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

People who struggle to read the subtitles on TOWIE claiming their fave book is Wuthering Heights is annoying.

People who love reading, love the classics, including modern classics and prefer serious literature to pulp fiction honestly saying their fave book is Great Expectations or A Pair of Blue Eyes is no reason to roll eyes.

You pierce my soul - my favourite ever line in any book I have ever read. Persuasion. Roll your eyes all you like. It’s clearly my favourite book!

Also placemarking

YABU and a snob

"But not all “classics” are the same. Austen is comfort-reading for me, I have to work harder with Dickens and I can’t stand Hardy"

This. Jayne Eyre is easy, but Wuthering Heights is difficult.
Can't do Dickens at all. Hardy's just slow and boring.

"But not all “classics” are the same. Austen is comfort-reading for me, I have to work harder with Dickens and I can’t stand Hardy"

This. Jayne Eyre is easy, but Wuthering Heights is difficult.
Can't do Dickens at all. Hardy's just slow and boring.

People saying ‘I just don’t like the classics’ is about as sensible as saying ‘I don’t like books by women’ or ‘I don’t like books written by Americans’.

It’s an incredibly broad and diverse category....

"Hardy's just slow and boring."

I love Far from the Madding Crowd & The Mayor Casterbridge.

Can see how not everyone would though.

I read wuthering heights at a very young age, maybe 7/8 and really didn't find it difficult at all. I know for a fact some of the deeper subtext went over my head on that first read, but I still found it easy going. On the other hand I found Jane Eyre more difficult (but still enjoyable) probably only a few weeks before.

And war and peace, alongside a rather brutal biopic on Mary queen of scots were practically Enid Blyton after one loooong Xmas at a relatives where the only fresh reading material was the complete Catherine Cookson collection and Mills & Boon.

My fave book ever is Wuthering Heights.

Same, but I have about 5 favourite books, 2 are classics, 2 are completely pulp fiction, 1 is in a different language. No-one ever asks me what my favourite book is.

My own favourite book is Sense and Sensibility. It used to be Jane Eyre, which I agree with others is incredibly layered and offers something different at different life stages; particularly intriguing now I’m older than Charlotte ever lived to be. I first picked it up when I was eight and I feel like it’s grown with me, or I with it.

I bloody love Sue Grafton and am heartbroken that she didn’t get to finish the alphabet. I get a ridiculous amount of enjoyment from Kathy Reich’s books, with all their formulaic plotting and cliches. I have a huge soft spot for 90% of what Persephone Books publishes. One of my favourite podcasts at the moment is a book-by-book re-reading and discussion of the Sweet Valley High books.

And I absolutely cannot stand Wuthering Bloody Heights.

I especially liked Jude the Obscure and Tess. Nice cheery endings I went through a period of liking Hardy many years ago.

Currently my favourite classic book if I had to choose, of the older variety is probably L'Assomoir. Though I like the Rougon Marquart novels in general. I read them in English, I'd better add.

L'Assommoir even! Did I say my french wasn't great

I DO love the classics but it has to be "From the corner of his eye" by Stephen King

Not a scary book by any stretch but beautifully written and such a sweet touching book. It's rather long but is a fantastically good read and makes me want to be a better person. Not his usual genre at all.

Everybody who's reading for pleasure, reads for escapism.

Other people's escapism is just different from yours, OP.

I'm sure plenty of people are inwardly eye-rolling when you say Harry Potter is one of your favourites. People just have different taste, and that's OK.

My favourite book is gone with the wind. I have read it umpteen times. Sorry.

When people say their favourite book is To Kill a Mockingbird, I assume they haven't read a book since they were at school.

JapaneseBird, it's a pity you didn't persevere to see Felix get his comeuppance!
I first read TWWLN ages ago, and when the Maxwell scandal happened later (if anybody else remembers that) it was uncanny to see the resemblance - as if Trollope had had a premonition.

Agree that the BBC version was excellent. David Suchet brilliant as Melmotte, and Shirley Henderson equally outstanding as Marie.
Because the book is a favourite I was afraid of the TV version being disappointing - often the case - but far from it.

Oh, I love To Kill a Mocking Bird! And Harry Potter. And the Stephanie Plum series by Janet Evanovich. And true crime novels. And biographies.

But not all “classics” are the same. Austen is comfort-reading for me

if my husband would come home and find me reading jane austin he would order pizza, get a blanket and ask how bad my period was?

I took an audio book of P&P to my first labour to listen to.

I love Hardy. I’m fascinated by the bleak and unforgiving though!

I went through a long phase of Hardy, still have most of them, but mostly find them a bit too bleak/depressing now. The news is all so depressing anyway, I like a reasonably upbeat ending in my fiction.
A Hardy favourite I'd still enjoy though is The Trumpet Major - not often mentioned.

Re P&P, it's a shame so many blokes assume it's soppy and girly and therefore beneath their notice.
After the brilliant BBC version was first aired, Dh bought me the video (as it was then) for Christmas. Dds, I and Dh then watched the whole lot in one go. I think Dh was amazed at how much he enjoyed it and how different it almost certainly was from his expectations.
He still hasn't read it, but then he rarely reads any fiction - heavy and indigestible (to me) non fiction is much more his thing.

I hate John Steinbeck.

I took an audio book of P&P to my first labour to listen to.
I read Lorna Doone while in the early stages of labour. Definite comfort reread,

I love Steinbeck books

Like WH I really can feel the place and the characters feelings feel real

I also loved Tess but wouldn’t read it again

Very much depends on my mood and what is going on in my life at the moment. I read A Little Life last year and The Invention of Wings I am sure in time will be seen as classics of their time both were very draining books and I’m enjoying lighter reads at the moment

but I am quite skeptical as if they are saying it to make themselves sound better.

Truly, most people would have said this because they mean it!