First Animal Dreams Discussion

So it happened, I knew it was coming. We had our first discussion on Animal Dreams. I actually was looking forward to it surprisingly enough. Who would want to spend so much time reading and analyzing a book without giving their two cents about it? The discussion was not what I expected though, Janell split the class into two groups, those who hated the book and those who loved it. I was completely on the fence about this, on one hand, I did not enjoy reading the book but I did find some value in reading and understanding the story. In the end I decided to go with the "lovers" because I actually want to have some useful discussion on the book, and I was right in my decision. The majority of the "haters" seem to have not been able to get past their dislike and don't appear to have read that deeply into it. I can understand where they are coming from (especially the guys), but I just can't see any value in proclaiming that you hated the book. You HAD to read it, you HAVE to participate in discussions about it, so what point is there in holding back? The only thing it's going to do for you is make you clueless and opinionless in discussion. As far as I'm concerned, if I have to read something then I'm going to get everything I can possibly get out of the book, regardless of how much I like it. In all regards, I really just wanted to tell them all to suck it up. We are in college now, if you still are against things solely because you "don't like it" then high school was waaaayyyy too easy on you. Your with the big dogs now, start acting like you belong!