I bet this has been done before, but what classics/modern classics have really left you baffled as to why they're so popular?

[Twinklemegan]

Brave New World for me

Wuthering Heights to an extent, though I might need to try it again

I know there are others, but can't think at the moment.

[bran]

The Turn of the Screw. It is chilling and quite a good plot, but it's so flipping wordy. There are entire chapters where nothing at all happens, I find myself drifting off.

[stillwaiting]

Middlemarch
Wuthering Heights
Jamaica Inn
Catch 22

[BecauseImWorthIt]

Captain Corelli's bloody Mandolin

tried 3 times to read it and it is just pretentious twaddle

[Twinklemegan]

Ah that's funny Stillwaiting - I was really pleasantly surprised by Catch22 - very odd book but I quite liked it.

I kind of agree about Jamaica Inn - not quite what I expected but I did enjoy it.

I liked CCM - much better than the film - though if I read it again I'd probably skim over some of it.

[tinylady]

The Lovely Bones
Brick Lane

Love love Wuthering Heights and Jamaica Inn

[bran]

Nearly everything written by Dickens (with the exception of A Christmas Carol). I find it hard to hear the characters, they don't seem real to me and so I can't lose myself in the story. There are other authors who also write in quite a self-conscious way and I always find it distracts from the book.

[stillwaiting]

hated CCM too

[harpomarx]

have just got catch 22 from a charity shop Twinkle - I haven't got round to reading it yet but might do so on your recommendation. I tried for ages to get into another book of his (Good as Gold) but just couldn't.

[Yorkiegirl]

Message withdrawn

[Twinklemegan]

Oh God, you mightn't like it so don't blame me! It's very very strange, unlike any book I've ever read before or since.

[notasheep]

The Time Travellers Wife

[MarshaBrady]

Brave New World absolutely. Tried to read it got to page 4 and had to stop.
Paul Auster books (except New York trilogy which was ok) and Jose Saramago The Double (Blindness was good).

[stillwaiting]

The Time Travellers Wife is another one I hated. I'm starting to think I must be a philistine.

[Twinklemegan]

I've not heard of a lot of these

[harpomarx]

will let you know if I do, Twinkle

I recently tried to get into Don DeLillo's Underworld and failed. Too dense.

[stillwaiting]

The Alchemist. people rave about it but I can't see why. My reading group did it and everyone hated it.

[ScottishMummy]

any McEwan eg atonement, Saturday. turgid.dull

[stillwaiting]

I'm with you there ScotishMummy. Am slightly shocked at how many books I hate.

[cyteen]

Anything by George Eliot. Just torturously shit.

Recently had a bash at The God Of Small Things and found it so irritating I had to throw the book aside. Several times.

[Twinklemegan]

Oh yes, I agree about George Eliot. I tried to read the Mill on the Floss again a while back. The first time around I found it OK, but the second time I couldn't bring myself to finish it.

[TotalChaos]

Shadow of the Wind.

[wheresthehamster]

Catch-22 is brilliant!

Once you've read it once you can dip into it again and again to re-read the funniest bits. I love it!

[stillwaiting]

I love The God Of Small Things. Its one of my fave books ever. there is a book I like after all

[harpomarx]

Have you read The Cement Garden, ScottishMummy? Totally agree with you about Atonement so was shocked when I picked this up and found myself gripped. I thought it was dark and beautiful.

[ScottishMummy]

oh thanks harpomanx love a recommendation