Which book do you think you should have read, but never have? (Do tell, and you could win a bundle of books worth £100)

[JaneMumsnet]

Hello,

In the run up to our first Bookfest event on 25 June (do take a look - we've got a fabulous line-up including Maggie O'Farrell, Meera Syal, Howard Jacobson, Andy Stanton and Liz Pichon, with a programme for all the family), we'll be running a survey on books and reading, and would love your help drawing up one or two of the questions.

1. Is there a book that you feel that you should have read but somehow missed out on? A classic that you've watched on TV but never perused in print? Which are the big tomes you are certain everyone around you has read, but you somehow missed out on or school or have never got round to tackling?

1. Is there a classic you are ashamed to admit you haven't read, to the extent that you might pretend that you have?

1. And - more broadly - is there an author whose greatest book or body of work has completely passed you by?

Do let us know - and all posters who tell us about the book or author who got away on this thread will be entered into a prize draw: one MNer will win a bundle of books worth £100.

Thanks as ever,

MNHQ

Mostly the Russian classics... Anna Karenina, The Brothers Karamazov, War and Peace. I did read Crime and Punishment a couple of years ago as I'd heard it was more accessible. It was fine.

War and Peace

I haven't read '50 Shades' either - I feel my life does not need the unawing fantasies of someone inane, delivered in slobbery prose. Reading takes time, you gift some of your life to a book and in return hope for a viewpoint of the world seen from another life-path. It's an expensive exchange on the reader's part, given our brief lives. That's why you can feel so cheated when you read something that is cynical and shallow (and there's big difference between that and books written to amuse and lighten you. I'd never include M C Beaton in the cynical category).

I really don't feel guilty not giving that gift of time to '50 Shades'.

To Kill a Mockingbird is the standout one. Have a few Russian and French authors on my TBR list.

I am ashamed to say that Middle Earth has completely passed me by. I thought the films were grim and have avoided Tolkein's books since although I read a sample of Hobbit once and it jumped out of the page so why I haven't made the effort, I'll never know.

I love the story of Les Mis and have watched it on stage and the film but haven't read the book. DH loves it and kept a heavily pregnant me entertained for literally hours while he told me the whole plot over dinner once.

Also haven't read Wuthering Heights, and should. It's on my list.

I often have a go at some of Dickens' stuff but the only book of his I've read is Great Expectations. It's one of my favourite books.

I sometimes think I've read a book when I haven't but I know I've never managed to read a Dickens novel, except A Christmas Carol. I would love to read To Kill a Mockingbird but it's about 47th on my 'to read list' after Ive read the plethora of novels sitting in my bedroom making full use of their aptly named 'dust jackets'!
I'd probably say I should have read.
As for bodies of books I've not read any of the Game of Thrones tomes. I made the mistake of watching the first episode of the TV series, thought it wasn't my thing and haven't entertained adding them to the word mountain awaiting my attention!

Half a paragraph disappeared!
I'd say I should have read more Bronte than I have. I would pretend I'd read the entire collection of anyone asks I don't know why I just feel it's something would expect me to have read.

I've hardly read any Charles Dickens, I feel I should but there are always other books that appeal more. Gap in my literary education though!

2.Catcher in the Rye.

1. Beyond Of Mice and Men, I have never read any Steinbeck. Grapes of Wrath has been recommended by so many and has been on my to read list for years but something else always seems to take priority.

Moby Dick. I feel that my entire life would change if I read it. I've lied about having read it for so long that I fool myself sometimes.

My English lecturer is big on analysing intros. We managed to spend twenty minutes of one session analysing the first three words of Moby Dick

It tempted me to read the rest - but not enough to make me actually do it!

1. Is there a book that you feel that you should have read but somehow missed out on?

The Lord of the Rings Trilogy - was never interested at school or university as saw it as more for boys and certainly not for me - a literature student. Think I was probably wrong about that but it still doesn't really appeal. Everyone assumes that everyone else has rad it though.

1. Is there a classic you are ashamed to admit you haven't read, to the extent that you might pretend that you have?

Yes - Anna Karenina. (Shame). I have read War and Peace several times and loads of other Russian Classics - everyone assumes I have read this and I am ashamed to say I haven't.

1. And - more broadly - is there an author whose greatest book or body of work has completely passed you by?

Terry Pratchett - wasn't really aware of him at all until recently. When he dies there was such an outpouring on MN that I realised I have really missed out. V busy at the moment but when house move etc over I will start from the beginning and read the lot!!

TalkTalk, I know those three words! The rest is some shenanigans with a fish isn't it?

1. Lord of the Rings. Tried many times, watched films still can't read the thing!

1. Lord of the Rings. My much younger brother read it before he was 10, which added to the embarrassment

1. Pratchett, read the first couple of discworlds and got bored!

Love reading and need to get out of the whole trashy teenage fantasy rut I'm in (seen as I'm mid 30s!)

I've never managed to make it through Wuthering Heights, despite having several tried. I've never even attempted To Kill a Mockingbird..for some reason, it's just completely passed me by!

The first couple are the worst, random! I'd recommend people start with the witches ones, or maybe something like Small Gods.

I think there's something about a harpoon, too, Fring?

1. Crime and Punishment (not all Russians have read a few)
2. Can't lie about books !
3. I don't like sci fi so I'm going Asimov.

Any of the Dead Russians or 20th Century American literature - To Kill a Mockingbird, Catcher In The Rye etc.

A couple of years it would have been Madame Bovary but I have now ticked that off the literary bucket list and nearly died of boredom in the process.

Dr Zhivago - its been sat staring at me from the bookshelf for years. wish I had read that rather then - Don 'when will it Bloody end' Quixote

1. Moby Dick (Melville), Ulysses (Joyce), Don Quixote.
2. I never pretended to have read something that I haven't. I am a hopeless liar.
3. I have never read any James Joyce. Tried to on one or two occasions. Failed miserably. Same goes for Italo Calvino.

There are lots on my 'should get around to reading' list. Catcher in the Rye, Catch 22. I think I have quite a few at home but it's so hard to find the time these days. I wouldn't ever pretend I've read something if I haven't, I don't see the point.

I haven't read a lot of sci fi, authors like HG Wells have passed me by.

There are lots on my 'should get around to reading' list. Catcher in the Rye, Catch 22. I think I have quite a few at home but it's so hard to find the time these days. I wouldn't ever pretend I've read something if I haven't, I don't see the point.

I haven't read a lot of sci fi, authors like HG Wells have passed me by.

I've never read 1984 but there are so many references to it that I feel left out.

Similarly Lord of the Flies by William Golding but I often reference it in conversations without admitting not having read it!

I have never got into Terry Pratchett but haven't even tried- I like a fantasy novel but haven't delved- really must.

But as soon as you feel that you must read something it takes the joy away and feels like homework!

Everything by Charles Dickens. I love all of the classics I've read and I very much enjoy Shakespeare so it's not the language that's put me off. I'm not sure why CD has passed me by 😑