Well, of course there would have to be someone in here who talks more about his college readings. I never read Moby Dick, never had to, fortunately. However, I have had the misfortune of being inflicted onto two books which I never liked.
House of Leaves - Now, I had a long conversation with another Escapist who likes this book alot, and it's not per se that I am calling it shit. I am saying that my experience with it was rather shitty. The idea of the book is that it is a great deal of the incomprehensible mashed together in a fashion which is suppose to draw you to make your own conclusions as to what the book is about. It's a multi-layered work. Here's the problem: It's still an incomprehensible mish-mash when you read it. If you want to tell a story, tell a story. (Or show a story. They always said 'Show, don't tell' in college. Whatever.) This book is confusing on purpose, not even linear on the surface level. I know another book (Again, college.) that's multi-layered with a work into determining the real story here, name of Flaubert's Parrot. Regardless of what you took away from it, you could still read it without a flowchart. Some who read it, love it. Others who don't, really don't. That's the conclusion that they draw from their individual experience, not necessarily what Mr. Truant's after, I'm sure. Your audience is still important.
Paradise Lost - John Milton, you asshole. They say you were blind while dictating this, and that someone transcribed this book for you. My question: WHY?! Let me explain. This book starts out...kind of interesting, insofar as Satan/Lucifer is concerned, but after that...we get down to Adam and Eve. And this is not a religious problem. I don't care about anything like that. It's just that...well...how is it that a critically-acclaimed writer could make sex SO GODDAMN BORING?! How is this possible?! At the time, the entire class' brains glazed over. Nobody wanted to read it. Nobody cared about the long-ass crap about Adam and Eve. We were tricked, lured in by the almost-Shakespearian fall and corruption of an angel to become the ruler of hell, and then set out to pasture to DIE OF BOREDOM. And we had to do WORK on this! Suffice to say, I'm glad I learned how to bullshit in my prose, because otherwise none of us would have made it, and there were adults in that class, people twice my age at the time!
Anybody else care to add their college list?
