Confession time! Tell us your literary sins to win an entire set of 20 Puffin Classics

[EmilyMumsnet]

Literary shame is a powerful thing - if you've ever nodded sagely while your friends discussed Bleak House or chuckled knowingly about the The Wizard of Oz - the film is the same thing isn’t it? – you'll know what we're talking about. But now we're giving you the chance to 'fess up! Tell us which Puffin Classic you have never actually read, and you'll be in the running to win the entire set.

The Puffin Classics are back, and with a bold new look – twenty brand new covers for the classic tales, from Huck to Dorothy to Alice to Peter. One lucky poster will receive all twenty, while 5 randomly-selected runners-up will win a copy of their never-read tale.

Here's the full set list:
The Call of the Wild, Tom Sawyer, The Wizard of Oz, King Arthur, The Jungle Book, Black Beauty, Huckleberry Finn, Anne of Green Gables, The Secret Garden, The Odyssey, A Little Princess, Journey to the Centre of the Earth, The Wind in the Willows, Treasure Island, Heidi, Peter Pan, Little Women, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.

This competition is now closed. And the winners are:

Belo - full set of Puffin Classics
happysouls - The Call Of The Wild
Punkatheart -Heidi
Miisty - Tom Sawyer
Pigeonpea - Huckleberry Finn
kohl - Wind In The Willows

Thanks for all your contributions, we'll be in touch with the winners shortly

[MrsSpa]

I've never read Alice in Wonderland. Or is it Alice through the looking glass? I was given a lovely copy as a prize at school. I have lived in Oxford for years. I even went to 2 Mad Hatter tea parties last year. And I still haven't read it. I haven't even put it on my ought-to-read list! But maybe I will if I win...

[missorinoco]

I have only read five of these! Part of me wonders what makes books "classics."

What alarmed/entertained me was that I have a feeling I have read at least three more, but suspect actually I haven't, and my familiarity is due to having seen the animated version.

[llewejk]

The Jungle Book. I have seen the film numerous times, it is one of my favourites! But never read the book.

[smallinthesmoke]

Oh dear, I'm another one who has never heard of The Call of the Wild. Think I have read all the others although possibly in a Readers Digest abridged format
I'd love to win so much as it would give DD1 (7) something to talk about which isn't Malory Towers. Which is driving me potty!

[timeforabrewnow]

Didn't like Little Women and haven't read 'Call of the Wild' or 'The Odyssey'or Black Beauty. Or 'A little princess'. Have read most of the others. Not embarrassed about not having read a book, as that is plainly stupid.

[DanielMummy]

I read most of these in my teens, but haven't read The Call of the Wild, The Odyssey or Journey to the Centre of the Earth

[Primadonnagirl]

I've read them all. Oh, no ..hang on.. I meant I've seen them all...Well actually I've heard of them all. Well most of them. Ok I've read Little women and that's it. I can sing the theme tune to Black Beauty though. NB take it you don't mean Nancy Friday's My Secret Garden ? Cos never read that either

[glenka]

I have heard of most of these books but I have never read any of them.

[AtomicDog]

The only one I haven't read is 'The Little Princess', probably because it has the word princess in the title!

I think Call of the Wild was seen as very much a 'boys' book when I was young, and as far as I know, I'm the only person in my friendship group that has read it. However, I read voraciously as a child, escaping an unhappy childhood, of course. I practically lived in the library, and we had a really good one, luckily. Books were always my refuge.

[Theimpossiblegirl]

I have read half of the books on the list: The Wizard of Oz, Heidi, Little Women, A Little Princess, Wind in the Willows, Black Beauty, Anne of Green Gables, Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass.

I have yet to read (but may never get round to it) The Call of the Wild, Tom Sawyer, King Arthur, The Jungle Book, Huckleberry Finn, The Odyssey, Journey to the Centre of the Earth, Treasure Island and Peter Pan. I would have probably dismissed them as being boyish as a child (of course I know better now).

[AtomicDog]

I suppose, technically, I haven't read McCaughrean's version of the Odyssey too!

[Eastpoint]

I have never read Journey to the Centre of the Earth but I've read all the others. I must have had a very dull childhood compared to everyone else, one of the highlights was going to the library every Friday afternoon to get another 4 books out. I loved Heidi & the other two books about her, read all 4 of the books by Louisa May Alcott & have all 4 of the Frank Baum Oz books in a boxset. There was nothing I wanted to do more than curl up & escape dull suburbia by disappearing into books.

[ShadowStone]

Eastpoint - there are more than 4 Frank Baum Oz books.

I had a set of 8 when I was a child. I discovered when I was an adult that there were even more written that presumably weren't in print in the UK when I was into Oz. Can't remember how many there were in total right now.

[BlackSusie2004]

Out of those, I've only read Tom Sawyer, The Jungle Book, Huckleberry Finn, The Wind in the Willows, Peter Pan and Little Women! I feel quite a failure in life now!!

[Stealthsquiggle]

I was all prepared to be completely shamed by the list, but actually The Call of the Wild is the only one I haven't started read

OK, so I never actually made it to the end of Tom Sawyer or Treasure Island, but at least I tried

DD would love that set. She is currently obsessed with books that Mummy read when she was little - so is working her way steadily through Noël Streatfeild right now, partly by extracting (with great difficulty) my copies from my parents' house and partly by us sourcing second hand ones, as loads of the ones I liked are out of print. Books are so cheap and available now it's hard to remember that a puffin paperback was, in itself, a birthday or Christmas present to be chuffed with. My great uncle used to be the most fantastic chooser of books - you could guarantee that a book from Uncle George would be something you didn't own, might not have heard of, but would really love. [nostalgic sigh]

[Supermam]

There's a few I haven't read. keep thinking I've read The Secret Garden, but I haven't! I've seen the film and there was a TV series I think. I really can't face those Victorian/Edwardian adventure books, sorry. Loved Anne of Green Gables & Little Women. I don't think I've read Black Beauty either, but can sing the theme tune to the series!

[Lucidenigma]

I hate the conversations about classics; having to secretly hope that they don't probe you any further! These are the ones I haven't yet read:

The Call of the Wild, The Wizard of Oz, King Arthur, The Jungle Book, Black Beauty, Anne of Green Gables (I have read some, but not all of the books), The Odyssey, Journey to the Centre of the Earth, The Wind in the Willows, Treasure Island, Heidi, Peter Pan,

[GranAnn42]

I've never read Peter Pan, only seen various films

[Lucidenigma]

AGG was such a quaint series - though I didn't manage to read them all. I remember wishing I could be Anne!

[Supermam]

Sorry Primadonnagirl - just noticed your post re theme tune! Perhaps a duet?!

[bibliomania]

Laughing at prima. I don't think Nancy Friday's work is ready for the children's classics section yet. Although it was certainly educational in its own way.

[ChopperGordino]

I haven't read call of the wild or journey to the centre of the earth. At least, I think that's the only two I haven't read! The brain is a funny thing and I'm not sure whether it isn't the case that having seen te film or just the prevalence of the stories in popular culture makes me think I've read the rest! (In the same way that I've never seen any Star Wars films but get all the cultural references!)

[ChopperGordino]

Quite a lot of them I think I "read" as audiobooks actually

[greathat]

I've not read the Jungle Book. Does the bear still sing in it :D

[CrystalQueen]

Feel obliged to point out there's 18 titles in that list, not twenty...

As a real life Alice, I hated Alice in Wonderland as a child. This was dwarfed by the horrors of "who the f* is Alice" in my teenage years.

I've read, or at least attempted, most of those books. No Dracula? That was my favourite Puffin Classic. I still have it somewhere.