Books I Was Forced To Read For Class // Rated and Ranked





*This post is in joyous celebration of finishing my freshman year. Let us look back in joy and in horror (but mostly horror) at the books we've read for school.*




9.
Petersburg by Andrei Bely

My eyeballs. They cry. 
Originally I had Crime and Punishment in this spot, but then I realized that was only because I had to reread Crime and Punishment yesterday in order to do some last minute homework. (And yes. This was written before finals. By the time you guys will be reading this I will be free!)
I actually never finished this one* which is saying a lot because look at the other ones. I read Crime and Punishment (twice) without batting an eye. But I literally couldn't get through this. 
(Don't worry. I still aced the project we had to do BASED ENTIRELY ON THIS TORTUROUS BOOK.)

(*It might not actually be saying a lot? I was supposed to read a bunch of it over spring break and I thought, Yeah! That'll totally work! I'll read it on the train! How aesthetic. But I was distracted by the Alps. Heights are my weakness and I spent most of the trip with my forehead pressed against the glass starring down OFF THE SIDE OF A MOUNTAIN HOW COOL IS THAT and wishing I could fly. And so I didn't read any of it the entire trip until the very end when I read the first couple chapters and then I had to the rest of it once I got back but then the jet lag hit me, and my other professors gave me the gift of two projects and a paper!)

8.
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

This book was...very interesting. It starts off with this guy internally bickering with himself about whether he should do the thing...or not. You don't get to know the thing. You just have to sit through several pages of this. (Actually, it was probably the entire first chapter if not more...I couldn't tell you. Actually, I suppose I could get up and walk across the room and check, but no.) Also, he is worried about his hat. It was equally as dry and annoying as some of my other books, but it amused me at times. Also, I read it at the beginning of the semester so I still had some joy and hope. 

7.
The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov            
      
If there is one thing I learned from this class (a Russian culture/literature class) its that I hate Russian literature. This is might have ranked higher in my list...It is more modern and much easier to read and I don't have to google random terms from old Russia culture. But it had weird religious vibes and I didn't really like any of the characters so it took away a lot of the enjoyment. 

6.
Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens

This is the first book on the list that is from my Victorian literature class instead of the Russian culture class. And I don't know why I hated this book so much. It should have been good. I love some of Dicken's other works. I read it at the beginning of the semester when I still had time and could do the cute sit in the coffee shop or sunbeam and read and not later when I was up until four am forcing myself to keep reading. But yep. Worst book from Victorian Lit.

5.
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Lewis Stevenson

 And am I the only one who only knows Stevenson as a poet? I seriously didn't know he wrote books. Which is silly because somehow I forgot about his other books. I haven't read any of them but I KNOW I picked them up at some point and thought, 'Oh wow. I didn't know that Stevenson wrote books!' I literally took a presentation on the author for it to cement in my brain.  


4.
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carrol 

This one was also fairly bleh overall. I didn't enjoy it as a whole, but! Two things I loved...the Cheshire Cat being regal and wreaking havoc. (Meets the King of Hearts, he offered it his hand to kiss and the cat's like..."I'd rather not.")
The other thing I liked was seeing all the little details from it that made their way into Heartless by Marissa Meyer. A lot of the things that confused me* were in the book. That was only part of my joy. The real joy came from taking a picture of the text and sending it to my friends so they could also suffer.

*Why are three girls living in a treacle well? etc


3.
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte 

I was pleasantly surprised by this one. I didn't expect to enjoy this one and honestly...one paper, it sounds horrible for me. But I enjoyed it. It's actually my second favorite reading from Victorian Lit. Instead of selling back my copy to the bookstore I'm actually keeping my copy that's how much I liked it. 

Crazy, I know. 


2. 
The Bronze Horseman by Pushkin

*gasp* another book from the Russian class made it this far up the list? Well, to be fair it's actually a poem but hush. (If I added every poem I had to read for Victorian literature this would be a much MUCH longer list.) 

But it's about a crazy man getting trampled by a statue.




1. 
The Importance of Being Ernest by Oscar Wilde

THIS. THIS IS MY FAVORITE BOOK FROM THE SEMESTER. 
I read it at the end of the semester and even then, with the life and joy sucked out my soul, I laughed so much. My poor friend was in the room studying and I kept blurting out random funny things and she just sat there staring at me like, "SHE IS A MADMAN."
And then I tried to explain the plot so it would make sense, but the plot is confusing and it ended up with me cackling while she looked horrified and confused about what cucumber sandwiches had to do with anything.




So what about you? Are you done with school and free for the summer? Are you one of those poor chaps who has to wait until the end of May or *gasp* JUNE? Have you read any books for school that you hated? Or that you ended up loving?

Comments

  1. I've already finished Math so the rest of my school is fairly easy... besides physics but we won't talk about that. Summer is slow here it is still in the 50s *cry*. Mid May is when I will be getting out of school! Glad you are done! I read pilgrim's progress for school it was better than I thought it would be.

    astorydetective.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I've never read Pilgrim's Progress before...
      Math and Physics are the two things I hated the most in school, lol.
      YOU'RE ALMOST THERE!

      Delete
  2. I've had Wuthering Heights for a while, maybe I should give it a shot.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I've had it sitting on my shelf for YEARS at home and now I'm kind of mad at myself for not reading it sooner

      Delete
  3. I liked Oliver Twist when I read it a long time ago, but I was very sad. Oh, I need to read Wuthering Heights!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment