To roll my eyes when someone says their favourite book is a classic

[Eyeroller100]

I'm an avid reader and I'm always looking for new books to read so I often ask people what their favourite books are. AIBU to roll my eyes every time someone mentions one of the classics.

I know people do love them and they may well be their faves, but I am quite skeptical as if they are saying it to make themselves sound better.

I've tried reading a lot of classics and I just can't get into them at all! They are pure effort

[mumzuki]

Yes. You've asked them what they like. That's what they like.

[Purplerain101]

I know what you mean. I loved the film of Jane Eyre but when I tried to read it i found it too much like hard work.
I love a good crime thriller through and can get absorbed in those for hours at a time

[Wallofglass]

They're classics for a reason.

[JacquesHammer]

YABU. Why ask if you're going to disbelieve their answer?

My fave book ever is Wuthering Heights. I have loved it since I first read it aged 9.

What are examples of believable favourite books?!

[Huntinginthedark]

What a stupid post.
Taste is totally subjective

[ilovesooty]

Yes you are being massively unreasonable to suggest that people are being insincere. Why bother to ask if you doubt people's opinions?

[NC4now]

There’s a reason some books become classics.
There are a lot of books I’ve loved, but the ones that stay with me do tend to be classics. Mine is Clockwork Orange.

[FlibbertyGiblets]

Avid reader but reading is effort?

What are you thinking of as "the classics"?

[puffyisgood]

i'm certainly not a fan of 'emperor's new clothes' type groupthink... but some of the 'classics' are really good?

[Llangollen]

at least you do make an effort to read something and you admit the classics are too hard for you.
keep reading, you are doing well, but stop judging.

[SlowlyShrinking]

They wouldn’t still be in print if people didn’t like them, read them and buy them. Even if they are more difficult to read than books in more modern language.

[EvilTwins]

I love reading and will give most things a go. Books which have stayed with me after reading are really varied but if I could only have one or two books to read forever, they would be Great Expectations and Wuthering Heights.

Not being pretentious - I just like them.

[EvilCleverDog]

Do you mean like someone saying their favourite book is War and Peace, when really it’s 50 shades or twilight, because it makes them look more well read?

If so YANBU. My sister does similar. Her fave film is Bridget jones but she tells people it’s Schindler’s list as she thinks it makes her look better.

[whalewhatsallthisthen]

Yabu. I don't mind a trashy read or a crime book but there is simply not enough in them to read more than once or be my "favourite". I don't relate to the characters enough. I hate the idea of a favourite anyway. What does that even mean? A book that I found funny? Or heartwarming? Or that I could read over and over? Surely it depends what mood you're in.

[TheIncredibleBookEatingManchot]

People have different tastes to you

[Tomselleckhaskindeyes]

Well i’ve Got two favourite books both classics. They are both brilliant books. Both are the rom cons of the day. Dickens books were written for a newspaper much like a soap opera? So what?

[mrsprefect]

Pride and Prejudice is my favourite book, I love everything about it and have read it regularly throughout my life.
YABU and weird to think that just because you don't like 'classics' nobody else should either do you disbelieve people who say their favourite food is steak?

[ApocalypseNowt]

Me and my friend did a challenge where we each asked 10 people to list their 5 favourite books. This gave us a list of 100 which we're reading our way through.

Must say I'm having much more fun reading the non 'classics'.

There's only one person on the list who I don't really believe. She gave a list of 5 very high brow classics. I know this person very well and she's my friend's cousin. I'd definitely say she put those down to make herself look clever and cultured. Everyone else I think told us the truth.

[HerSymphonyAndSong]

But not all “classics” are the same. Austen is comfort-reading for me, I have to work harder with Dickens and I can’t stand Hardy

What is your definition of a classic and what have you tried?

[MidniteScribbler]

How does this impact your life in any way, shape or form?

[MsJolly]

What crap-my favourite book is A Room with a View and I have read it hundreds of times-it is my fall back book.
I read loads of other stuff too, sometimes trashy, sometimes book club ideas. But I wouldn't make my favourite book up though just to look better and I don't care what others think about my literary reading. I also read Rebecca and My cousin Rachel a lot too!

[whoareyoukidding]

Stop asking people what their favourite book is, OP, then you won't have to roll your eyes any more.

[NeverTwerkNaked]

Yabu. I love classic literature and modern literature. I’m not naming quite highbrow books to be pretentious, they are genuinely the books I read again and again.

I really can’t get into chick lit/ holiday reads type books. They irritate me a lot.

[ApocalypseNowt]

Just had another thought. Some people don't read much (at all or ever) but they probably have read a classic somewhere along the way or seen a tv adaptation. Maybe that's why they go for those?

[Changednamejustincase]

Yabu. I read more modern books than classics but as a pp has already said, classics are classics for a reason. Books like The Great Gatsby, Crime and Punishment and Jude the Obscure are very well written, have great storylines and characters and are memorable. People can favour such books. They are really good. You don't have to.