I recently wrote a quiz on "Books I Was Forced to Read." My concentration was on books I didn't care for. But this also brought to mind a happier fact—there are some books I never would have waded through had they not been assigned, but by the time I finished them, I was actualy glad that I had.

Have you ever encountered a book you did not like at first, but, after forcing your way through, were glad to have read?

The one that stands out most for me is Faulkner's "As I Lay Dying." Reading that work was like toying with a frustrating puzzle…but I think the effort paid off in delivering a powerful read. It's not an effort I would have bothered with were it not an assignment.

Just about everything I had to read in school. Sometimes I felt forced but now am glad I did. I nearly choked when the teacher gave us a very short amount of time to read "Look Homeward, Angel" i had to read about 100 pages a day to finish it. To this day this is my all time favorite book.

The Power of One by Bryce Courtenay. I was a little daunted at first at the size of the thing, but it's SO good!

I'd recommend picking up the sequel, Tandia as well.

Balzac's "Le Pere Goriot". Parts of it were boring as hell, but I had tears in my eyes at the end.

I agree skylarb, "As I Lay Dying" was assigned to me in college and it started me on a lifelong love of Faulkner - I've now read everything he's written.

Another "forced" book that I loved was "Song of Solomon" by Toni Morrison. As with Faulkner, I've read all of her work too.

Shakespeare.

I actually tried to read some of his other stuff after that, but I didn't enjoy it and I gave up.

This is one of the best books I've ever read and the film was marvellous. Didn't like the sequel as much -it lacked the humanity and the Power of One. Glad to meet a fellow affficiando!

Harper Lee's "To Kill a Mockingbird". I never thought I Would ever like that book but it has turned to one of my favorites of all time

The Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison - easily one of the best books ever written.

In Grade 10 I was forced to read "Childhood's End", by Arthur C. Clarke. At the time I had a huge prejudice against science fiction, I thought it was all like the horrible space opera movies that were common at the time on Saturday matinees.I enjoyed that book though, and decided to give the genre of science fiction a chance, which gave me a lot of pleasure over the next ten years or so.

Hey I read To Kill a Mockingbird too! Was also forced to watch the film (yawn) I had to read it alongside Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry to see the parallels between white and black families in the same era etc... I preferred Roll of Thunder

I enjoyed Skylarb's quiz on "Books I Was Forced To Read". If I remember correctly, Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness was one of them. This was one of our set books at school along with Youth. I seem to recall that most of us found both of them a drag. I haven't actually re-read it since those days, but I often wonder if I ought to give Conrad another chance.

I read Childhood's End on my own, and though I am not generally a sci-fi fan, I appreciated this very much. But I think I misunderstood it! I took it as a tragedy; a pro-individuality and anti-socialist type tale; but now that I have read more about Clark and his spirtuality and general beliefs, I think I mistook the book entirely, and the result is actually supposed to be good.

- "Angela's Ashes" by Frank McCourt - I had to read it in school and I absolutely loved it.
- "To Kill A Mockingbird" by Harper Lee - I also did that in school
- "The Deep End Of The Ocean" by... what's her name? Jacqueline something... My best friend's mother gave it to me for a long train ride, and I was so fascinated by it I just couldn't stop reading. I nearly missed to get out of the train!

Two books instantly come to mind:

"Heart of Darkness" by Joseph Conrad & Mary Shelly's "Frankenstein", the latter of which has become a favorite of mine. "Frankenstein" seems to be especially appropriate today in leiu of cloning--who take responsiblity for actions that can have major repurcussions.

My GCE (15 year old examination texts) were George Orwells "Animal Farm" and Shakespeare's "Twelth Night" - I think I might have enjoyed reading them as stories but hated having to disect the sententences to get the meaning - looking back and with the knowledge I've since gained, I'm sure the authors didn't intend for the absolute meaning of each word to be taken for granted or interpreted - they had a message they wanted to convey to the masses. I was certainly put off from reading/watching more of the works by Shakespeare for being co-erced into seeing my teachers "Deeper meanings" in the words and not just accepting them as entertainment.
Many years on, I can know see the deeper meanings of both works but the experience of being forced to examine two texts for the purpose of passing an examination was not conducive to me being drawn into the literary circle. (I much preferred the novels of Ian Fleming in the 1950's and 60's)

Yes I'm glad to have an insight into the two texts- It's made me look at other novels/books in a different way - two chapters into a book I know wether I'm interested or not (and I read two chapters in about 10 minutes!)

Fosse, if I'm correct about the title, Animal Farm was a fairly funny and enjoyable book. By the title, Heart of Darkness sounds interesting. Maybe.

The View From The Cherry Tree

I just finished "Invisible Man" yesterday. It was on my forced summer reading list this year. Sorry, but I hated it. I got absolutely nothing out of it and struggled to stay awake. I forced myself to read 50-100 pages a day just so I could finish it. My school seems obsessed with racial books and books with communism in them, both of which "Invisible Man" was. There have been books I enjoyed, though.
"To Kill a Mocking Bird" was the first one I thought of when I saw this title. Another racially themed book, but I just loved it and often read ahead of my class.
"Animal Farm" was another one. I was fascinated with all the stuff with the Russian Revolution.
There was a book in middle school we read, it was very short, and about a girl who plants a garden for her tenant building and a lot happens as a result. I just remembered the name, "Seedfolks."

- Heart of Darkness
- Grapes of Wrath
- Beloved
- Nam

Just bringing this up, since it relates to some of the recent posts in the "Worst Book Ever" thread.

Ethan, Animal Farm is "so I'm told" a book about Communism and the struggle of the common folk against the oppressive rule of others. I didn't find it in the least funny then and looking back, with hindsight, it can be interpreted as the rise and fall of dictatorships.