to echo The Scarlet Letter, which may very well be my distaste for having to read it in high school talking. It was just so DRY and stuffy and felt like a (misguided) lesson in the author's particular morality.
Jesse says
Amanda K–Everyone has their likes and dislikes. I have to agree with the masses that Frankenstein, while classic, is a product of its time and doesn't translate well to the modern era. I read it, I was bored.
My list–
Frankenstein –wordy, doesn't translate to modern day
Gone With the Wind — hey, I'm from the south, I'm so over the damn Civil War issues I can't see straight. Not my time period.
A Separate Peace — snore fest; I got no peace
The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock — Okay, technically a poem but good God, I had to read and analyze that damn thing in every fricking English class I took. Okay, I got the coffee spoons thing…MOVING ON!
Ode on a Grecian Urn — See comment on Alfred, without the coffee spoons. I don't care who the damn urn is talking to.
Anything by James Joyce — and that's only because I've never been a huge fan of the "Stream of Conciousness" novel. They're very hard to follow and try way too hard to be hip, trendy, and cool. But since James is considered "classic," what do I know. I just don't like them.
After that, I rather liked all the other stuff I read. Never read Moby Dick, so no opinion on that one. Or George Orwell. Have to try 'em on for size. Along with Nabakov. But then, I'm not that big on the Russian style of novel either. Just not my thing. Ah well.
Rick Daley says
I would swap Cormac McCarthy's "Blood Meridian" for "The Road"
I think both are excellent books, but "The Road" had a greater impact on me as a reader. I was more drawn into the characters and the story, where "Blood Meridian" can be alienating at times with the density of the prose.
WORD VERIFICATION: rutedi. A self-expression of encouragement. Example: I was excited, so "Hip-hip-hooray!" Rutedi.
Ryan Stuart Lowe says
I'm not sure if I'd dispose of any books, per se — but I'd certainly abridge many of the books in the canon.
This includes personal favorites like Moby Dick and The Scarlet Letter, which include long filibusters.