The eNotes Blog No Accounting for Taste A Bunch of Over-Educated People Confess BookHatred

No Accounting for Taste A Bunch of Over-Educated People Confess BookHatred Y U NO see this book is HORRIBLE? I just asked my group of friends on Facebook to tell me what book they HATE that everyone else seems to love. Well, it has been roughly one hour and we are up to  EIGHTY-TWO comments. Now, to look at the list you would think this was NOT a group of people holding approximately one-third of the nations student debt. You would not suspect that the  lowest  degree among thesecontributors is a Masters. No, to look at this list would be to assume an IQ level hovering around say Kardashian. I am here to tell you that even those of us who consider tweed to be sexy and elbow pads to be all-the-rage can admit that there are certain works that we just cannot stand.   Some are classic, some we are forced to teach, some are foisted on to us via book clubs. Whatever the case, you will either take umbrage or comfort in the forthcoming admissions: Moby Dick  by Herman Melville Erudite Explanation: Ughhh The Fountainhead  by Ayn Rand If there are more than 79 pages, this grad student will never find out. Repeated attempts all stop there. A Confederacy of Dunces  by John Kennedy Toole Pulitzer-Schumlitzer. PFFFT. Edith Wharton. All of it.   Nattering in drawing rooms. If only WHARTON had been killed by a runaway sled. The Great Gatsby  by F. Scott Fitzgerald It  pains  me to put this here but poor ol Jay, Nick, Daisy and the rest of the West Egg Gang got at least three thumbs down. A fellow professor gently expresses her reasoning:   Everyone loves that book, but I hated it. I hated it when we read it in high school, and I hated it when I re-read it in grad school, because I had to teach it. Lord of the Flies  by William Golding   Clearly it is a good thing our semesters are over: Kids dont just stop being psychotic animals because an adult shows up. Pride and Prejudice  by Jane Austen Male friend intones OHHHHHH Mr. Darcy!! (I detect sarcasm.) Jane Eyre  by Charlotte Bronte   I wish they wouldve both died in the fire. So, this is just a sampling of the long-held vitriol among our kind. What did you hate that you were forced to read? Or who do you think listed here is completely wrong and should not be allowed to instruct Our Nations Youth? We really want to know!