so which 'classics' have you never read?

Oh God I tried Ulysees once - wtf!?!

cornsilk678 - I actually gasped at James Joyce being described as "boring crap" - sacrilege!

There are plenty I haven't read. I'm not too good on my American stuff - Catcher in the Rye, To Kill a Mockingbird, On the Road etc. (although having said that, The Great Gatsby is one of my favourite books). Equally, I must admit I have never read Dickens, and only dabbled in Austen, the Brontes and DH Lawrence.

Oh god - I read prodigiously (mostly academic stuff) and am no philistine - but I hate most of the classics. Snoresville.

Haven't gotten around to yet, but intend to read:
Moby Dick (thank's for the digested version, UptoapointLordCopper)
Madame Bovary
Handmaid's Tale
Tristram Shandy
Vanity Fair

Started and hated:
Little Women

Haven't read, and probably never will:
Steinbeck
Joyce (the short stories I've stumbled upon were more than enough, thank you)
As much poetry as I can get away with not reading
DH Lawrence (have read Lady Chatterley, not inspired to read more)

Love Tolstoy, Dickens, Greene, Austen, Tolkien, and more

But that's in Texas

And The Remains Of The Day - okay..you love her...either tell her or shut the fuck up then, will you?

AustIn...

Not a 'classic' but I think many people would like to brand it a modern classic - Never Let Me Go. God, I hated it and just wished they'd all hurry up and get chopped up tbh.

(even though I can't type)

Oh god - Love in The Time of Cholera - yawn (and I liek a bit of misery in a novel). Yes there was a boat ride - and that's about all I can remember, too.

And The Unbearable Lightness of Being - don't even get me started on Milan Kundera... Does anyone actually read them for fun?

Madame Bovary : read it and SO wanted to slap her !!

Dickens : had to read "Hard times" for A-level and never has a book been so aptly named ! Not going to bother with any of his stuff ever again - life is too short.

War & Peace : got about a third of the way through and then just wanted them all to die of consumption and be done with it !

I'm only dipping in and out of this thread, but how would one misspell Austen?

I liked Love in the Time of Cholera but unfortunately can remember nothing at all about it! I think there may have been a boat ride involved, yes?

Ha! I will remember and quote this conversation next time my best mate is extolling the virtues of Marquez and telling me that Love in the Time of Cholera is the best book ever blah blah blah...

I MIGHT try it again when I'm on maternity leave and immobile on the sofa with a child stuck to me. Then again maybe I'll just stick to crappy crime novels and Buffy box sets and let my brain turn to mush!

Proust

I also hate Dickens.

Marquez - god yes. Had to read him as well. At both A-Level and at Uni. No-one writes to the colonel - no, and I don't bloody blame them either!

Sorry but I feel the need to defend the spelling of Jane AustEn. If people love her, please, please spell her name correctly! I make spelling errors all over the place but to do so with Jane's name is surely sacrilege? :)

I didn't even get past page three of Moby Dick. I know somebody who claims it is the best book they have ever read - I don't believe this and think they just believe that it makes them sound clever.

feral, I started and gave up on Love In The Time of Cholera several times over several years but read it eventually and it was worth it ? it was a decade ago but it is still with me (in a good if melancholy way).

Bugger Dickens, and Madame Bovary, I say.

I tried seven times to read Catch 22 and finally succeeded last year (def worth it). I didn't manage to read Lord of the Rings until I was 30 and took that and nothing else on holiday with me to France where there was no alternative. Anything by Marquez utterly defeats me and I've tried to read Hard Times 3 times now and still haven't managed.

I have had Madame B in the living room on the showing-off-bookshelf for about a decade and have never even attempted it.

Margaret Atwood's Alias Grace is a classic, for my money. Also Wolf Hall. And probably Money.

Worst for me was Heart of Midlothian by Sir Walter Scott, groan...loved Tess of the D'Urbervilles though what a drip she was. Emma by Jane Austen was tolerated once you realized the inside line going thro' the plot. Can't abide anything by Tolkein after being forced to read it at eleven (The Hobbit) by overbearing old school headmaster who should never have got the job...
Modern classics anyone? Angela's Ashes grueling but excellent.

Some books are a struggle, aren't they?

It took me 8 years to read The Master and Margarita .

I just cannot bring myself to read anything by Dickens it all just seems incredibly boring and miserable.

Loved Wuthering Heights but preferred Jane Eyre. Currently reading Far From the Madding Crowd (Hardy), which I struggled with at the start, but once the characters actually start talking rather then it just being lengthy descriptions of Dorset countryside it gets much better!

Have just finished 'Birdsong' which was a struggle - don't think it's ever taken me 3 months to finish a book before but worth it in the end.

Captain Corelli's Mandolin...just don't get it at all.

Next on my list is The Hobbit, which I have my reservations about but am determined to read before the film comes out (if only so I can ascertain how much Richard Armitage action we're going to get in the film version [grin!])