Books you are ashamed never to have read?

I've read:
Pride & Prejudice - well written but boring
Frankenstein - really enjoyed this, have read it a few times
Dracula - OK story, not very well written
Treasure Island - surprisingly enjoyable and well written
Les Miserables - excellent story but bloody long winded and difficult to read

I've also managed the full works of Shakespeare but didn't enjoy it much (wanted to prove a point to myself)

But in all honesty Les Miserables finished my ambitions to get through more classics for a while. It was such a slog so I'm sticking with novels/authors I enjoy for a while.

I really want to read Phantom of the Opera and at least one of Dickens' works too so they're on my read list when I get back to it.

I also want to read Catch 22, Animal Farm, Lord of the Flies and The Fountain Head just because I want to understand the references people make to them.

Wuthering Heights, just couldn't get into it but that was a few years ago so should probably try it again.

Not an English Lit graduate (not even English Lit A level) but was v widely read until I had children.
I have never managed to read The Great Gatsby. (It's been on my kindle for three years ).
I've managed lots of English classics, plus Henry James, Moby Dick even, but not Great Gatsby.

I managed to get a B in my english a level without reading pride and prejudice. I have read it since though.

I do like Dickens and have read Gone with the Wind which I really enjoyed. Les miserables is also good.

I tend to watch the film or tv series and then seek out the book. I read the handmaids tale in about 2 days after watching the tv series.

Anna Karenina. I've been required to read it for 30 years. Can't get past about 40 pages in.

I have read War and peace and completely loved it, for a book club. Had to pretend the first chapter was a spoof, then I was away.

Persuasion was my favourite JA for a long time but Anne Elliott appeals to me less as time goes on. But if you can see that all JA heroines are unsympathetic (apart from Lizzie Bennett) it helps. She's writing about real people in knife edge situations and it's not always pretty.

I have tried and failed many times with the Lord of the Rings. It is tedious so I never manage it.

Last year I decided I really should up my intake of 'books you should read. I read loads but few of them could be considered classics or modern classics. So last year I read my first proper Dickens, Rebecca, Laurie Lee, Tennessee Williams A Town Like Alice (which I loved!) And a couple of classic children's authors I missed growing up. It's fair too say that apart from that list and Austen, I've not read most classics

I've read most 'classic lit' type stuff, but dd1 came home with Of Mice And Men last term and I was a bit shocked to realise that I've never read it.

Also, The Catcher in the Rye, although I read a German novel inspired by it for A-level German.

I read war and peace last year after enjoying the bbc version. It was far, far better and easier going than some contemporary novels I’ve struggled through.

Another English graduate here...

I’ve read at least one book from pretty much all of the ‘classic’ authors but for a few of them, I gave up at that point. Hardy leaves me cold, as does Dickens but I’ve at least a passing acquaintance with them.

I’m selective about the Brontes but love Austen. Had to do Mill on the Floss at uni, ditto The Monk.

I read Anna Karenina in sixth form and loved it but couldn’t get into War and Peace.

My biggest confession and probably should be on my ‘to-read’ list for 2018 is that I’ve never read any Joyce.

Oh yes Pride and Prejudice. I had tried to read it so many times. This summer I was ill and could not read so I downloaded an audio version. It still sent me to sleep.
My heart sank when our book group chose The Mill on the Floss. (I failed to get further than 3 chapters.
I have had a copy of War and Peace on my bookshelf for 40 years. I recently picked it up and realised the print was so tiny I could never read it anyway so it went to the charity shop.

I have read lots of classics but would never persevere unless I was enjoying a book.

Last year I bought lots of the must read classics. I found Tess of the durbevilles really hard to read. The books look good on my shelf though

When it comes to Ulysses get an audio book version. The actor who played Bishop Brennan in Father Ted is the version I have.

I have read War and Peace and actually quite enjoyed it.

In my defence I was travelling across Canada on a bus, had very little money to spend, it was in a sale and it was a very thick book so I thought it would keep me going for a few days!

@allthegoodusernameshavegone What is it you enjoy about Persuasion? I would love to find a way into it.

Ha NC4now!! Every read A Suitable Boy? There's over 10 pages banging on about a singer singing. It's tedious and adds absolutely nothing to the story.

One of the reasons I dislike the likes of Austin and Brontes is I am utterly irritated by 'etiquette' that's just stuffy stuff of nonsense. 'Principles' that lead to actions (or nonaction) of no logical reason.

Judgemental opinions based on outdated views created all the above irk me.

With the Classics, a good few of which involve these views annoy the heck out of me. Or it's 10 pages of description of someone walking down the corridor (possibly exaggeration).

I absolutely hated the Hobbit

Persuasion is my favourite Jane Austin, and to kill a Mockingbird is a must, but I can’t get into Dickens I have attempted a tale of two cities half a dozens times but cannot get past the first chapter, oh & i love Jane Eyre. I’m also thinking about Middlemarch. Not ever nor will I attempt Shakespeare though!

I also have an English degree but where Dickens is concerned I’ve only read half of Bleak House. I think that can go on my 2018 goals list actually. Read a Dickens novel.

I have read Paradise Lost and really enjoyed it. That’s probably the most heavyweight read I’ve done.

I’ve never got past the singing in The Hobbit. DS loves it but it just doesn’t do it for me.
Shamefully, Winnie The Pooh’s singing puts me off too, but the stories are so lovely I can just skim over it when he makes up a little hum.

I went through all my books last year and made a list of the ones I hadn't read (152 - a lot of them 'classics') I listed them and gave them all a number and now I randomly generate a number and read the book it gives me.

I do let myself read 3 books of my choice after every 'enforced' book but I'm not allowed to change the number coz I got a shit book - I'm looking at you Barbara vine! (I know, hardly a classic but my mum liked her - I've discovered I don't).

I'm a re-reader though and could get caught up in the same 50 or so books for the rest of my life if I didn't come up with ways to make myself read different things (I'm also a compulsive book buyer which is how I've ended up with 152 books I've never read)

Apart from Romeo and Juliet at school I haven't read any Shakespeare as I just don't understand it (I'm pretty thick) as well as most other classics.