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

Well I have read the classics and I'm in a classics book club but I know what you mean eyeroller

I will admit to having enjoyed a disposable crime novel if I enjoyed it, I just say so. But I think a lot of people force themselves to read work they can't really appreciate for whatever reason (it's not lack of intelligence necessarily, it could be their perspective just hasn't brought them to that brink, ykwim). I remember an xbf of mine ploughing his way through a le recherche de le temps perdu and I have since learnt that it is a book about philosophy and life lessons. He was a ruthlessly ambitious trainee graduate trying to appear well read in the classics to balance out his business qualifications. It made me smile years later to think how far away from being ready to appreciate that series of books he was and yet how proud of himself he was as he ticked them off one by one like swimming badges or something.

I read Marian Keyes' book Rachel's HOliday three times (!) a decade ago because the theme of an adult being in denial about the mess their life was in, then facing a hugely difficult change in circumstances, and then starting to rebuild their life again from behind the starting blocks so to speak, with nothing except their sanity and their determination, that was something that I could relate to and it comforted me at the time. But that is definitely a book that would be mocked by lovers of literature!

I remember going to see Hamlet the play once and there were people guffawing in the audience. Now there is language in Hamlet that I love, and the humour is clever without a doubt, but to be laughing so hard you're gasping for air ..................?

@eyeroller100 when you ask someone what their favourite book is, do you chat to them about why?

That seems far more useful that rolling your eyes.

It's a mistake to pigeon hole people and assume that people only read one genre. I bloody love teen US fiction from the 90s. I love thrillers. I love horror. I love classics.

I read 498 books last year

Wow that's a LOT of books, even when I was a student not working in the holidays and avidly reading a book a day was my absolutely limit.

Impressive JackHammer!!! My normal go to reading are auto biographical type books like Mornings in Jenin, usually a good story mixed with historical events. I find it can take me a day or two to shake off the story as I get emotionally tied into it. I love the feeling of reading a book in a day, which only happens now when I am on holidays but I don't think emotionally i would be able for two.

Why are you asking people for their favourite books if you know they're lying?

Don't you know any truthful people?

Just to add in I was also off my feet for 8 weeks this year so that helped

Reading is my absolute downtime. It's my relaxation.

I'm an avid reader. I'm at my happiest when I have a great book to read.
But I'm very much a pleasure whore when it comes to reading. I want to lose myself in a ridiculous plot and just enjoy it.

I feel so unintelligent when I admit it. Almost like I'm too stupid because I enjoy what I enjoy. Stephen King is my favourite and I've read each book at least twice (it's like saying hi to an old pal)

So sadly yes, yabu. Also not nice to judge people for saying they don't have an interest in "classics"

It must have been an excellent performance!

Good point about loving several genres. I want to be free to appreciate beautiful literature and more contemporary fiction that tunes in to the zeitgeist, crime novels, all sorts.

favourites change as you do though

Young teen -moonstone by Wilkie Collins and Rebecca
Older teen - Orwell, Greene and Russian classics
Early twenties - Bulgakov
Late twenties - American mid century writers like Greenan
Once I had babies - read a lot of short story anthologies
Now - reading a lot of Southern African literature

I don't read books twice - but I remember how those books made me feel and think at the time.

It's an odd question to ask someone - it's a bit like kids asking each other what Their favourite colour or animal is. Much better to ask what they've enjoyed reading lately or what they're currently reading

I generally prefer non-fiction (historical biographies mostly) so not sure what that makes me.

But my favourite non-fiction book/s are probably The Woman in White by Willkie Collins and anything by Sue Townsend. Would you call those classics?

Classics are classics for a reason!

YABVU and whether you actually are or not, this makes you look a bit dim.

I'm having to wade though a lot of literary fiction for a course I'm doing. Loved the rest of the course, but really struggling now. Also fed up of having to do the 'feminist American women writers' genre yet again as though it's never been done before.

On the other hand, others are loving it. I wish I was. I am only yet at the reading stage. If I'm flagging now, I dread to think what the text analysis parts will be like.

Liking or disliking something is different to people lying about the types of books the like to sound 'more intelligent'.

But I do think 'classics' is self perpetuating. What was classic might no longer be deemed classic if reconsidered. I think the 'classics' should evolve.

Ulysses

It's already been pointed out that Dickens wrote popular serials - he was probably considered very trashy at the time and who's to say that the likes of Bridget Jones, Stephen King, The Hunger Games etc won't be considerd classics in 50 years?

It's undeniable that writing styles have changed - there are many "classics" that I doubt would be published today. I try to make my reading list a mix of classics I "should" read and the trashy crime novels I adore, and the difference is startling. I find myself thinking "Just get on with the fucking story!" when it comes to the ridiculously wordy and long-winded "classics". Being old doesn't make something brilliant, but genuinely fantastic books will always be read and loved by new generations.

We're all dying to know what your favourite book is, OP.

One of my favourite books is Jane Eyre, because she's the original Tough Cookie. All the others are descended from her: Jo March, Scout Finch, Lyra Belacqua, even Sookie Stackhouse.
Most of my other favourites are SF and fantasy. Pratchett of course, Jim Butcher, Le Guin (have you noticed that in Earthsea, whites are a barbaric minority?) and Abercrombie for the hyperviolence.

Jacqueshammer are you reading quite tiny books? I am a fast reader from a family of very fast readers but the idea of reading 5 decent sized books in a day is blowing my mind!

Disgrace I love the quite well camouflaged white barbarity in Earthsea. When you first notice (I was a white kid, displaced from a major city to a really rural, all white, backwater when I did) it really opens your eyes, makes you think quite differently. Tombs of Atuan remained my favourite book for a very, very long time.

@what it can very. Anything from 800 plus to 150 page novellas.

Thrillers and horror I find very easy and quick to read.

I think you're projecting a little. A lot of people name older classics like, and for example, Wuthering Heights, and Pride and Prejudice and can quote chunks at will. I'm rereading Gaskell's North and South for the umpteenth time, though it's not my favourite book (mentioned in another thread and in the Mumsnet reading group) I don't find it a difficult read or heavy going, personally.

As for “they are pure effort” - wtf? Do you think “the classics” are a genre, all similar in style, if you’ve tried one you’ve tried them all? Pathetic, lazy reverse snobbery.
Agree. The genre of 'classic' books is varied and is not limited to regency, georgian and older classic authors.

I believe this is known as an 'askhole'. Asking a question, then not liking the answer.

You sound a little insecure.

My favourites are classics. Sherlock Holmes, Jules Verne, I love Keats, Yeats and Browning (both) and read them over and over.

If you asked me my favourite TV of films then it's rather less impressive - "well, all the Police Academies, of course, Die Hards, Crocodile Dundee, anything directed by Guy Ritchie ..."