How to get into reading classics and literary fiction?

[BunchofPocus]

I do like to read but mostly I read young adults books, chick lit and other genre type books usually with a strong (cheesy) romance element. Nothing wrong with any of that but I am now in my 30's and I just want to read better books!

I have a friend who has always had more literary tastes and has read a lot of classics and I also find her to be wise and insightful which she says comes from reading so much. I saw this https://www.newschool.edu/pressroom/pressreleases/2013/CastanoKidd.htm
which would seem to back up her sense that reading books has helped in this sense.

I asked her how to get into more literary fiction and classics especially, she recommended books like Dracula and Frankenstein as good entry points for classics but I just couldn't get into either of them, they were both such a hard slog even though I know both stories are good. For literary fiction she recommended an entry point list including works by Angela Carter, Kazuo Ishiguro, Banana Yoshimoto and Ottessa Moshfegh but again after trying quite a few I just can't get into them, my friends description of them sounds great but when I try to read them I just get bored.

I feel a bit defeated because I really wanted to elevate my reading and to feel like I was actually learning something while being entertained but perhaps I'm just not smart enough?

I didn't know about this! What a brilliant resource. Thanks!

I’m an academic in Eng Lit who reads for pleasure as well as work everything from Smollett and Stendhal to Thomas Mann, James Joyce, Elizabeth Bowen, Annie Ernaux and the Chalet School books, and I agree with a pp — read what you enjoy, not what your friend does.

And honestly, I would be deeply skeptical about reading literary fiction or Great Books making anyone who reads it ‘wise and thoughtful’. If this were the case, all academics in my field would be top notch human beings, whereas I can assure you we are as fucked-up as anyone else.

I second Alexander McCall Smith. The Ladies Detective Agency series is wonderful, full of gentle humour, wisdom and characters you will come to love.

I was just about to basically say this. I loved Commonwealth by Ann Patchett, if you like books about families.

I find classics hard to read. It took me year to work my way through Frankenstein! I found Pride and Prejudice far too wordy and gave up.

I love Jane Eyre though, and recently read Rebecca and loved that too. George Orwell is also good.

Life is too short to read books you don't enjoy though, so I wouldn't worry too much about reading so called classics.

I wouldn't start with either Dracula or Frankenstein. I found Dracula dreadful after a good couple of opening chapters and Frankenstein I couldn't get into at all.

As far as the classics go, try Thomas Hardy's short stories (warning! Hardy does not do happy endings) or Mrs Gaskill (Cranford is brilliant).

Have a look at Any Human Heart by William Boyd
also PG Wodehouse is always worth a read t and some of Evelyn Waugh’s shorter books are very amusing. It doesn’t all have to be “worthy”.
I think I’m quite well read but have never read Frankenstein!

Read some very short easy classics first. Try Jekyll and Hyde which is really atmospheric and short. Much easier than Frankenstein or Dracula.

The Third Man by Graham Greene is a classic with a really gripping story and is very short. Our Man in Havana by the same author is short and funny, about a vacuum cleaner salesman who is mistaken for an undercover spy.

If you know the story of Jane Eyre (which is a brilliant novel and not too long) try Wide Sargasso Sea which is more modern in tone and tells the story of the first Mrs Rochester.

I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith (who wrote 101 Dalmatians) is absolutely beautiful and easy to read, written from the point of view of a teenage girl who lives in poverty in a falling down castle with her nudist step mum, useless father and beautiful sister. Then the two handsome new American owners of the castle come to visit...

Decline and Fall, despite its title, is a very funny book by Evelyn Waugh about an innocent school teacher who gets caught up in other people's schemes and adventures. If you like it, read Scoop, by the same author, about an innocent nature journalist who is mistaken for a war correspondent and sent to report on a war.

I also agree with Madame Bovary, The Great Gatsby, Kate Atkinson and Daphne Du Maurier. I also really like Margaret Atwood (some not all), and Margaret Drabble.

I have only really read classics for courses. I really liked Dracula eventually but not sure I could be bothered now. Couldn’t get into Frankenstein. Anna Karenina needs a good editor. Jane Eyre was good in the end. Wuthering Heights I really enjoyed when made to read it at school. I did like the Sorrows of Young Werther mentioned above and it’s short.

Sorry-haven't read the thread-but have you tried audio books?

My suggestion is do the easier stuff first.

If you want to read Dickens start with Great Expectations and Oliver Twist both of which are relatively short. If you want to do a longer one The Pickwick Papers and Nicholas Nickleby are easier than Dombey and Son or Bleak House.

Eliot's shorter books like Silas Marner and the Mill on the Floss are easier than Romola.

Same with the French authors - Dumas is easy as is Zola. Balzac is a bit tougher (Lost Illusions is great but a bit hard going)

Galsworthy, Hesse, Tolstoy (even if they are a bit long) are more accessible than Dostoyevsky and Joyce

I guess what I'm saying is dip your toe in and see what you enjoy - you'll be surprised how good you are at it. There;s nothing in wrong saying you dislike an author as well - I can't stand Henry James and William Faulkner for example

I started doing the pop sugar reading challenge a few years ago now. I've never managed to tick all the prompts because I read other things I find along the way too and not all the books I read fit a prompt but it forced me out of my comfort zone which was 1) reading and rereading stuff I loved 2) enjoying a book and then reading that author to death 3) enjoying a film or series and then looking for the book.

It forces me into looking for books I might never have read but that I've really enjoyed - some have been duds but I love having it as a little nudge when I can't think where to go next. Some of the prompts are genre specific and some are things like "A book with a colour in the title" which leaves it open for you to pick a classic like The Scarlet Letter or The colour Purple, or go for something in another genre completely.

It really helped me get out of a reading rut and I read much more widely (and more often) now.

Rebecca is brilliant - especially if you’re not already familiar with the story.

Two relatively short ones I enjoyed as an easily bored young teen, even though they were compulsory school texts, were Northanger Abbey (Jane Austen) and Cranford (Mrs Gaskell). Austen’s Lady Susan is even shorter, all in letter form, and tells of the scheming of a prize cow! (who gets her comeuppance). Very enjoyable.

OP, don't beat yourself up if you don't take to 'better' books, I tried this but found myself reverting back to whatever's recommended by the Richard and Judy book club each month (sorry) ......

(Background: I was an avid reader until school introduced me to Shakespeare, Chaucer and Dickens. I'm proud to admit that I passed A level English Lit without making it to the end of Bleak House (one of our set texts). I didn't pick up another book until my mid-twenties, I was about to get on a long flight and bought a Marian Keyes book at Gatwick. I was hooked and my reading habit was restored).

Agree about Rebecca- absolutely brilliant novel. To be honest you can’t really go wrong with any of Daphne Du Maurier’s books. I would also struggle with your friend’s suggestions & I read fairly broadly. You might like Rose Tremain or Maggie O’Farell too which is more contemporary.

To be fair to my friend I did ask her for a list of her recommendations, I think she sent me a list of the people she was reading as a teenager, these are her idea of easy and engaging reads. They aren't a required list from her just her suggestions.

Lol, I suppose my friend is just probably wise and insightful off her own bat! As I say I asked her for the list as I don't know where to start. She has never looked down on what I read and even read and enjoyed books I've suggested to her in the past. The issue is I want to read better quality books but don't know where to start and I do what to read classics.

I’d struggle with your friend’s suggestions too. You might enjoy books that have been nominated for the Booker Prize or other awards. They will be more contemporary and well written .

OP, what do you enjoy reading at the moment? Historical fiction, romance, crime, science fiction/fantasy, thrillers? If you can come up with a few books you’ve enjoyed recently then we might be able to suggest some novels which are a bit more thought-provoking without taking you too far from your comfort zone.
And like @MissBeevor I’m an English academic - and one of my all time favourite authors is Jilly Cooper. Don’t assume a book is going to speak to you just because other people have labelled it a classic.

Thanks everyone I have bought Rebecca and will start reading that today and will make a note of the other suggestions here as well.

I think I just admire how my friend always seems to know what she wants to read and then does the same for lots of people while I just don't know how to break out of my reading rut and stretch myself. I always feel a failure if I start a book and then have to give up.

I'm another one that wouldn't start with Dracula or Frankenstein. The latter is of course very thought provoking, but it isn't a good novel. Its stengths lie in the scientific/moral concerns that it prompts, not in its literary skills.

And Dracula is just the nineteenth-century version of a found-footage horror flick (with journal entries, letters, etc in place of video). Nothing at all wrong with that, but it is written for thrills and fun so seems an odd way of thinking about a journey into 'literary fiction'. Also, it is kind-of tedious now that we get sharper scares from movies.

I think the best thing is just to read brilliant books, rather than setting much store by the distinction between literary and non-literary fiction. Many of the classics weren't written to be fiction of a higher, more literary, order. They are just books that have stood the test of time because they are so good.

All the theory-of-mind (etc) benefits of literary fiction are way better achieved if they are simply acquired as a byproduct of really really REALLY loving a particular book.

Having said that, if you want an easy way in, I'd go for almost any Dickens or Jane Austen novel.

Some of the books nominated for the Booker prize appear to have been nominated for other reasons than the quality of the writing. Last Orders is dreadful and The God of Small Things is as dull as hell

I listen to the classics on Audible. When they were written, people would often read out loud as evening entertainment (think of Mr Collins reading sermons to the Bennett family).

Our book group recently read some of the short stories of Edgar Allen Poe. One person had listened to some (I think on Spotify) and said they were much better that way.

The classics tend to be really long, so they’re more approachable if you listen to them.

(I do listen to more modern books as well - not just the classics.)

I also usually look at the nominations for literary prizes for inspiration. And often someone will recommend a book online.

The book group is also a good source of inspiration, and it does make you read things you otherwise wouldn’t. And other members will recommend things you can read, outside of the books you choose to read as a group. (You get to know whose suggestions will appeal to you most.) I found my book group on the Meet Up app - you should be able to find one near you.

I forgot about The Famished Road. Mostly gibberish