Books I'm too embarrassed to say I've never read.....

[kweggie]

War and Peace
Anna Karenina
To Kill a Mockingbird...

There! It's out in the open! I did it!

go on them ilovedaintynuts, spill the beans......what are the 'gaping holes in your mental library?'

Don't like Dickens much, loathe Eliot and her "moral gymnasium", hate Hardy - but that's just me. I read very few novels these days, other than the re-reading of old favourites, none of which are classics. I'm old so can please myself!

Dickens, Eliot and Hardy were great novelists (and in Hardy's case a great poet too). It is perfectly fine not to enjoy their work, or find it hard to read, or whatever. It's not OK to say that their work is rubbish just because it isn't to your (generic - I'm not getting at anybody on this thread) taste.

And nobody has to read so-called classics, unless they are stuck with set books for exams. Read what you enjoy, and don't worry about what you feel you ought to read. And never forget that at least some of the classics are only classics because they were taken up by certain influential academics who had the clout to get their pet authors on to the curriculum.

Gazillions of 'must-read' and classic books I haven't read including W&P and Anna Karenina.

I read To Kill a Mockingbird for the first time about two years ago. Same goes for Rebecca by du Maurier. I'm just reading Jane Eyre for the first time at age 34.

Too many books, too little time.

Hamlet, Othello and Lord of the Flies.

I have just finished The Great Gatsby - I detested it at school but LOVED it this time round. Now have just downloaded onto my kindle, Tender is the Night - only 99p too.

stormglass I am ashamed to say I haven't read Moby Dick either but can quote from it as it was another book we did at school that I just read the study notes instead of the book.

I've read both War and Peace and Anna Karenina, but haven't read To Kill a Mocking Bird. I really enjoyed AK (despite its depressing-ness) but found W&P much harder going.

I have never read any Dickens except some of Great Expectations, which we did at school - and only the chapters that were relevant to the essay! I've read most of the Brontes' books, but not Wuthering Heights -doesn't appeal, somehow. Some of Hardy, but not Tess.

Given that I translate from German, it's more the German classics that I'm embarrassed about not having read - constant fear that I'll miss some blatantly obvious allusion!

Given that I'm Irish, I'm a bit embarrassed to say I read very few Irish authors (except Eoin Colfer and Ross O'Carroll-Kelly, which steer well clear of any misery).

I'm pretty ignorant about classics translated into English - all the great Russians, Mme Bovary etc. I have no particular plans to try.

I tend to stay away from things like the Booker shortlist. I always have a stack of books that I genuinely want to read, so I'm not going to feel bad about the ones I "should".

Oh, and I totally agree with PP that LoTR was better as a film than a book. So many pretty boys

Never got past the first chapter of a Jane Austin or Dickens. Those are embarrassing to admit to.
Crime and Punishment has been languishing on my kindle since I got it. I have read some Dostoevsky though.

I haven't read most of the books here. I'm not ashamed!

Oh. I thought it was a whale of a read...

Don't be embarrassed about any of them. What you like is so personal - I love Thackeray and have just discovered Trollope but cannot abide Dickens (although I do admire him greatly).

I didn't do English at A level so have never had a forced reading list to contend with as an adult. As a result I have never felt there are books that "should" be read and can follow Proust up with Hitch Hiker's Guide without worrying about what anyone else reads.

I have never read The Lord of the Rings. I haven't seen the films either. I just can't get beyond the first 10 pages/10 minutes.

I love Dickens and the Bronte's but for me Jane Austen works better in films - the books are too mannered and send me off to sleep. I hate George Eliot with a passion as was forced to read Silas Marner - the world's most boring book for O level.

Have W&P on a shelf and do want to read it but have a feeling by the time I get to the end I'll have forgotten the beginning. Stopped Crime and Punishement after the horse died - I was beginning to feel seriously depressed!

Love love love Lord of the Rings and was obsessed by this as a teenager and think Rebecca is just fabulous.

BlueEyeshadow - may I make a recommendation for one of my personal favourites - Kafka's Die Verwandlung. Brilliant

notnowI'mreading - "I'm reading Anna Karenina now - have just suffered through a lot of theory of farming but am getting back to Anna and her woes so it's getting better. "

I have never had the least urge to read Anna Karenina, but you might have just persuaded me to try it Is there lots in it about farming in that era in Russia?

OhDearNigel - now that one I have read, and quite a lot of other Kafka. :)

I didn't like To Kill a Mockingbird, didn't finish it. Ditto Vanity Fair. I couldn't read LOTR the first time I tried and then I read the Hobbit and it made LOTR much more accessible.

War and Peace took me aaaaages to read, the war bits dragged on so much. But once I got into it I actually really enjoyed it. I don't think it helped that it is such a big book that it's not comfortable to hold.

I don't like Jane Austen. There, I've said it.

DS asked about War and Peace when he was about 11, because a character in an Alex Ryder novel was reading it. When I produced my copy he decided to give it a miss though .

Because of the way the blurb on the back was worded he also thinks that it was written by Napoleon Tolstoy, which is useful embarrassment material.

I loved both AK and W & P but have never read TKAMB.

I enjoyed Anna Karenina,and War and Peace,I haven't read any Dickens except for A Christmas Carol,read at school.I'm glad I'm not the only one who can't stand the silly names...I was hoping some of the programmes about Dickens last year would inspire me to read,but instead learning more about him just put me off more!
Don't really feel bad about it ,though I do feel embarassed that I can't seem to get through any "serious" modern fiction now.

Oh God but Wuthering Heights is aMAZing! And so are Thomas Hardy's books. Please PLEASE read them. I have never read Middlemarch or Rebecca despite having owned them for many moons and I am currently struggling with The Moonstone. Never read War and Peace (despite having 2!! Copies!) or Anna Karenina...

Dancehall me either! Let's have a quiche!

OP I haven't read Mockingbird but thank you for the reminder

Hattie I had to read Silas Marner at school too and have loathed George Eliot ever since. I have read war and peace it helped that there was a tv series on the bbc at the same time I think the series was on for 26 weeks so I watched that at the same time as reading the book. I have never read Anna Karenina or to kill a mockingbird. I loved Vanity fair and the Barchester chronicles though

To kill a mockingbird is one of my favourite books ever.

I tried to read War and Peace when I was 18 and in love with a tedious arty student who thought he was a tragic literary figure. It was too much for me. And as someone who read and loved Jude the obscure at 15 that's saying something. I pretended to have read it. For all I know he did too.