I don’t mean bad books that are fun to rag on. There are tons of those. My personal example is Of Mice and Men, which I absolutely hated reading in high school, but the class discussions of the content of the book saved the entire experience for me. I actually liked 90% of the required reading in high school, but that one was an outlier.
by HillbillyMan
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wuthering heights. I liked absolutely nothing about the book, but it brought about interesting questions & perspectives in class.
Idk, besides online I guess I am not really having that many discussions about books. And even then, posting about them is not quite the same. It has been a while since I was in school…
I guess what is coming to mind most for me is a decent amount of 19th century American stuff – Hawthorne, Crane, James, works from authors like that… Not that they are particularly bad to read, but I just remember having really interesting conversations in class about them that probably helped solidify my regard for those works more than the books themselves.
Dracula. It’s a pretty terrible novel but has a great legacy and is a good discussion piece.
Just did this, but probably Beowulf, like I hated reading it so much, but we had the actual best time ever discussing it in class, that now I’m happy to read anything for that class because I know even if I don’t like it, the conversations will be great.
The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway. I read it for an American Lit class and thought it was so boring. Then, when discussing it with classmates and hearing the professor talk about it, I got it. The whole existential crisis, Lost Generation, aimless living really made it hit home for me. It’s now one of my favorite books.
Richard Flanagan’s recent book, First Person, was a nightmare to read. It’s that way on purpose. He wanted you to feel the destabilizing anxiety of trying to work with a conman. But, as a anxious person it was hell.But the discussion of how Flanagan left you feeling like there was nothing beneath your feet the whole time and how the book switched from feeling like the con man was who was conning you, to the author who was conning you was interesting.I felt it was one of those books where the author was too good, and the emotional state he was trying to create was too strong. I didn’t feel as a reader like there was enough distance, and it made it a struggle to get through. When I was reading it, more often I felt like I was a chump for buying the book than that I was in on what was going on. But man, that guy can write.
I HATED The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, but I did enjoy bashing it in book club. I’ve gotten a lot of laughs for my mocking summation of the whole Oscar Wilde cat subplot. Still not worth having read that book though.
While I enjoyed Hamlet, the book discussions that resulted from it were even more awesome
White Noise. Thought it was a slog to get through, but enjoyed talking about it in class
I couldn’t even get through Moby Dick because the verbosity and vocabulary was just too dense for me to enjoy it, but I love talking about the plot and the metaphor and its place in literary history.
Lord of the flies
Anything by the analytical school of philosophy. Russell, Wittgenstein, and Frege.
Wuthering Heights
It’s possibly a pretty basic answer, but “Lolita”. I remember just feeling a sense of annoyance towards Humbert Humbert and his pretentious inner monologues throughout the whole thing. With bits of anger and disgust mixed in. However I liked the book, it made me think and feel things and I really liked discussing it with my literature teacher, and watching all those recent YouTube video essays analyzing the narrative and picking the messages apart.
Anything that could be considered high school English reading material. I struggle with reading older works, but discussing their context, meaning, importance, execution, etc. Is always fun.
I really liked endglish class lmao.
I hated reading Shakespeare, but the discussions in class always made them better. His double entendres, puns, etc. More than 20 years later, I’ve begun reading all of his plays and NOW I get it. The dude truly was a god amongst men.
The Silmarillion.
It is a very challenging read — by nature, to be fair, as it was never intended to be enjoyed as a “novel” but as historical reference.
The Handmaids Tale
Not saying it’s a bad read but just..wasn’t convinced and mindblown until further discussions and also looking up online discussions
Moby Dick. felt like a chore, but discussing it and skipping over the 400 pages of whale biology is pretty interesting
Any Dickens novel.
I have found this to be true about most things considered literature classics.
The Giver by Lois Lowry was a book that I had to read in school. I had to go at a (for me) glacial pace to stick with the class, which made reading it kinda painful. Having said that, I did like it and really enjoyed the sequels when I read them at my normal pace.
Not a book but a related concept, the card game Magic the Gathering. I love building decks and talking about magic theory way more than I enjoy actually playing the game
While I liked “The Measure,” I Loved talking and thinking about it more even than reading it.
Pale Fire by Nabokov. Terrible narrator, crazy structure, but really liked the discussion around it. I had to read it for a class.
I read Ready Player One because my friend finished it and gave it to me for free. Thought it was not great, but ok.
By this point I’ve probably spent more time arguing with people whether is was good or bad than I spent reading the book.
Three Body Problem.
Into the Wild. Krakauer’s manipulation of what actually happened would’ve bothered me a lot more if my teacher didn’t focus our classes on it around bias and the ways he tries to guide your perception of McCandless.
Ali Smith’s *Hotel World*.
Everyone else in my discussion group loved the ‘quirky’ writing style and sang its praises, while I found it nigh on impossible to read. My ADHD was not compatible with that book).
As the only one who vocally disliked it, I had great fun trying to hold up my side of the debate solo. By the end of it, a few had come to my side, saying that while they understand *why* Smith made certain stylistic choices, it often made it more a chore to read than was necessary, and that they didn’t like the book as much as they would have otherwise.
Ended up writing a uni paper on it. Got one of my highest ever marks! When I dislike something, I want to pick it apart and figure out exactly why.
Call me by your name. Had to restart it three times but I love the discourse around it! It brings up a lot of questions regarding morals and limits to fiction. Where do you draw the line, what’s fine and what isn’t. What’s believable and what is unrealistic. I’ve even had discussions as to why the book is discussed or why people feel the need to discuss fiction with reason, and we should criticize it certain ways or not. Do we judge it with our opinions on the author? Do we judge it considering the sequel? Should we be enjoying the story or is there no point in doing so? I love discussing this book.
The grapes of wrath. Read that book in grade 12 English class I remember thinking it was long and arduous and hard to get through, but throughout my life, the discussions I have had about that book and how it pertains to modern life and politics and human nature is still so relevant.
Frankenstein: read it once by myself and didn’t much enjoy it but then when I read it again with my class of I think high school sophomores it was a blast. It brought about both interesting discussion and some funny jokes.
There are few books that aren’t improved by conversation IMO. Anything from light & entertaining to dark and heavy has added interest with more input.
The Bible. Not an easy or fun read, but wide breadth of opinions and discussion. Maybe because I’m not religious but enjoy history.
Maybe this isn’t technically an answer, but I used to teach Lord of the Flies to high school sophomores, and the reading part was always hard to get through, and I had to do a ton of scaffolding and reading aloud to them. However…the discussions?? Oof, some of my absolute favorite. We talked so much about survival, the dark side of human nature, psychology, allegories…just all around great discussions and activities. I used to put them in “survival groups” Students always remembered this book.