kalavinka's "hated it! - high school required reading"

Yes, try seeing R&J on stage. I had to read it for shool when I was 16, and although I loved some of Shakespeares works already, R&J seemed completely inane to me, until my father read it aloud for me (he’s a wonderful actor). It maed me change my mind.

I really wanted to like Catcher in the Rye because I kept reading about how good it was. I was going to read it anyway then luckily it became a required reading. Ah, so disappointed. In teenage words: it sucked. Lonely and left out? That was me for many years, never more so than high school perhaps but it’s as simple as that book didn’t interest me. (Sometimes I don’t like “loner/outsider” fiction because I can’t relate—it wasn’t my version of loneliness therefore it doesn’t seem right.)

Shakespeare is something I have always loathed. I have tried even reading his works that were not assigned but never has it even remotely appealed to me. I’ve seen movies but not plays as I’m a film person not a theater person.

I just can’t bring myself to pay for something I don’t like. In general, the theatre feels cold to me. In general, Shakespeare feels old to me. Don’t fret over this stuff though, I don’t like classic rock, either. I only started enjoying classical music a couple years ago too and that’s because I was finally exposed to elements of it that interested me. Shakespeare wrote enough that maybe one day of those stories will present itself in an interesting way. But for now, I’ve got a long reading list ahead of me and Billy Bob isn’t on it.