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

I am loathe to admit it but Dickens and I just don't get on. At all.

I read Christmas Carol but that's short and forced my way through Oliver Twist humming songs from the musical.

But let's pick a classic for the purposes of the thread and say that I do wish I could read, and enjoy, Great Expectations. He just doesn't do it for me. #bookreadersguilt

Ulysses and anything by Thomas Hardy even though I live in Hardy country

So many. I'm a bit of ashamed at how unlitetary my reading is. I've never read any classics apart from what was required at school- no Bronte, no Jane Austen, no Thad Hardy etc. I'm a bit better on the 20th C and have read a bit of EM Forster, Daphne Du Maurier, and really get going post WW2. Even so, my job is fairly intense (and scientific) and I gravitate towards more lightweight recreational reading material. I really do want to improve on this!

crusoe

I did the same with Middlemarch at A Level

I got a D overall. Ds1 was quite impressed with that, he said "just imagine how well you might have done if you had studied and read the book"

That wasnt quite the life lesson i was trying to teach him

Middlemarch. Just too many characters and pages for me! I get confused who's who and then my brain hurts.

I just hated the charactors

I wanted to hit them in the face with a brick

Maybe i could have got a C if i'd written that essay

Eat, pray love - it comes up as a favourite on my kindle but so many people gush over it it has put me off.

Tess of the D'Urbervilles. I keep trying to read it, but abandon it for an easier read.

Glad to see so many others also have War and Peace on their not read list.

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?

I've never read any James Joyce (Catch 22; Ulysses) but believe quite a few friends, and my dh, have. I tried to start one of the above named (can't remember which) but found it utterly impenetrable and gave up

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

I've tried to read Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights on lots of occasions, failing miserably each time to get into them. Am a bit ashamed given they're GCSE set texts (and therefore can't be that difficult to read, surely!?) but don't think I'd risk pretending to have read them as they're so ubiquitous

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

Hmm. Have never read any Ian Rankin, PD James, Patricia Cornwell, Ruth Rendell - all the crime 'greats'. Just never been in my radar and there's so many I wouldn't know where to start, now!

*on my radar

I see your not reading 'Middlemarch' for 'A' level, and I raise you with not reading 'Middlemarch' for a supervision ( 2:1) on George Eliot with Gillian Beer. That was awkward.

In my defence, I tried - but it left me utterly cold. I've read it since then, and it still left me cold: I admired it but didn't love it.

I do think that the most pleasurable and deep reading experiences come when your life-stage and a book cohere in a fortuitous union. So, I suppose I'm quite unsure about the whole idea of thinking there are any books you ought to read.

Going further, I think that we are culturally a bit hung up on thinking of reading as a cerebral experience and thinking that the alimentary and organic aspects of reading are immature, uneducated, and even slightly immoral. I blame that on the (gendered) Modernist reaction to notions of 'Victorian' and 'women's' reading.

I'm reading a book at the moment that has come to me at the perfect moment in my life. It is such a pleasure to be reading it. I have noticed that I stop in my reading
(of this book) quite often, and allow what I've read to form connections with my day-to-day life - and this is, in turn, making richer connections within the book and enriching my day-to-day life. It's a great experience: very organic; very pleasurable - in a very alimentary way.

This didn't happen when I was reading 'Middlemarch' - which was a bit like forcing myself to eat cold porridge. That's a shame really: I suspect I'm far more like George Eliot than many of the other authors I read. The whole experience has made me think that there is a lot to be said for not ever feeling you ought to read a book but to accept that reading books at the right moment is a great thing - and if you feel you're not enjoying a book, listen to that feeling: it's probably telling you now is not the right time. You probably do a disservice to yourself and the book by forcing yourself onwards.

Charles Dickens
I saw the Scrooge and Oliver Twist movies though (and hated them ).
I too have a degree in English

Thecat thanks for such an interesting post! I agree. My mum (who's taste in literature I usually trust completely) keeps recommending me books about women in their mid 60s at the moment. She just won't agree that that's why she thought they were so wonderful though

What was the book you enjoyed so much?

I agree cat

I really wanted to read A Suitable boy, i tried once or twice and couldnt do it. Then i tried again and it was obviously the right time...i loved it

'The Hare With the Amber Eyes'. It's been recommended to me for ages, by many people, and I know I'm late to the party with it, but I can honestly say that I am just quite glad that it's come into my life just now.

I'm also reading a lot of fiction by women in their 60s (I'm a bit polyamorous in my reading!) and having a similar feeling about them!

I enjoyed "The Hare with Amber Eyes" and was sorry when I finished it, whereas I probably wouldn't have enjoyed it a few years ago. My taste in books has definitely changed over time, I agree that books have to be read at the right moment.

Now that my children are adults, I find my mind is free to tackle "harder", wordier books, and I also enjoy non-fiction too. When I was younger, I wanted easy escapism; now I prefer something more demanding.

Maybe it's time to read "War and Peace"

I feel I should have read Great Expectations. I remember watching a televised version as a child (DM said "Watch this, you''ll love it") and being totally grossed out by all the cobwebs on the wedding banquet. This has killed any desire to read it

I wouldn't lie about what I haven't read, I don't see why I would. I read every day, lots of different genres, but there are so many books out there!

I have never read Terry Pratchett.

I know it's not the thrust of the thread but it is my firm belief that Wuthering Heights should be renamed something like Domestic Abuse 101 OR How to bring on Clinical Depression in your readership.

I know it was written x number of years ago but I was aghast at just how much I hated it when I read it.

I agree, Meow, it's a dark, depressing book. But then, the Bronte family had dark, depressing lives.

I hated the film too.

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?

War and peace

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

No

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

Anything by Tolkien (love the films though)

1. Pride and Prejudice

2. Pride and Prejudice

3. Dickens

1. Is there a book that you feel that you should have read but somehow missed out on? Yes, Anna Karenina. It sat on the shelf looming at me for years!

1. Is there a classic you are ashamed to admit you haven't read, to the extent that you might pretend that you have? At university I used to pretend to have read Umburto Eco. I got away with it so I think everyone else was also pretending!

1. And - more broadly - is there an author whose greatest book or body of work has completely passed you by? Dickens, I refuse to engage.

I haven't read To Kill A Mockingbird. Really should get round to it as everyone says I'll love it. I just keep getting caught up in new releases.
An author I should have probably read is Terry Pratchett. I've only read one book and should have read more as a kid. He just doesn't seem right for me now, but would have been perfect back then.

Great expectations. I consider myself widely read, but I have never got round to any Dickens.