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

I haven't read most of them but I am most ashamed to say I have never read Tom Sawyer, there's no excuse, really. Does it help that I read Little Women and Anne of Green Gables many times each?

The Jungle Book, Black Beauty, Treasure Island, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland are the only books I've read from that list. I read loads, and did even as a child but for some reason I missed most of the classics. I have been trying to buy the books that I missed out on for ds as I find them in the local second hand shops. and I am going to read them first before I give them to him

I have lots of classics on my book shelves. I don't reeeeeeally read them. I read on my kindle app. Which is full of trashy romances

Shadow I've just googled & there were 14 initially - makes my set look paltry and then another 26 produced after he died. There are quite a few Mary Poppins books too. I love wonder whether those of us who have read more of the list grew up before VHS/Betamax/multi-channel TV.

Quite a few, but The Wind in the Willows is one I am slightly ashamed of not reading. I did watch the TV programme though - and I wasn't a fan so maybe I am not missing out.

Never read Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn or Anne of Green Gables. Probably one or two of the others as well, but my memory is rubbish...

The Odyssey is a very odd book to be a Puffin Classic. Presumably it's abridged !

It's really bad that I've never actually read any of these! I think Chick-Lit and the likes of Young Adult Fiction has always taken over! I should be ashamed! I need to redeem myself by reading one of these me thinks!

Wind in the Willows - never read it, even though I've had a wild, deep crush on Badger since I saw it performed when I was 8.
(I still have a thing for men in tweed...)

Never read King Arthur. In fact I didn't even know it was a book

Thought it was just an old fable told through the ages by tales round a fire.....

I was always a voracious reader and loved The Secret Garden but have never read: The Call of the Wild, The Wizard of Oz, Anne of Green Gables, The Odyssey, A Little Princess, Journey to the Centre of the Earth, The Wind in the Willows, Treasure Island, or Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. I know some of them through film or TV adaptations and am aware of the existence of the others but have to confess I have never even heard of The Call of the Wild!

Alice Through the Looking-Glass and The Call of the Wild.

^ points to relevant literary name

My literary shame is that I used to think Tom Sawyer wrote Huckleberry Finn. Awkward.

It is a poor excuse for a mother who has never read ANY of the books on the Puffin Classics list... Although in mitigation I am conversant with most of the storylines and have seen the film version of a few. A poor excuse, I know!

Even though I am a bookworm, and an avid reader since my early years in primary school, I am embarrassed to say that many of the novels considered as the classics have gone unread. I asked myself why and think that I just got to an age where it was assumed that you had already read these books, and my the time I got to my mid teens I was too embarrassed to admit to my neglect!

My eldest daughter, Jennifer, is already quite an accomplished reader for her age (6) and she is keen to read every night. We even managed to take reading material for the girls on our half term break to EuroDisney! I very much hope that I make up for lost time, and when Jen gets to an appropriate stage, I hope that we can conquer these books together. Her first read of these books will be my first read and the joy of discovering a novel will be a shared and hence special experience.

And before anyone asks, I am also ashamed to admit that I have never read a Charles Dickens novel, a complete heresy! Although the Puffin Classics have a place in most parents and children's hearts, I have come to think of the other notable reads which I loved and my two girls now adore, as having a place in our history together. From Peppo!, The Tiger Who Came To Tea through to Julia Donaldson, it will be interesting to see if in 20 years time this list of classics as we know them will be unchanged or altered. In my opinion I think that the books on the Puffin Classics will remain sacrosanct, but perhaps what will be interesting will be to see if any additions to this list are made.

I wonder what other novels will be considered Classics in time?

Rachel x

I don't know about the TV thing Eastpoint. I read voraciously as a child and teen, but the books I've read on that list were mostly read during my BEd.

I haven't read the version of King Arthur, or any version. The same for the Odyssey, although I did have to translate parts of it at school. There might ge a few there I think I've read but haven't i.e. call of the wild and the jungle book.

The two books that I have never, ever been able to read past the first few pages are: Black Beauty by Anna Sewell and Watership Down by Richard Adams.
People start talking about them and I just glaze over. I just find both books so utterly boring - and this is from someone who actually found the Silmarillion interesting!

PS - yes, I'm aware that Watership Down wasn't on the list, but I always think it makes an admiral comparison to Black Beauty.

I did a Children's Literature module in my latest degree and it excited me enough that I want to do a Masters in Children's Literature. I will also admit that it was the first time I read Little Women all the way through - it was better than I was expecting, but still wouldn't be my first choice, especially as we had to analyse it. I think it was just too much of a rather prissy American classic.

I've never read Anne of Green Gables, Call of the Wild or the Odyssey and I only read parts of Huckleberry Finn at school in English Literature when we had to read a page then someone else read the next one and so on.

I've only read 5 of them, but embarrassingly know most of the stories only through TV and Films. I remember enjoying Call of The Wild. I was more of an Enid Blyton sort of reader as a child, lashings of ginger beer and all that......

I'm usually a bookaholic so not sure I never read a lit of these books like The Call of the Wild, Tom Sawyer, The Wizard of Oz, King Arthur, Black Beauty, Huckleberry Finn, Anne of Green Gables, The Odyssey, A Little Princess, Journey to the Centre of the Earth, The Wind in the Willows, Treasure Island, Peter Pan, Little Women.

I do however know the stories of some of these books despite not reading them

*not sure why I never

*a lot

To be completely honest, I have never read any of them. I have watched the movies to some, but never read the books. I have always loved to read and in middle school was reading at a high school level. But I am actually shocked to see this list and see I haven't read any, I had read almost the entire library by the time I graduated 5th grade lol. Now that I have 3 children of my own, I am always reading to them, I think I have read every book in our house 100 times. Now my oldest is learning how to read and he loves to read as well. Sometimes I think he knows some of the books we have by heart because he reads certain pages just too fast sometimes.