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

Cory, I have only read one Hans Fallada, his most famous one about Berlin. I loved it, must get round to reading more. Didn't he write one in tiny writing on scraps because paper was rationed.

I have started reading Catch 22 this weekend. Not sure whether it would be called an ( American ) classic ? A couple of chapters in I am enjoying the subtle humour and the characters.

Eltonjohn, he may well have done: my biography of him is in ds' room and ds is down with flu so can't check atm, but sounds very likely.

He was a fascinating character: completely run down with MH issues and addictions, in and out of mental hospitals (which is why he never left Germany during the Nazi period, unlike other writers). Killed a friend in a duel in his teens, possibly manipulated into it by suicidal friend or folie a deux scenario; his father, who was a high court judge, managed to keep him out of prison on a plea of insanity.

Yet his writings, unlike those of so many young men of the period (yes, Hamsun, I'm looking at you!), are not full of Poor Me, but of empathy with all sorts of people. His autobiography is fascinating: probably not at all reliable as to family details, but great as intimate portrayal of life in the Berlin of Kaiser Wilhelm; also very funny in parts, though you can sense the looming tragedy.

cory, yes. His portrayal of the older couple in 'Alone in Berlin' is heartbreaking because his empathy is passed on to the reader.

I am wryly enjoying the fact that so many people have poleaxed this thread to talk with heartfelt enthusiasm about the books they love , from the Greeks to Jilly Cooper, which is what makes reading so amazing.

Has OP told us what her favourite book is so we can judge whether she is lying to make herself sound clever or cool or modern yet?

Alone in Berlin is on netflix now. (just to lower the tone there!)

It sounds like you're judging people's taste in books based on your inability to get into classics, which makes it your problem not theirs.

I can't imagine rolling my eyes at whatever someone lists their favourite book to be, although if they said it was '50 Shades of Grey', I'd struggle not to cringe.

i do see your point, I find classics underdeveloped in terms of character and plot sometimes.

"i do see your point, I find classics underdeveloped in terms of character and plot sometimes."

Could you expand on this? All classics? Which classics? Is any book that, for any reason, has ever been considered a classic the same as any other book etc? Or do you mean any book over a certain age?

I have an English lit degree so I am very well read. I hate when people claim a "classic" as their favourite. I think people do it to sound clever, they also always say "great expectations" or "withering heights"!! Pretty sure they have almost never read them but will have seen one of the many adaptions on tv

I think people do it to sound clever, they also always say "great expectations" or "withering heights"!!

I say Wuthering Heights because it's my favourite and has been so since I was 9. I live close to Haworth so it is doubly special for me. Dickens however I can take or leave.

Pretty sure they have almost never read them but will have seen one of the many adaptions on tv

I have seen all the adaptations. And can talk at length about the ones that are closest to the book and how the ones that differ do so.

I don't have an English Lit degree but I'm also very well read

Rofl Kannet. I’ve read a million more books since completing my English degree than I ever did during it. A lot of students on my course stopped reading anything that wasn’t on the syllabus (me included) so we probably didn’t read that much! It does make you read from a variety of periods/genres though I suppose.

find classics underdeveloped in terms of character and plot sometimes. You've been reading the wrong type of 'classic' I think!

Do you have any examples?

I'm
Honestly not a book snob at all. I have read and continue to read from all genres. I love a good zombie book lol. I just hate the snobbery around it. Read what you enjoy but admit to what you like and have enjoy. I love when someone mentions a book I haven't read or heard of, it always gives me inspiration.

Surely if you are looking for new books to read you tell the person whose brains you are picking your favourites (pref something people will have heard of) so they can judge their suggestions accordingly?

You are asking the wrong question Op.

I have read and continue to read from all genres

Me too apart from sci-fi; just can't get on with it on the whole.

Read what you enjoy but admit to what you like and have enjoy

I do. But if someone asks me "what is your favourite book?" there's a specific answer rather than "what do you like reading?" which is more open.

I don't even think I can choose one favourite.

Me too apart from sci-fi; just can't get on with it on the whole. Now THAT I do judge!

I think you're just identifying pretentiousness. Obviously some people are fibbing. Or they read them at school/Uni. And haven't read anything as impactful since.

I admire anyone who reads voraciously. I also love a dramatised classic, and, if I like it, perhaps try reading the book.

Just reading is A Good Thing.

I'm Honestly not a book snob at all. You may not be a book snob, but your post reads lawfully like it! "I have an English lit degree so I am very well read. I hate when people claim a "classic" as their favourite. I think people do it to sound clever" ... I presume this would be people who don't have an Eng Lit degree, and who therefore (in your opinion) aren't well read, and thus must be showing off by naming a book title that they may have heard of? Because nobody could possibly like any classic above all other books that they've read?

Sometimes you read a book and really love it, but then the actual title slips out out of your mind - easier to name a well known if asked a question like this, Also, think there is a big difference between ' what is your favourite book?' and ' have you got any recommendations for a good read ? '

My favourite books are classics, and even some of the almost favourites that aren't classics seem to be from generally respected authors.

If someone else finds that type of book too hard going then I would suggest it is their problem. I'm not going to lie and pretend my taste is different just because it might make them feel inferior.

The classics are hardly heavy going. There's a couple of famous Classic authors that really aren't to my taste. First tried them at primary age, then again in my teens and again as an adult incase it was an age thing. I just don't enjoy them. But even at primary age I just found them boring, due to characters and/or authors style. Not difficult or requiring too much thought.

I think my favourite book is watership down. It was the first proper book I ever read and I have reread it a hundred times and still enjoy it.

I find classics a bit meh. I have read quite a lot since DH gave me a kindle for my birthday. They are free, and I feel I'm making up for my lack of education (I skived an awful lot if school), but fuck me they are so dull. I do enjoy the history in them, but much prefer Defoe to Dickens. I'm surprised by the love of Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights on this thread, I found them truly tedious.

I prefer non-fiction over any novel though, give me a nice thick textbook full of graphs and statistics and I'm in heaven

I don't care what people read, and Idetest book snobbery too, but there's no virtue to be found in reverse snobbery either, and it's foolish to assume that no one genuinely has a classic as their favourite book.

Why couldn't they? I read a mix of books, but I genuinely love many of the classics. I certainly don't love all of them, and there are many of them that I've yet to read, but I put a number of classics on my list of favourites because I really do enjoy them, and not because I think that it makes me look good.

I don't know that I could pick one favourite book, but yes Wuthering Heights, Rebecca, The Phantom of The Opera, Oliver Twist, Great Expectations(a recent contender) 1984, Animal Farm, Dracula,Frankenstein and Les Miserables would certainly be in my top twenty.