Which book did you skip reading in school?

by Let's Ask America Posted 2013/02/19 23:39:00

478 votes
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	The Great Gatsby	137 votes	29%
	The Scarlet Letter	89 votes	19%
	Heart of Darkness	129 votes	27%
	The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn	123 votes	26%

It's no secret that most students don't read all of the books they're assigned for school. Which book did you skip out on?

secret students read books assigned school book skip

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HAlex1972 2013/02/22 00:16:59

Heart of Darkness

+4
You didn't leave the option for the people that DID read all of the assigned books in school, such as myself. Heart of Darkness was not required reading, nor have I ever heard of it, hence my answer to your question.
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Sinister Ken Doll™ 2013/02/28 19:31:44

The Scarlet Letter

lol all of them

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kittycat 2013/02/25 05:08:24 (edited)

Heart of Darkness

I was the nerd who read them all. However, I didn't really like Heart of Darkness.

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Vongola Primo 2013/02/25 04:25:48

The Scarlet Letter

who dared skip gatsby that was one of my favorites along with catch 22 and catcher in the rye.... Though i despise the scarlet letter with a vengence i hated that book... huck finn bored me too

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roselle.roberts.7 2013/02/25 02:03:02

The Great Gatsby

The only one I read of the four was Huck Finn. But I watched the movie called the Great Gatsby.

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Ms. Macabre 2013/02/24 23:32:51

Heart of Darkness

I've read Scarlet Letter. Reading Huck Finn right now. It's a blasty-blast.

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Somkey the Hores 2013/02/24 22:10:04

Heart of Darkness

I don't remember. It was LONG ago.

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Gloryanna's Quill 2013/02/24 21:30:08

Heart of Darkness

+1
$math book$

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Katie 2013/02/24 19:04:22

The Scarlet Letter

+1
We were assigned all of these, and The Great Gatsby was the only one I actually read. It is now one of my favorites.

I hated the others and only got a couple chapters in on each of them. I love reading for fun, but assigned reading just ruins it for me. Still made 5s on the two AP tests and straight As in English class though - just hated over analyzing novels like these.

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Mae 2013/02/24 14:04:50

The Scarlet Letter

+1
My teachers usually gave us a list of books we could choose from, so if the book the teacher was assigning objectionable to me, like a boring book about adultery, etc., then I combed through the teacher's list of alternatives for something less boring or "Ugh!" For example, if the teacher assigned "The Scarlet Letter", I read "Call of the Wild" instead.

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Gypzoe 2013/02/24 13:31:52

Heart of Darkness

+1
yup..

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Ameera 2013/02/24 07:22:06

The Great Gatsby

+1
i didnt read any of the books they told us to read

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CuresCancer 2013/02/24 06:25:03 (edited)

The Scarlet Letter

+2
The Scarlet Letter was almost dialogue free. What a bore fest.

I only read parts of "1984" and "Brave New World." It's amazing I graduated.

I also refused to read any book that had a main character named "Phineas."

PS. I just read the wikipedia summary of that book. I made a very wise decision skipping that "Separate Piece" of Crap.

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Alexandria 2013/02/24 04:54:57

Heart of Darkness

+1
There wasn't an option for "all of the above".

It's not that I don't like books. It's that when I feel forced to read something, my desire to read becomes nonexistent. :x

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Jalysa Ellis 2013/02/24 03:25:28

Heart of Darkness

+1
Out of this list we read The Great Gatsby. How do you EVEN miss out on The Great Gatsby? That was one of the best books we read in my English class.

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lmnlme1... to Jalysa ... 2013/02/24 04:38:23

+3
Ugh, I hated it. I admit the symbolism was great, but all it is on the surface is a story about adultery and death. Personally, the only classic I've ever really enjoyed is 1984.

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Jalysa ... to lmnlme1... 2013/02/24 17:35:51

+1
We never got to that story, but we covered The Great Gatsby and most of the John Steinbeck books in 11th and then 12th grade.

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lmnlme1... to Jalysa ... 2013/02/25 02:09:38

+1
We did The Great Gatsby freshman year, but I haven't been assigned any Steinbeck yet. So far we've only been required to read three books a year, but we have an extensive list to complete for junior and senior year, so I'll probably wind up reading some of his stuff.

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Jalysa ... to lmnlme1... 2013/02/25 04:32:39

The Pearl is freaking awesome.

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Drageona 2013/02/23 23:27:23

The Great Gatsby

+1
Didn't really skip it, we just never had to read it. Never read "Heart of Darkness" either. But did read the last two and enjoyed them a lot.

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tor 2013/02/23 22:18:33

Heart of Darkness

+1
Wasn't required to read this in school. I read all the assigned books, The Adventures of Huck Finn was a good one. So was Great Gatsby... The Scarlet Letter was probably my least favorite book in highschool.

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Sunrae☺산럐{Shining smiles in... 2013/02/23 17:59:14

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

+1
Haven't read that. I did read Tom Sawyer though.

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roxapoxa131 2013/02/23 17:41:57

Heart of Darkness

+1
Never heard of the heart of darkness, The scarlet letter, or read the great Gatsby.

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MayLin 2013/02/23 14:26:17

The Great Gatsby

+1
Where is the 'had to read them all' option?

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PrinceOfDarkness 2013/02/23 06:45:24

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

+1
I read Gatsby... never picked up the others but I've SEEN this one.
I guess my "decision" to walk past it is skipping.

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kdalexander 2013/02/23 03:22:17

The Scarlet Letter

+2
It was never on any of my reading lists actually. I've never heard of Heart of Darkness and hated The Great Gatsby.

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bmxschoolbus 2013/02/23 01:45:14

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

+1
all of them

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zomgitsyoulol 2013/02/23 01:41:14 (edited)

The Scarlet Letter

+2
Well, I was never given this book to read. I also wasn't assigned "Heart of Darkness".
I forgot to add that one book that I was given to read that I skipped most of was "Catcher In The Rye" and "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer".

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Jere 2013/02/23 01:20:08

The Scarlet Letter

+1
I had read it before and just turned in a book report that got me an A+

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Katt 2013/02/22 22:09:06 (edited)

Heart of Darkness

+1
Was not assigned that book =/

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Shawna 2013/02/22 18:37:35

The Scarlet Letter

+1
None of those options actually. The Scarlet Letter and Huckleberry Finn were not on my reading list and I actually have not read them. They don't really interest me. In university, where I majored in English LIterature, I found Ulysses by James Joyce totally unreadable.

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Austin 2013/02/22 18:04:05 (edited)

The Great Gatsby

+1
It's just a damned green light! haha

The book was full of metaphorical puffery. I couldn't stop rolling my eyes. I read it, but it was half-assed.

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kdalexa... to Austin 2013/02/23 03:19:47

+1
Same here. I hated that book.

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Baya Su... to Austin 2013/02/23 04:24:10

+1
The 1974 movie was better.

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lmnlme1... to Austin 2013/02/24 04:44:14

+2
No, no, the color green resembles hope and renewal, and the light itself resembles Daisy. Gatsby's chance with Daisy was out of his reach, which is why the light was in the distance, in East Egg. Or at least that's what my English teacher told us was the only acceptable answer to "What does the light at the end of the dock symbolize?". So much for reader's interpretation.

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Austin to lmnlme1... 2013/02/26 21:04:26

Ha, that's a teacher for you!

I understand the significance and meaning of the light. I just thought it was a rather contrived, weak device on behalf of the author.

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lmnlme1... to Austin 2013/02/28 00:58:16

Yeah, personally, I think a lot of classics completely overdo it with the symbolism. I mean, once you get through the two Eggs, the light, the billboard, and the Valley of Ashes, you almost want to kill off everyone in the book (which didn't turn out to have quite the satisfaction I was hoping for). If someone has to point out to me that it's symbolism, I'm probably not going to enjoy it. Masque of the Red Death, now that's something I can enjoy. A story with symbolism that stares you in the face. I wish all authors would take a lesson from Poe.

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Omni 2013/02/22 17:45:52 (edited)

The Great Gatsby

+2
Nah, I read it. I read all my assigned books. I wasn't in normal English classes so skipping them would seriously impair my grade (accelerated English and then AP English senior year). Yeah, but I hated The Great Gatsby. If I could have, I would have skipped it. Horrendous piece of literature. Mice of Men comes in at a close second. Oh god, now I feel sick DX

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lmnlme1... to Omni 2013/02/24 04:48:34

+1
I know how you feel. I'm in Pre Ap, and while we're debating symbolism in Great Expectations, all the other classes get to do do creative writing assignments. Curse Ms. Havisham and her stupid stopped clocks.

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Harriet M Welch 2013/02/22 16:57:00

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

+2
I read them all but enjoyed "Huck Finn" the least.

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BoardinOK 2013/02/22 14:42:48

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

+1
Where is the "all of the above" button? LOL I didn't read a book until the summer after I graduated high school. It was "The Hunt for Red October" by Tom Clancy. I didn't read another until my wife and I got married 4 years later. Now I read about 6 books a year, but I still haven't read any of these four books.

Fortunately my boys took after their mother and love to read.

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