Books I'm too embarrassed to say I've never read.....

Another one here who didn't do tkam at at school.

I read it when DD did recently- it was ok! Never read Dickens and have tried to in the last few years. Hate It!!! So clunky and patronising of the 'lower classes'.

Lovelovelove Zola and Austen, having never read Zola until my 30s (French Degree notwithstanding!) and hated Austen at school and probably reread a couple a year.

Have read War and Peace and Anna Karenina, wouldn't reread for pleasure.

I would have happily read either of those - we read Cry The Beloved Country,which I did enjoy but I now have it filed in the School Book section of my mind,and can't take on board the fact that it is a normal book that someone might choose to read voluntarily...

We did A Kestrel for A Knave instead of To Kill A Mockingbird at school.

A Kestrel for A Knave remains one of the most depressing books I've ever read.

I must be the only person in the world who didn't do To Kill A Mockingbird at school (well, probably not the only one, there were others in my class :o).

So I read it years later as an adult. I thought it was .... OK. Just OK. I can see that it was probably a more interesting read than many other school set books, so maybe that's why some people rave about it. I suspect a lot of people who rave about it remember it with affection have never read a book since don't actually read many books.

I'd read somewhere that Middlemarch was the best novel ever written in English,so I tried to read it..I just couldn't! Got a fair way in but really couldn't have cared less what happened to any of the characters as they all seemed awful,and at that point I gave up.

MamaMary - that sounds like a book I'd like to read!!

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I have read all of Austen and Hardy (Mayor of Casterbridge and Tess my favourites, Far from Madding good too) and about half of Dickens. Dickens is ok once in a while but then I need a break. I did like Bleak House

There is a scene in one of Kingsley Amis's novels where a group of English literature professors are playing a game in which they confess what they've never read after a good few drinks. Among them is a new, young lecturer who at first thinks the idea is to boast about what you have read and he's eager to show off his depth of reading. The others explain to him it's what you HAVEN'T read. He then confesses that he hasn't read Hamlet. And as a result is fired. Someone remind me which novel that is...

I've just finished reading Anna Karenina. It's very good. Read it on my Kindle which made it more pleasant as I didn't have to hold a heavy book adn struggle with minuscule print (only had a cheap classic before and it put me off reading it).

I haven't read War and Peace or Crime and Punishment

MIDDLEMARCH IS THE BEST NOVEL EVER

To kill a mockingbird is one of my favourite books ever.

I tried to read War and Peace when I was 18 and in love with a tedious arty student who thought he was a tragic literary figure. It was too much for me. And as someone who read and loved Jude the obscure at 15 that's saying something. I pretended to have read it. For all I know he did too.

Hattie I had to read Silas Marner at school too and have loathed George Eliot ever since. I have read war and peace it helped that there was a tv series on the bbc at the same time I think the series was on for 26 weeks so I watched that at the same time as reading the book. I have never read Anna Karenina or to kill a mockingbird. I loved Vanity fair and the Barchester chronicles though

OP I haven't read Mockingbird but thank you for the reminder

Dancehall me either! Let's have a quiche!

Oh God but Wuthering Heights is aMAZing! And so are Thomas Hardy's books. Please PLEASE read them. I have never read Middlemarch or Rebecca despite having owned them for many moons and I am currently struggling with The Moonstone. Never read War and Peace (despite having 2!! Copies!) or Anna Karenina...

I enjoyed Anna Karenina,and War and Peace,I haven't read any Dickens except for A Christmas Carol,read at school.I'm glad I'm not the only one who can't stand the silly names...I was hoping some of the programmes about Dickens last year would inspire me to read,but instead learning more about him just put me off more!
Don't really feel bad about it ,though I do feel embarassed that I can't seem to get through any "serious" modern fiction now.

DS asked about War and Peace when he was about 11, because a character in an Alex Ryder novel was reading it. When I produced my copy he decided to give it a miss though .

Because of the way the blurb on the back was worded he also thinks that it was written by Napoleon Tolstoy, which is useful embarrassment material.

I loved both AK and W & P but have never read TKAMB.

I don't like Jane Austen. There, I've said it.

I didn't like To Kill a Mockingbird, didn't finish it. Ditto Vanity Fair. I couldn't read LOTR the first time I tried and then I read the Hobbit and it made LOTR much more accessible.

War and Peace took me aaaaages to read, the war bits dragged on so much. But once I got into it I actually really enjoyed it. I don't think it helped that it is such a big book that it's not comfortable to hold.

OhDearNigel - now that one I have read, and quite a lot of other Kafka. :)

notnowI'mreading - "I'm reading Anna Karenina now - have just suffered through a lot of theory of farming but am getting back to Anna and her woes so it's getting better. "

I have never had the least urge to read Anna Karenina, but you might have just persuaded me to try it Is there lots in it about farming in that era in Russia?

BlueEyeshadow - may I make a recommendation for one of my personal favourites - Kafka's Die Verwandlung. Brilliant

I love Dickens and the Bronte's but for me Jane Austen works better in films - the books are too mannered and send me off to sleep. I hate George Eliot with a passion as was forced to read Silas Marner - the world's most boring book for O level.

Have W&P on a shelf and do want to read it but have a feeling by the time I get to the end I'll have forgotten the beginning. Stopped Crime and Punishement after the horse died - I was beginning to feel seriously depressed!

Love love love Lord of the Rings and was obsessed by this as a teenager and think Rebecca is just fabulous.

I have never read The Lord of the Rings. I haven't seen the films either. I just can't get beyond the first 10 pages/10 minutes.

Don't be embarrassed about any of them. What you like is so personal - I love Thackeray and have just discovered Trollope but cannot abide Dickens (although I do admire him greatly).

I didn't do English at A level so have never had a forced reading list to contend with as an adult. As a result I have never felt there are books that "should" be read and can follow Proust up with Hitch Hiker's Guide without worrying about what anyone else reads.