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Original poster

Books you are ashamed never to have read?

139 replies

Piggywaspushed · 02/01/2018 10:32

I have an English degree and have taught English Lit A level for many years. I was a bookworm as a child and have a huge stockpile of books read and awaiting reading.

Partly , this thread arises form the fact that I have been dissatisfied with so many contemporary novels recently but partly, I am also a bit ashamed that there are books I feel I should have read!

I decided a few years ago to make my way through some of this shameful list but have only managed Pride and Prejudice (knew I wouldn't like it) and Great Expectations (read it for my son's GCSE which is more than he did...it's very long, isn't it?). I read The Handmaid's Tale out of obligation and shame last year. Underwhelmed.

Frankenstein and The Grapes of Wrath are on my bedside table (have been for about a year) and Middlemarch is on my Kindle. I will read Frankenstein before DS2's GCSE. I have never read Dracula either.

I went to school in Scotland so was reading a lot of Scottish classics in my defence and have read nearly every Hardy novel.

Anyone else like to admit what you haven't read bur should have??

Feel free to boast about what you have read too! (although not Ulysses or War and Peace because we all know that would be showing off and/or a lie!)

OP posts:
Original poster
Piggywaspushed · 01/02/2018 07:09

True! MN is very distracting!

I am now on The Secret History which I always hear is a modern classic. Bit wordy but am enjoying it. Much slower going than The Muse though which I just finished.

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2018SoFarSoGreat · 31/01/2018 22:37

I"m firmly with most of you that I could not - despite multiple attempts - manage Ulysses. I've read and loved all of the big, fat, long books mentioned here. I fear I am only really interested in a book if it is at least 700 pages Shock and tend to read everything written by an author in a row (if I love it) and often go on to read all I can find in the genre. Not Shakespeare or Dickens. Have read way more of the latter than the former.

MN has a lot to answer for. Perhaps I'd have read them ALL if it was not for you lot of overly interesting folks Grin

codswallopandbalderdash · 31/01/2018 21:58

Ulysses by James Joyce. Tried three times so far. Get farther into it every time but I don't seem to be able to sustain the energy required to finish it ...

Never read any Dickens either

AmberellaM · 28/01/2018 13:07

When I was younger I tried to get into "His Dark Materials" but couldn't digest what I was reading. I've recently picked up Northern Lights to ease myself in and can't put it down!

Original poster
Piggywaspushed · 26/01/2018 07:51

Oh calm. It will take you about an hour!!

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calmandbright · 26/01/2018 00:26

English degree. Avid reader. Have read most mentioned on this thread. Bit not Of Mice And Men Blush

OrlandaFuriosa · 26/01/2018 00:17

Imagine how long War and Peace or Les Mis would have gone on. More like Proust ( spellcheck gave me sprouts ).

OrlandaFuriosa · 26/01/2018 00:15

Turn of the Screw ace, as is the opera.

Other ghost stories? Ooh, what, where, how? Only know the really creepy MR James ones...

Thank you, yes, large herbivore..but I suppose an elephant would have had more success being able to vacuum it up with a trunk. Anyway, too turgid. The Golden Bowl...another I didn’t manage. And I was set the climax of the Ambassadors in an exam. I didn’t recognise it at all, let alone as a climax..if that’s what he thought was a climax heaven knows what his adolescence was like.null and void...

TonTonMacoute · 25/01/2018 17:07

Can’t stand Henry James either, except Turn of the Screw, which I think is one of the best ghost stories ever written.

Some of his other ghost stories are good too.

GallicosCats · 25/01/2018 14:48

Hippo, elephant, same difference. Large herbivore too big for the space it's confined in. Grin Makes me wonder if HJ's style would have suited major epics better than the comedies of manners he insisted on writing.

SquirrelWatcher · 25/01/2018 01:05

Also allergic to Henry James, trying to read him is like swimming through treacle. I battled through The Golden Bowl, it took me about a year.

OrlandaFuriosa · 25/01/2018 01:01

Gallicoscats ( great name, btw) I got it wrong, a hippo not an elephant, HGWells ..

www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/personal-view/3603210/World-of-books.html

Original poster
Piggywaspushed · 24/01/2018 20:02

It is good isn't it? I really liked the bit at the end with will and Dorothea. It was really romantic and I didn't know it was such a romantic book.

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lastqueenofscotland · 24/01/2018 19:05

I read middlemarch the other week and adored it. I've been putting it off for ages and glad I finally got round to it

GallicosCats · 24/01/2018 17:50

My gaps: I cannot be doing with Henry James. An elephant in a small room looking for a pea was how he was described. The Ambassadors, yawn. Have I read every word? Prob not.

Snap. I'm allergic to Henry James's overblown pompous prose and that description of him is the best I've seen in a long time.Grin

Original poster
Piggywaspushed · 23/01/2018 18:24

Update! Finished Middlemarch!!

Hoorah!!

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cluelessblogger · 13/01/2018 09:53

I (skim) read Northanger Abbey at school and decided some years later that I really ought to read more. I have had the complete works of Jane Austin sitting on my shelf for over 10 years gathering dust.

Madness as I love any Austin films/tv series and have watched them over and over.

Countless others remain unread.

BUT! the great thing about not having read stuff is the joy of reading it!

I finally read Frankenstein a couple of years ago and would now place it in my top 10. Amazing, amazing book.

So many books, so little time.

CourtneyLoveIsMySpiritAnimal · 13/01/2018 09:17

It made my 13 year old cry today

Poor old Boxer...Wink

MercedesDeMonteChristo · 13/01/2018 08:50

Oh. I have a number of large history tomes to read this year but the plan is to alternate with a classic so I may well finally get to Orwell.

I also had never read Ishiguro until last year but loved Never Let Me Go.

Original poster
Piggywaspushed · 12/01/2018 22:36

Mercedes Animal Farm is wonderful too!

It made my 13 year old cry today ... bless him

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MercedesDeMonteChristo · 12/01/2018 21:45

Oh Cedars Adam Bede was magnificent. But I love depressing tales - I have only read one Hardy (Tess - I will never be over it and didnt 'know') and Zola but I love them with all my heart.

ClinkyMonkey · 12/01/2018 21:42

Agree with Mercedes re 'Frankenstein' and 'Dracula'. Wonderful books. No film, reworking or ridiculous spin-off has ever come close to portraying their originality and genius.

MercedesDeMonteChristo · 12/01/2018 21:18

I am about to embark on the thread. I love these threads, but first

OP Frankenstein and Dracula are fantastic. Totally fabulous.

I will admit to having never read any George Orwell but feel I should have. I do own some of his books and have come across times when I could have on my university reading lists etc but just haven't.

Original poster
Piggywaspushed · 12/01/2018 21:14

I loved Mill On The Floss so you'll like that I think.

Don't like Gatsby much but the other two were life changers for me as a teenager,

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ClinkyMonkey · 12/01/2018 20:45

I've been trying to read a few that I was ashamed of not having read. Namely 'To Kill a Mockingbird' and 'Lord of the Flies', both of which I loved and 'The Great Gatsby', which was a bit of a slog, but OK. I'm a big fan of George Eliot, but have never read 'The Mill on the Floss', so that is definitely one for my list.

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