To roll my eyes when someone says their favourite book is a classic

[Eyeroller100]

I'm an avid reader and I'm always looking for new books to read so I often ask people what their favourite books are. AIBU to roll my eyes every time someone mentions one of the classics.

I know people do love them and they may well be their faves, but I am quite skeptical as if they are saying it to make themselves sound better.

I've tried reading a lot of classics and I just can't get into them at all! They are pure effort

Crikey! Some of my favourites are my childhood books. That's where some of my best friends live. I re-read them every now and then just to say 'Hello!'

Didn't know that made me, what, sad? Callow? Or just someone with an extensive, long term, personal book list!

Elidor - Great unicorn book
Giant Under the Snow - a boy called Jonty, and nobody laughed! I just bought that again, as DH and I both remembered it.
All of the Pern books - who knew they were a 12 upwards read?
Across the Barricades - Belfast in the troubles
A Kestrel for a Knave - Hard reading for any age!
I am David - shocking read, even as an adult!

The books you choose to read do something to define you. It isn't a bad/daft thing to re-read them, or to seek out new books with a similar feel, is it?

I'm an avid reader

I mentally roll my eyes when I read this. It's always 'an avid reader', as though just 'reading' isn't enough to express how really, really into books you are.

Another vote for Wuthering Heights. Also Madame Bovary, for a recent reread.

MoreCheerfulMonica Sun 14-Jan-18 12:54:31
"I cope just fine, Cory, thank you. I appreciate that distinctions are fluid and sometimes perhaps artificial."

So why do you look askance at other people? Perhaps they are coping just fine with reading the same work at different levels, or alternatively deciding that at the present moment they are simply looking for relaxation and a children's book can give that just as well as chic lit or a thriller?

I despise Harry Potter personally. But it did great things for getting people into reading. The world is great, her writing and main characters are just irritating. If it was written by another author I think I'd like it.

Right now OP I'm reading a lot of non-fiction - historical books mainly. But I love a good trashy crime book for light reading. My favourite authors would be Stephen King, Terry Pratchett, Jane Austen, Tolkien, George R R Martin (although his inability to finish anything is currently pissing me off). More too but those are the first names into my head.

I can't stand Wuthering Heights but the Great Gatsby, Dorian Grey, Pride and Prejudice and Frankenstein are all great.

I can't imagine anyone really gives a shit!

So OP I have asked you what your favourite book is and you don’t seem able to answer, but you think it’s ok to put other people on the spot and roll your eyes when they offer their own choices.
I agree with other posters that if you’re looking to get more book recommendations then your question might be more efficiently phrased (although if you’re on GoodReads the site is full of recommendations)

My favorite book is Wuthering Heights

It took me five or six tries to get into it. I was working abroad and had no other books so I was determined to read it. I remember laying on the beach in 90 degrees sunshine I was transported to the damp bleak yourkshire moors never has a book impacted me in such a way

Impressed by previous poster who first read WH aged 9

I never got into Pride and Prejudice or any Enid Blyton books as a child I found them too twee

But I am an avid reader. It is my hobby, my main interest. I am excited when I get a new book, I am eager to read. I don't just read because I have to... or have nothing else to do.

MY BIL reads books occasionally. He doesn't seek out books, have a book or 4 on the go at any one time. He just reads on holiday, on the plane. Airport books are there for people who don't read, so don't plan and pack a book, aren't they?

Avid readers really are a different kettle of fish!

I'm really enjoying reading through this thread and seeing people mention so many great books - it's making me want to go back and re-read them. Perfume, Black Beauty, 1984... There's something really lovely about coming back to a book and experiencing it all over again!

Impressed by previous poster who first read WH aged 9

I was almost 10 and an old 9 in terms of reading.

My DD read it aged 10 and also loved it.

I discovered Emily Bronte's poetry as an adult and absolutely adore the way she paints landscapes with words. Startlingly clever

I’ve never made it through LOTR or any other Tolkien, i know others will find that sacrilegious. I’m have no doubt that they have great value, but others will have to benefit from it and not me!

The authors who have brought me greatest joy are Dorothy L Sayers, Daphne du Maurier, Terry Pratchett... off the top of my head. I’m sure every time I were asked the question I would come up with more!

Curious, I get it, I'm one as well (although I'd probably just say 'I love reading'). It's just a phrase that grinds with me

People can be very pretentious when it comes to reading, I’ll give you that. I have a friend who won’t read any ‘Richard & Judy’ style book club recommended reads. This means she never read eg Captain Corelli’s Mandolin. I find that weird. How can you say you love books and not read the ones that are capturing popular imagination? You don’t have to like them.

My favourite books are classics: Wuthering Heights, Lolita. I devour Nora Roberts/JD Robb. I’m happy in my skin.

BetteDavisEyes Ooops! Did I get a bit defensive?

I'm an 'avid reader' and one of my favourite things about going on holiday is choosing books at the airport. I do pack a book or two, but they're unlikely to last me an entire week, and I prefer to have a selection available.Besides, who doesn't love getting new books?

I get where you're coming from because it is annoying if people are obviously just trying to make themselves sound better. But the classics are classics for a reason, and the reason is that lots of people like them. Some of my favourite books are Tender is the Night, Bleak House and Wuthering Heights, because I love the plot of each and I return to them over and over (god now I sound pretentious 😂 But it's true!)

I think what is unreasonable is if people think they are superior because they like classics. That's completely ridiculous because taste is subjective and classic doesn't necessarily mean better. If people are acting like that then YANBU to find that annoying.

I find it good to compare sometimes too - especially seeing which books will become classics now - comparing Umberto Ecco, Name of the Rose with Dan Brown, Da Vinci Code for instance... Name of the Rose will last forever... Da Vinci code - EVERYONE read it at the time, but not so many now...

It will be interesting to see which modern books will become "Classics" rather than popular fiction...

OP come back! What do you like? What do you think about what has been said?
Perhaps you are buried in a brilliant book and have to finish it before you look at MN.......runs off to do that!

I would almost certainly refer to some classics in a list of favourite books, which would include Dostoyevsky, Waugh, Tolkien, Pratchett, Douglas Adams, Calvino (and Shakespeare and Marlowe if we're including playwrights). I look for different things in books at different times - sometimes I want an easy, fun read, sometimes I want to be challenged conceptually, and sometimes I just want to lose myself in beautiful prose.

I don't care for Austen or Dickens much, but I don't judge those who do. I probably would judge if someone told me their favourite book was 50 Shades, because I'm uncomfortable with some of the themes (I don't care for the quality of writing either myself, but that's beside the point) - but I also enjoy some books which others have issues with (I like Fleming's Bond books despite the misogyny and ridiculousness!) so that is double standards.

I also feel that people who think "adults should read books for adults" are missing out on the joys of being taken back to earlier points in their life by literature, and on the insight that comes with looking at the world as children see it (or more accurately, looking at the world as adults think that children see it). Good books written for [older] children are often written on levels which may be lost on the younger reader, and only appreciated or fully understood after that stage of development, and often tackle themes which remain relevant throughout adulthood. And even when they don't, enjoying a childish thing is not always a bad thing - as C.S. Lewis said:

"When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up."

I was about 8 or 9 when I read WH. It would have been the children's version.
I am 50. We didn't really have tons of children's series back then. There was Enid Blyton and Richmal Crompton but not the tons of stuff there is now.
Jayne Eyre was another I read but it definitely wasn't the grown up version.

I remember the first book I ever read. The Jumping Lions of Borneo. Some ancient old thing. It was in the 70s but the book was probably pre war.

I have just re-bought When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit and sequels.

I admit to being one of those who look slightly askance at adults reading children's books.

Why do you even care?

If nothing else, I can't see anything wrong in wanting to know what the fuss is all about. If you happen to have children, it's also quite natural to read a book before they do: Harry Potter, Hunger Games or the Matt and James stories (Clifford).
Or you just read them, because you want to.

I had tried war and peace, but struggled with remembering who was who. Then re read after watching the latest tv adaptation. It is absolutely brilliant! Just loved the books so much - obviously much more depth than the tv version, so even better than tv, I don't think I'd have managed it without the tv version first.

I reckon that must be exactly the sort of book that OP is referring to, but honestly if you like Austen you'll like this.

Hmm, people do have different tastes in books to you you know OP, for example among my favourite books are '1984', 'The Handmaid's Tale', and 'The Great Gatsby' - I guess some of them could be considered classics but they are still books I reread and love. In fact The Handmaid's Tale is possibly my favourite. I also loved 'Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy', ;The Hunger Games' and the Harry Potter books but when I mention the books above I'm not doing so to be pretentious, I'm naming them because they ARE my favourite books.

As for chick-lit (I HATE that label) I went through a phase of reading some - I think I just didn't want to think about things and they are good for that. Now I just can't read them at all, they get my back up. I don't look down on anyone reading them though. I think all reading is great.

I kind of get what you mean @Eyeroller100 !!

My immediate assumption (most probably wrongly though!) is that they're either just saying that to sound more well read or that ALL they have read are "the classics" and they haven't bothered to broaden their views and take a risk on some random book to see if a different genre is preferable IYSWIM?

I don't judge people who say their favourite books are 50 Shades/Diary of a Wimpy Kid because I think "cool you know what you like and it doesn't matter what other people think" (including dickheads like me) but if they come out with a "classic" I probably roll my eyes and inwardly think "sheep".

I know - I am a terrible person....... and I think it's more of a knee jerk reaction but then I give my head a wobble and think "don't be a ridiculous pea brain crash, people like different stuff that's all!!"