Books you feel you should have read ....

[MadBadandDangeroustoKnow]

but have somehow never got round to?

For me, there are very many, but another thread has reminded that I've been intending to read Middlemarch ever since the BBC adaptation, more than a decade ago.

Anyone else want to confess?

Possession - people raved about it, but I just didn't get it and stopped.

Must try again....

Canterbury Tales - started it at least 3 times and always found something better to do than finish it. So am saving it

War and Peace
Anna Karenina
Gerald Durrell (mainly because the family I married into have devoured them all and hence know them inside out)
PG Wodehouse (ditto)
EM Delafield (ditto again only worse as I think she is some sort of distant relative so there is also parochial pride to contend with)
Madame Bovary - never got more than a quarter of the way through even though my supervisor at uni thought it was a Wurk of Genius

Actually what I seem to be doing is listing books I think I ought to have read but have accepted I never will as there are too many more that I actually want to read

I have my money on .... umm.... let's say 3 more posts before someone says Ulysses.

many many - Middlemarch is one of them.
Anna Karenina
Don Quixote - started 3 times now but never get very far
Pickwick Papers -tried it, didn't really get it, probably too young, probably need to try again

I have a degree in English Literature, and there are so many books I have never read.

I have never read any Charles Dickens for a start.

Oh read Middlemarch, please please do. It's fabbo. As is Anna Karenina and W&P and all of Gerald Durrell too

I could never get to grips with:

Laurence Durrell
James Joyce
Charles Dickens
Fielding
Smollett

I manfully struggled through Ulysses tho but please will someone tell me what's good about it?

another one with Middlemarch on her list. I've read Anna Karenina and really liked it. I read 1000 years of solitude purely on the basis that I should. hated it. soldiered on to the end but was left with an overwhelming feeling of not getting it.

Well, I asked about books you feel you should have read (although my 'guilt at not read' list and 'want to read' list have a lot in common).

I would agree, though, that Madame Bovary is indeed a Wurk of Genius. It was on my guilt list for years. When I finally read it last year, it instantly entered my top ten books of all time chart (possible basis for another thread there, mayhap).

I see my 1000 years experience was like quattrocento's Ulysses. I managed precisely 1 page of Ulysses - you do indeed deserve a pat on the back.

Sophie's World, Jostein Gaarder - I cant ever seem to finish it, although I love it.
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance - Robert M Pirsig - again, i have attempted to read this about 4 times in my life. It is a fantastic book but I get sort of stuck half way, mental block. I will finish it before I die.

Brave New World

ooh, me too for Brave New World.

I have read both Sophie's World - suggest keeping it in the loo, it was the only way I managed to finish it - and Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, which I liked.
Tried Robert M.Pirsig's next book, I think called Lilith or somesuch and didn't cope with that.

the only Dickens I have read are Oliver Twist and Great Expectations - and I must admit that I got lost after the MIss Haversham bit in GE, but then I was only about 12 when I read it and haven't bothered to go back and try again. Should I?

Most classics really, have a vague feeling I should be reading them but don't really know where to start. I suppose I feel intimidated by them really, although don't want to cut off my nose to spite my face by forgetting them altogether as I know I'm missing out on amazing books.

Think I may make a resolution to read a classic a month, if I'm left feeling after 100 pages, I shall move on.

War and Peace.
Pick it up and then put it back down again!!!!

Without reading a page I must add!!!

Oh god I had forgotten Brave New World. Or to be more accurate, never got through it. Thought I'd try Antic Hay. Failed there too.

(and not just because of the excellent timing of your post either )

Some bits of Ulysses are much much better than others. imnvho.

I hate Dickens, but I do still feel I should have read Great Expectations.

AbstractMouse - if you can still get the cheapo Penguin Classics that is the way to go but for the love of god don't get Moby Dick - total waste of your money!

Ah yes, I did also get Les Miserables (I & II) in said cheapo Penguin Classics and have never opened them...

But I can recomend the Complete Works of Saki by Hector Hugh Munro - mad as a box of frogs, excellent short stories, another book for the loo but only because stories are short.

Ooh, Saki... now that's something else I was told the other night I had to read.

oh you do, you do - but not all at once. A bit like chocolates, savour them

Found myself nodding knowingly today, during discussion of how Gordon Brown's comparison of himself with Heathcliff makes it sound like he's never read Wuthering Heights... like me

I have read Ulysses though. Twice.

A la recherche du temps perdu

Three attempts, never got through 1st vol.

Thanks thumbwitch, I am limited to charity shops so I will see what I can find (avoiding Moby Dick). Any others to avoid on pain of death???

weeeelll, as i said, either on this post or the other one, DOn Quixote is a bit of a bugger to get into and les Miserables just LOOKS too big!
The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins is a good one to start with, also THe Woman in White is ok.
Have you got a library you could join rather than having to buy them?