(sorry about the long post and weird grammar, I think I have a fever)

I think that whether you like the book or not depends on the teacher and their approach. I used to have a really horrible teacher who was only interested in whether we read the book and not if we understood it. I'm pretty sure she didn't understand most of these books either. Her interpretations were very superficial and most of the time she just relied on a textbook. And she made tests with questions such as "Write the exact date when the main character did this and that", when it was completely irrelevant to the plot. Who pays attention to such things when reading a book?

Obviously it made me hate the books we were "discussing". Hamlet, 1984 and Heart of Darkness, for example. But the next school I went to had a teacher who actually knew what she was doing and it made a huge difference. We discussed Hamlet again, and this time I loved it. At university we talked about Heart of Darkness, from a completely new perspective, and it changed my view of the book, which now I no longer consider boring. I'm planning to re-read 1984 soon and I'm sure it won't be as bad as I remember.

As for my favourite and least favourite books: The least favourite is "The Sorrows of Young Werther", I suppose I don't have to explain why. I understand why we had to read it, but I definitely did not enjoy it. And the favourite is definitely "The Master and Margarita" (which is a great book, one of my favourites ever, and if you've never read it, you have to try).

Quote from Hanae

As for my favourite and least favourite books: The least favourite is "The Sorrows of Young Werther", I suppose I don't have to explain why. I understand why we had to read it, but I definitely did not enjoy it. And the favourite is definitely "The Master and Margarita" (which is a great book, one of my favourites ever, and if you've never read it, you have to try).

Exactly, though I'd add "Crime and Punishment" to the absolute favorites 😉

We had to read (Poland) about 8-10 books every year, most of which were written by polish authors and covered martyrology and patriotism (not having a country for over 120 years).. about 3 or even 4 of them were written by Zeromski in XIX/XX century, and were completely and utterly unreadable a hundred years later.. One I've read without even remembering the main character's name or any other trait...

But some of them were really good. "Year 1984", "Crime and Punishment", "Cat's Cradle", Shakespeare works, but also Adam Mickiewicz's "Dziady" were great.

Speaking about books.. The most important polish book, "Pan Tadeusz" by Adam Mickiewicz starts with:"Latvia! My homeland!", and the second most honed author's name is.. Słowacki. Like.. Slovakia.