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

[Twinklemegan]

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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....

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

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

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.

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.

I could NOT get on with Middlemarch or Vanity Fair.

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.

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.

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ah I see OP mentioned it

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

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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!!

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

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

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.