Admit it - what's the classic book that everyone raves about but you despise?

The teachers always tried to convince you that Shakespear was funny

Wait I've thought of a much worse one. The Handmaid's Tale. Oh Good Lord. I was so bored. But then bits of it have stayed with me I suppose. Still, hated reading it.

I love Cold Comfort Farm and Little Women. But agree that Tess, Middlemarch (I Have Read Every Word!) and Wuthering Heights just really don't do it for me...

I hate Wuthering Heights, it is a mind numbing pile of crap. Had to study it at uni, everyone else raved about it.

Oh, I see someone already said it.

I'm going to be the first to say it - Shakespeare. Written in the original prose, it's too much like hard work.
I know they're plays rather than proper books but still. I was made to read them at school.

anything by Terry Pratchett

I really like the story of Wuthering Heights (can't be doing with a happy ending), but couldn't get past about the third page, it was so dull! Fine as a TV adaptation though, so I'm glad someone made it through to the end.

I echo thoughts about The Lovely Bones too, I like sentimental crap as much as I like happy endings.

Oh thank god, I thought there was something wrong with me for hating Catcher in the Rye - it is so BORING and the main character is such a jerk, I just wanted to slap him. Good to tell it was an O level book.

It took me years to realise if a book was unenjoyable I didn't have to finish it!

I did Hardy's "Under the Greenwood Tree" for O level and I never liked it, it seemed so depresssing and insipid, and pointless. I've since tried other Hardys as my sister loves them, but they're just not me.

Harry Potter - not really a classic as such, but I just couldn't get into it. I forced myself through to the end of the first book to see if I could get what the fuss was about, but I never did. I thought it was all a bit silly and not very nice into the bargain. I'm sure I'm missing the point somewhere, but I haven't bothered with the rest of them, though I still feel this kind of guilt that I should!

So am i the only Tolkein fan here??? Love the books - all of them. Films left me very meh indeed (can you be very meh?)

Like most Dickens but haven't got past second chapter of The Old Curiosity Shop.

Didn't get that far with Catcher in the Rye.

I love to Kill a Mocking Bird. And Jane Austen.

Jude the Obscure made me want to poke my eyes out. ( although I liked Tess)

I LOVED Alice in Wonderland as a child and now I am reading it to my daughter it is really pissing me off. I have clearly rose tinted it. He is an annoying twat with all his oh so clever little asides. And I want to slap Alice

I ADORED Wuthering Heights, Time Travellers Wife, English Patient is PHENOMENAL, but Lord of the Rings? What's with the singing tree?!?!
Am now off to re-read Wuthering Heights, Time Travellers Wife, and English Patient, along with Anna Karenina which I'm also currently reading .
Might throw in Twilight if I have the time

anything by bloody Jane Austen!!

Was there ever a more insipid, boring writer.

I don't read the books or watch any adaptations on telly, after I was forced to read some in school.

Oh God I'm going to have to use this thread as a reading list, I've obviously got weird taste - loved Ulysses, The Woman in White, The Time Travellers Wife, Lord of the Rings...I've been thinking about reading Wuthering Heights, definitely going to give it a go now...

All Charles Dickens apart from Tale of Two Cities. One which is supposed to be a modern "classic" We Need To Talk About Kevin is a great big pile of stinking crap.

I can't abide Jane Austin. I have tried but I find her writing soooo boring. All over charles dickens like a rash.

The Idiot, an absolute struggle

Another vote for Middlemarch. Blee. Although I do recall a vaguely amusing like - "Causabon wearily tossed himself in a corner"

You can tell I did it from GCSE can't you

Also Catch 22 and Catcher in the Rye. I just never got the point of Holden Caulfield. Oh, and I tried hard to see all the drama and passion in Wuthering Heights but just thought Heathcliff was a controlling bully and I got the Cathys mixed up.

I think Time Traveller's Wife is a marmite book, isn't it?

All of Walter Scott - and beleive me I have tried.

I may need a name change after this. I think I am too thick for Shakespeare. I hang my head in shame

Wuthering Heights - have tried so many times and failed. I am thinking of trying the audiobook route.

On The Road - supposed to be a 'beat generation' classic, but really just dull and self-indulgent.

I listened to the audiobook of Anna Karenina and LOVED it. Slightly tedious in parts, but found the social commentary much easier to palate in listening to a story form.

Off to start a new thread about audiobooks I think.

I do love most of what has been mentioned here though (although am a bit at some of these "classics" - agree with Lightshines that those books are just popular, but not classics).

love anna karenina, to kill a mockingbird, conrad etc but hated Lord of teh Rings (even the film sent me to sleep)

I am shocked by some of the books listed here, as I love Tolstoy, Marquez, To Kill a Mockingbird and Catch 22.

I do, however, hate with a long and abiding passion, Wuthering Heights. The Kate Bush song is so much better.

Love To Kill a Mockingbird.
Agree about school set books wrecking them - to this day I can't stand Far from the Madding Crowd by Hardy or The Rainbow by Lawrence.
Also thought the Lovely Bones was crap