Which Bad Book Are You?

[Guest]

Most people have opinions. Some people want to share their opinions with the world. A rare few choose to do it with a quiz.

http://mewing.net/badbook.shtml


I am, apparently, Joseph Conrad's "Heart of Darkness", described by the test creator thusly.

"I am Heart of Darkness. I am a simple story told in dense, convoluted language. Some think it underscores my point, but it really just masks it."

I suspect there are only some 6 books in the test (I'll bet one of them is Beowulf) but go on, see what you come out to be.

And do you agree? Are these "Bad books?" Are they over rated, forced down the throats of unwilling students by an unfeeling authority as part of the Great White Canon of Literature? And have you read any of them?

(I haven't read Heart of Darkness, but I have it. I'm not looking forward to reading it.)

 

[fallenupright]

I have not done this test. But I warn you, Heart of Darkness is a really bad book. I read everything, from the backs of cereal boxes, to trash novels, to textbooks and even the dictionary a time or two...

But I could not read Heart of Darkness. It's the worst book I've ever tried to read, and the only book I've ever thrown the towel in on. I got like 3 pages, forgot what it was about... started over... got 5, again, didn't understand... went back. Took me like 3 hours to get 10 pages done. Then I gave up for the day, started back the next day and forgot what I had read. It makes no sense.

My entire class sat down and refused to read it. We protested so much that the teacher removed it from our syllabus and the exam. She offered a 2% bonus to anyone who read it and proved it to her... NOBODY in the class took up the challenge.

Ughhh...

/End HOD rant

 

[rgraham666]

Apparently I'm "The Crying of Lot 49" and 'incomprehensibly weird'.

I can live with that.

 

[wildwildbest]

though not technically a bad book

I am the Worst Case Scenario series b/c I could envision a scenario where I have to jump from a runaway camel only to find myself chased by a horde of killer bees that I escape when I fall into a vat of quicksand...I escape but then have to fight off a mountain lion...when I make my way back to civilization (don't ask me where hell I am that there is a mountain lion, quicksand, killer bees and a camel) I have to I run into someone who is bleeding profusely and knowing 'may I use your belt to make a tourniquet in six languages I am able to dave them...all before clocking in at work.

 

[Guest]

 

[Equinoxe]

As I like to ruin tests and this one was very easy to tell what would give you what answer, the possibilities are (and I'll spoiler tag it for those of who don't want to be know in advance what presumably twisted work of literature you might be) .

 

[Guest]

As I like to ruin tests and this one was very easy to tell what would give you what answer, the possibilities are (and I'll spoiler tag it for those of who don't want to be know in advance what presumably twisted work of literature you might be) .

I win my bet with myself

 

[Equinoxe]

I win my bet with myself

Indeed!

As far as my opinions of the test creator's opinions, I don't quite agree: I haven't read one, for which I am not holding out hope (I'll leave you all to guess which), and there is one on the list that I genuinely think is quite bad, but the rest I am not ill-disposed towards.

 

[3113]

I got "Heart of Darkness" too--my husband go "Mein Kampf" which found really funny (we guessed it before we even hit the button). I suspect you're right that there are only 6 books--including Beowulf. Frankly, I don't think "Mein Kampf" should be on the list as that's probably read for history not literature.

As for the literature books being over-rated, I think the site is half-right. I think that under college-age kids need to read certain books to understand their own culture and language. If one says, "Romeo and Juliet" a kid should know who those two are and what their story is. But I see no reason to inflict Beowulf on them. Or "Heart of Darkness."

Better to give them something a little more relevant to their lives and which will give them a love of literature and make them read MORE, want to read more. If you teach them how to analyze and write papers on "Harry Potter" then, eventually, you can get them up to "Heart of Darkness." But if you start with "Heart of Darkness" then you lose all but those who are going to be English Majors.

I have read "Heart of Darkness." Taught it, too. It's a bitch to read, but insightful. Watch "Apocolypse Now" first. Makes the jungle journey much easier.

 

[3113]

Apparently I'm "The Crying of Lot 49" and 'incomprehensibly weird'.

I can live with that.

I am not the least bit surprised.

 

[Guest]

Indeed!

As far as my opinions of the test creators opinions, I don't quite agree: I haven't read one, for which I am not holding out hope (I'll leave you all to guess which), and there is one on the list that I genuinely think is quite bad, but the rest I am not ill-disposed towards.

I've read three on the list, and not the other three. The three I read I read on my own, no credit involved, and I liked all three.

My own Highschool Bad Book Experience was Faulkner's "Light In August". By the second chapter I was overcome with Couldn't Care Less.

 

[rgraham666]

I am not the least bit surprised.

Me either.

I'm just glad high school didn't completely ruin reading for me. I bought my own books to read. That was one of the few advantages of the school system giving up on me.

 

[fallenupright]

I got "Heart of Darkness" too--my husband go "Mein Kampf" which found really funny (we guessed it before we even hit the button). I suspect you're right that there are only 6 books--including Beowulf. Frankly, I don't think "Mein Kampf" should be on the list as that's probably read for history not literature.

As for the literature books being over-rated, I think the site is half-right. I think that under college-age kids need to read certain books to understand their own culture and language. If one says, "Romeo and Juliet" a kid should know who those two are and what their story is. But I see no reason to inflict Beowulf on them. Or "Heart of Darkness."

Better to give them something a little more relevant to their lives and which will give them a love of literature and make them read MORE, want to read more. If you teach them how to analyze and write papers on "Harry Potter" then, eventually, you can get them up to "Heart of Darkness." But if you start with "Heart of Darkness" then you lose all but those who are going to be English Majors.

I have read "Heart of Darkness." Taught it, too. It's a bitch to read, but insightful. Watch "Apocolypse Now" first. Makes the jungle journey much easier.

I almost was an English major. *shrug* But HOD just wasn't for me. Mind you, this was my final year at highschool. Maybe one day I'll give it another chance. And watch "Apocolypse Now" first...

Or maybe I'll just continue to dismiss it as being bad. Who knows.

 

[Equinoxe]

I've read three on the list, and not the other three. The three I read I read on my own, no credit involved, and I liked all three.

My own Highschool Bad Book Experience was Faulkner's "Light In August". By the second chapter I was overcome with Couldn't Care Less.

I don't remember having a High School bad book experience, but anything which I would have been required to read that I was interested in, I read on my own, and anything I wasn't interested in, I usually just didn't read.

 

[Aurora Black]

Apparently I'm "The Crying of Lot 49" and 'incomprehensibly weird'.

I can live with that.

Rob, me too. Yay!

 

[rgraham666]

Rob, me too. Yay!

Very

 

[FallingToFly]

I'm the hobbit

Down to the furry toes.

 

[Guest]

I don't remember having a High School bad book experience, but anything which I would have been required to read that I was interested in, I read on my own, and anything I wasn't interested in, I usually just didn't read.

It wasn't often I didn't read an assigned book, but my senior year I got over that. I was one of those kids who usually had read stuff before class. I once failed "reading" in elementary school because I'd already finished the text and was reading a library book instead of going to the back of the room for the reading lesson.

College reading was much more interesting. "Dune", and "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" and "The Prince" were all fun to read. The papers we had to write weren't so much fun, but the books were good

 

[rgraham666]

I once failed "reading" in elementary school because I'd already finished the text and was reading a library book instead of going to the back of the room for the reading lesson.

Sister!

The first time I got to stand in a corner in Grade One was because I was reading a Grade Eight science text instead of "Look Jane, look. See Spot run!"

 

[Equinoxe]

It wasn't often I didn't read an assigned book, but my senior year I got over that. I was one of those kids who usually had read stuff before class. I once failed "reading" in elementary school because I'd already finished the text and was reading a library book instead of going to the back of the room for the reading lesson.

I know what that's like. I didn't read a fair bit of the assigned work (and less of it as school went on), but my teachers loved me anyway, because I had read most of it on my own and often things which we were supposed to read several years down the road.

 

[Guest]

Sister!

The first time I got to stand in a corner in Grade One was because I was reading a Grade Eight science text instead of "Look Jane, look. See Spot run!"

LOL!

You might enjoy a lovely little volume I picked up in Toronto last year called 'Yiddish with Dick and Jane'. And I quote:

Jane works in real estate.
Today is Sunday.
Jane has an Open House.
She must schlep the Open House signs to the car.

See Jane schlep.
Schlep, Jane, schlep.
Schlep, schlep, schlep.

 

[Guest]

I know what that's like. I didn't read a fair bit of the assigned work (and less of it as school went on), but my teachers loved me anyway, because I had read most of it on my own and often things which we were supposed to read several years down the road.

I devoured books in my teens. I wish I'd been the list keeper then I am now, so I could REMEMBER which books I read. Some I'd like to find again, but cannot remember the titles.

 

[BlackShanglan]

I agree that there are ages at which some works of literature are inaccessible. Personally, I've never understood why Hamlet is taught so often in high schools; it seems to me that the emotions and motives in it are largely incomprehensible to teenagers, although Lear would worse yet.

With this in mind, perhaps the most charitable thing one can say about the compiler of a list of bad books that includes "Beowulf," The Hobbit, and "Heart of Darkness" is that he or she has the literary tastes of a twelve year old. That's for The Hobbit, of course, which I think quite accessible after (if not before) that age; for "Beowulf" perhaps fifteen for the quick and twenty for those not very interested in poetry or heroes, and for "Heart of Darkness" I would hazard the guess that twenty-five would not be too late a date to attempt it for the first time.

Shanglan

(ETA: Oh, and I'm quite delighted to be Beowulf.)

 

[fallenupright]

I devoured books in my teens. I wish I'd been the list keeper then I am now, so I could REMEMBER which books I read. Some I'd like to find again, but cannot remember the titles.

My record was 13 books in a day. Mind you, I was 10, and they were babysitters club books...

My report card once said "Needs to stop reading and pay attention in math".

... I read the textbook, it just wasn't any good to read it again... Needed other books to keep my attention.

 

[carsonshepherd]

Oh, God, No

I'm Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand! Noooooooooooo!