Admit it - what's the classic book that everyone raves about but you despise?

[EverySingleStar]

I probably have more than one but The Great Gatsby is definitely up there. shudder violently Shall add more later

I can't abide Jane Austin. I have tried but I find her writing soooo boring. All over charles dickens like a rash.

All Charles Dickens apart from Tale of Two Cities. One which is supposed to be a modern "classic" We Need To Talk About Kevin is a great big pile of stinking crap.

Oh God I'm going to have to use this thread as a reading list, I've obviously got weird taste - loved Ulysses, The Woman in White, The Time Travellers Wife, Lord of the Rings...I've been thinking about reading Wuthering Heights, definitely going to give it a go now...

anything by bloody Jane Austen!!

Was there ever a more insipid, boring writer.

I don't read the books or watch any adaptations on telly, after I was forced to read some in school.

I ADORED Wuthering Heights, Time Travellers Wife, English Patient is PHENOMENAL, but Lord of the Rings? What's with the singing tree?!?!
Am now off to re-read Wuthering Heights, Time Travellers Wife, and English Patient, along with Anna Karenina which I'm also currently reading .
Might throw in Twilight if I have the time

I love to Kill a Mocking Bird. And Jane Austen.

Jude the Obscure made me want to poke my eyes out. ( although I liked Tess)

I LOVED Alice in Wonderland as a child and now I am reading it to my daughter it is really pissing me off. I have clearly rose tinted it. He is an annoying twat with all his oh so clever little asides. And I want to slap Alice

So am i the only Tolkein fan here??? Love the books - all of them. Films left me very meh indeed (can you be very meh?)

Like most Dickens but haven't got past second chapter of The Old Curiosity Shop.

Didn't get that far with Catcher in the Rye.

I did Hardy's "Under the Greenwood Tree" for O level and I never liked it, it seemed so depresssing and insipid, and pointless. I've since tried other Hardys as my sister loves them, but they're just not me.

Harry Potter - not really a classic as such, but I just couldn't get into it. I forced myself through to the end of the first book to see if I could get what the fuss was about, but I never did. I thought it was all a bit silly and not very nice into the bargain. I'm sure I'm missing the point somewhere, but I haven't bothered with the rest of them, though I still feel this kind of guilt that I should!

Oh thank god, I thought there was something wrong with me for hating Catcher in the Rye - it is so BORING and the main character is such a jerk, I just wanted to slap him. Good to tell it was an O level book.

It took me years to realise if a book was unenjoyable I didn't have to finish it!

I really like the story of Wuthering Heights (can't be doing with a happy ending), but couldn't get past about the third page, it was so dull! Fine as a TV adaptation though, so I'm glad someone made it through to the end.

I echo thoughts about The Lovely Bones too, I like sentimental crap as much as I like happy endings.

anything by Terry Pratchett

I'm going to be the first to say it - Shakespeare. Written in the original prose, it's too much like hard work.
I know they're plays rather than proper books but still. I was made to read them at school.

Oh, I see someone already said it.

I hate Wuthering Heights, it is a mind numbing pile of crap. Had to study it at uni, everyone else raved about it.

I love Cold Comfort Farm and Little Women. But agree that Tess, Middlemarch (I Have Read Every Word!) and Wuthering Heights just really don't do it for me...

Wait I've thought of a much worse one. The Handmaid's Tale. Oh Good Lord. I was so bored. But then bits of it have stayed with me I suppose. Still, hated reading it.

The teachers always tried to convince you that Shakespear was funny

Oh I LOVED The Handmaid's Tale. It was one of those not-quite science fiction stories that stayed with me for ages. I liked all those sorts of things like Z for Zachariah, Mrs Frisby and the rats of NIMH, the Nevil Shute one about the nuclear aftermath - On the Beach?

Captain Correlli's Mandolin

Yuk yuk yuk!!

No I love Tolkein too portsblack. And Pratchett.

The Handmaid's Tale. If I wanted to read an essay I would read one. I have had to mark dozens of essays on it just to compound my hatred of it.

I love The Mayor of Casterbridge and Hardy's poetry but I find the other novels very hard going.

Cyteen, I may need to weep too about your rejection of Middlemarch. Off to consider ways of saving your mortal literary soul ...

Another Catcher in the Rye here. A male friend told me you have to be a pubescent boy to 'get' it.

Yes i also enjoyed 'the mayor of casterbridge' it was my first grown up novel i.e. not boy meets girl, happily ever after etc.

OrmIrian - i think we always seem to agree on this sort of thread - you may not have noticed .

TheFoosa - my GCSE English teacher took us to a couple of Shakespeare plays and actually guffawed during the 'funny' bit - presumably to show how he understood them. ....

Indeed we do

I love Shakespeare though. Sorry. I do know what you mean about the in-the-know titters in the audience Most of it isn't LOL funny anyway. I took my eldest 2 to a performance of The Tempest last summer - it was fantastic - they loved it which might have had something to do with it being outdoors and a really ham it up no-holds-barred performance. Brilliant.

Little Women. Hated it.