Confession time! Tell us your literary sins to win an entire set of 20 Puffin Classics

I was a voracious reader as a child and then read alot to my three daughters. The books Ive missed are Call of the Wild and the Odyssey - Ill have to read them to the grandsons!
When we were children we had fewer distractions and nobody complained if you spent hours with a book - why is reading OK when watching TV/playing games on a screen is not?

I'm shamed top say... the only one I have read is Tom Sawyer. All the others I've read abridged versions or seen the film.

I've read at least 12 (that I remember) and seen the films of another 3. I didn't enjoy Tom Sawyer or Huckleberry Finn - might have had something to do with my mum liking them and going on about it so much! My favourites were Black Beauty, Treasure Island, Heidi and Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and I think I wore the pages out with my eyes!

I'm guessing the Chronicles of Nania were another publishing house? Not read any of the list above, as i found them incredibly boring and think being forced to read Anne of Greene Gables at age 10 put me off reading for a very, very long time! I'd love to have the time to re-read them to see if they really are that bad! Also guessing Bronte sisters are another publishing house, as Wuthering Heights got me back into reading!
Just out of interest what or who deems a book to be a classic? Do they have to be old and with endless boring descriptive narritive ?!
I'm just a pleb aren't I

I've only read Anne of Green Gables, The Secret Garden.

I'm ashamed to say I didn't no some were books before films!!ouch.wizard of oz being one.

i swear i'll read it in tomorow

I haven't read most of them but feel I probably should!

To be completely honest, I have never read any of them. I have watched the movies to some, but never read the books. I have always loved to read and in middle school was reading at a high school level. But I am actually shocked to see this list and see I haven't read any, I had read almost the entire library by the time I graduated 5th grade lol. Now that I have 3 children of my own, I am always reading to them, I think I have read every book in our house 100 times. Now my oldest is learning how to read and he loves to read as well. Sometimes I think he knows some of the books we have by heart because he reads certain pages just too fast sometimes.

*a lot

*not sure why I never

I'm usually a bookaholic so not sure I never read a lit of these books like The Call of the Wild, Tom Sawyer, The Wizard of Oz, King Arthur, Black Beauty, Huckleberry Finn, Anne of Green Gables, The Odyssey, A Little Princess, Journey to the Centre of the Earth, The Wind in the Willows, Treasure Island, Peter Pan, Little Women.

I do however know the stories of some of these books despite not reading them

I've only read 5 of them, but embarrassingly know most of the stories only through TV and Films. I remember enjoying Call of The Wild. I was more of an Enid Blyton sort of reader as a child, lashings of ginger beer and all that......

I've never read Anne of Green Gables, Call of the Wild or the Odyssey and I only read parts of Huckleberry Finn at school in English Literature when we had to read a page then someone else read the next one and so on.

PS - yes, I'm aware that Watership Down wasn't on the list, but I always think it makes an admiral comparison to Black Beauty.

I did a Children's Literature module in my latest degree and it excited me enough that I want to do a Masters in Children's Literature. I will also admit that it was the first time I read Little Women all the way through - it was better than I was expecting, but still wouldn't be my first choice, especially as we had to analyse it. I think it was just too much of a rather prissy American classic.

The two books that I have never, ever been able to read past the first few pages are: Black Beauty by Anna Sewell and Watership Down by Richard Adams.
People start talking about them and I just glaze over. I just find both books so utterly boring - and this is from someone who actually found the Silmarillion interesting!

I don't know about the TV thing Eastpoint. I read voraciously as a child and teen, but the books I've read on that list were mostly read during my BEd.

I haven't read the version of King Arthur, or any version. The same for the Odyssey, although I did have to translate parts of it at school. There might ge a few there I think I've read but haven't i.e. call of the wild and the jungle book.

It is a poor excuse for a mother who has never read ANY of the books on the Puffin Classics list... Although in mitigation I am conversant with most of the storylines and have seen the film version of a few. A poor excuse, I know!

Even though I am a bookworm, and an avid reader since my early years in primary school, I am embarrassed to say that many of the novels considered as the classics have gone unread. I asked myself why and think that I just got to an age where it was assumed that you had already read these books, and my the time I got to my mid teens I was too embarrassed to admit to my neglect!

My eldest daughter, Jennifer, is already quite an accomplished reader for her age (6) and she is keen to read every night. We even managed to take reading material for the girls on our half term break to EuroDisney! I very much hope that I make up for lost time, and when Jen gets to an appropriate stage, I hope that we can conquer these books together. Her first read of these books will be my first read and the joy of discovering a novel will be a shared and hence special experience.

And before anyone asks, I am also ashamed to admit that I have never read a Charles Dickens novel, a complete heresy! Although the Puffin Classics have a place in most parents and children's hearts, I have come to think of the other notable reads which I loved and my two girls now adore, as having a place in our history together. From Peppo!, The Tiger Who Came To Tea through to Julia Donaldson, it will be interesting to see if in 20 years time this list of classics as we know them will be unchanged or altered. In my opinion I think that the books on the Puffin Classics will remain sacrosanct, but perhaps what will be interesting will be to see if any additions to this list are made.

I wonder what other novels will be considered Classics in time?

Rachel x

^ points to relevant literary name

My literary shame is that I used to think Tom Sawyer wrote Huckleberry Finn. Awkward.

Alice Through the Looking-Glass and The Call of the Wild.

I was always a voracious reader and loved The Secret Garden but have never read: The Call of the Wild, The Wizard of Oz, Anne of Green Gables, The Odyssey, A Little Princess, Journey to the Centre of the Earth, The Wind in the Willows, Treasure Island, or Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. I know some of them through film or TV adaptations and am aware of the existence of the others but have to confess I have never even heard of The Call of the Wild!

Never read King Arthur. In fact I didn't even know it was a book

Thought it was just an old fable told through the ages by tales round a fire.....

Wind in the Willows - never read it, even though I've had a wild, deep crush on Badger since I saw it performed when I was 8.
(I still have a thing for men in tweed...)

It's really bad that I've never actually read any of these! I think Chick-Lit and the likes of Young Adult Fiction has always taken over! I should be ashamed! I need to redeem myself by reading one of these me thinks!