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I bet this has been done before, but what classics/modern classics have really left you baffled as to why they're so popular?

114 replies

Twinklemegan · 21/06/2008 22:56

Brave New World for me

Wuthering Heights to an extent, though I might need to try it again

I know there are others, but can't think at the moment.

OP posts:
MrsBumblebee · 23/06/2008 14:26

Yup, Alchemist here too. And Kite Runner. Both horribly trite.

Nighbynight · 23/06/2008 14:32

mackeral, I read White Teeth recently, and it improves a LOT in teh 2nd half. I enjoyed the second half, but the first part - well, I thought the whole book could have been reissued without it and would be better.

kama · 23/06/2008 14:33

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meglet · 23/06/2008 14:42

lovely bones. painfully dull and only just finished it in the hope the ending would be good, it wasn't.
Frankenstein. never finished it.

cyteen · 23/06/2008 15:31

Totally agree about Frankenstein and Unbearable Lightness of Being; I found both completely unreadable.

The latter has just come up as a book club choice, so it'll be interesting to see whether I can force myself through it this time

BeachBunni · 23/06/2008 15:59

What?? I love Wuthering Heights. It's one of my fav books. Also enjoyed Catch 22 and Brave New World. Can't stand Jane Austen.

More modern day hated Lovely Bones/ Time Traveller's Wife/ The Kite Runner/ The Book Thief/ Cloud Atlas - losing faith in bestsellers lists and recommendations

snowleopard · 23/06/2008 16:45

I think Frankenstein and Wuthering Heights both come as a shock when you read them because they are so unlike the popular image/film versions we're all so familiar with. But I still think they're great.

Catch 22 though - cannot read it - have tried numerous times. I only get a few pages in and loathe and detest the main character so much I always want to fling it across the room.

cyteen · 23/06/2008 16:55

Whereas I've read Catch 22 many times and loved it, but Frankenstein's stodgy, overcooked prose makes it impossible for me to ever enjoy one of the founding texts of modern horror. Which is a shame, but I hate the way she writes.

I don't generally get on with 19th century writing, though. Having to spend three weeks studying Wordsworth was a small personal hell.

northernrefugee39 · 24/06/2008 10:45

Califrau- yes! Lovely Bones and Time Traveller's Wife I couldn't understand why ? But Donna? The lovely Tartt? Love them.

Armistead Maupin....reeeaaalllyyyy boooorrrriiinnnnggg....

cariboo · 24/06/2008 10:46

oooo! I think I'm going to like this thread!

northernrefugee39 · 24/06/2008 10:49

Hey MaryAnn- Armistead Maupin...REALLYYY BOOORRRIIINNNGGG!!!!

Saymyname · 24/06/2008 10:51

Catch 22, god it was awful. I confess it went straight over my head though - I got to the last page still waiting to be let in on the story.

Men seem to like it though, I couldn't warm to any of the character's though (don't think you're supposed to) and the fact that they were all known by their surnames made it harder for me to get to know them.

cariboo · 24/06/2008 10:58

Here's one no-one's mentioned: A Hundred Years of Solitude. Gabriel Garcia Marquèz. I read it for O-level & really disliked it. Also The Unbearable Lightness of Being. Kundera. Same year. I loathed my teacher that year though, and the feeling was mutual so I guess that has something to do with it.

I really enjoyed Chaucer's Pardoner's Prologue & Tale but I had a brilliant teacher that year (A-level). I think I'm the only person I've ever met who loves Chaucer.

My sister always wants me to read books by Margaret Atwood (we're Canadian) but I just can't get into any of them.

ChicaLovesBranstonPickle · 24/06/2008 10:58

I could NOT get on with Middlemarch or Vanity Fair.

Hassled · 24/06/2008 10:58

Now I love Catch 22 - one of my favourite books. But agree re On Chesil Beach - I didn't actually finish it.

Have just started Money by Martin Amis - apparently a modern classic - and it's annoying me already.

Kewcumber · 24/06/2008 10:59

MIddlemarch - agree. Has anyone said Wuthering heights yet. BIg pile of boring tosh.

ANd anything by Martin Amis - that man needs to get out of his own arse.

christiana · 24/06/2008 11:00

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Kewcumber · 24/06/2008 11:00

ah I see OP mentioned it

christiana · 24/06/2008 11:01

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cariboo · 24/06/2008 11:02

Wait a moment! OP posted under Adult Non-Fiction. Ahem!

christiana · 24/06/2008 11:05

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mistypeaks · 24/06/2008 11:16

Ah I liked Lovely Bones (not loved or thought it marvellous literature, but read it in the same way you'd read chick-lit by the pool on holiday).
Catcher in the Rye is one my DH is struggling through just because he's invested so much time in it - he has to finish it. I can't remember if I liked it or not (so I'm guessing not good
I'm trying to read the Grapes of Wrath as I have been told over and over again how marvellous it is. I can't get into it though. I loved Of Mice and Men though so should give it more chance I think.
Emma - Bloody Emma. Hate the book. Loathe the character.
I hated Animal Farm as well, but I think I may give it another go as I might understand it a bit more than when I was 16!!

northernrefugee39 · 24/06/2008 12:07

ooh christiana, I liked The New Confessions (finished Restless last week- have you read it? Really enjoyed it)

womblingalong · 24/06/2008 12:08

Any Thomas feckin Hardy, I just do not get his books, his poetry yes, his novels no.

twicer · 24/06/2008 13:44

With books, there are three degrees of praising. First degree praising is where you praise a book because you've read it and liked it. Second degree praising is where you praise a book even though you haven't read it, because you've heard it praised by someone who has, so you pretend you have too. Third degree praising is where you praise a book even though you haven't read it, because you've heard it praised by someone who hasn't read it either, but is pretending they have, so you pretend you have too. A book that has achieved third degree praise no longer needs readers at all. The process becomes self-sustaining.

Both Catcher in the Rye and Catch-22 passed into third degree praising a long time ago. I've read both those books (I have - honestly) and quite liked them at the time, though I can't remember praising them. But that was many many years ago. Since them I've come to regard both with a cordial loathing.

Where you most often find third degree praising these days is on the internet, often in someone's profile:

Interests: chillin. freakin out. doin stuff.
Books: Catcher in the Rye.

Oh yeah? Well, you can just fuck right off.

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