So, how many (or few) of the ...?

Question

"Classics" have you actually read? Do you even enjoy them? Do you consider yourself to be well read? Just wondering as some people just assume everone has read them and know the story and very little people actually has, quite a boring question i know but...

Answer 1

I'm an English teacher, but I read a lot of books we think of as classics long before I stepped into a classroom as anything but a student. Some of them I liked, some of them I didn't--just as I like some of the contemporary works I read and dislike others.

I think, in today's world, a lot of readers are put off the classics because the language is complicated and the stories tend to move slowly. Contemporay fiction is influenced by the pace of television and movies, so we like a story that flies along, sort of telegraphing what's important. So, when we encounter a work with more complex prose and that flows at a more leisurely pace, we get impatient. Because we get impatient, we tend not to finish what we start; because of that, we get little practice with the complex language. As a result, reading the classics seems like hard work. We really have to struggle to get even the surface meaning .

In my experience, the more challenging prose we read, the easier it becomes, and the more likely we are to enjoy what we're reading. Even so, some classics are going to appeal to us . . . and some aren't.

Some that I've enjoyed tremendously . . .
All of Edgar Allen Poe's short stories
Complete Sherlock Holmes
Huckleberry Finn
Jane Eyre
Wuthering Heights
Dracula
Frankenstein
Jude the Obscure
Some of Jane Austen
Most of Shakespeare's plays
A Doll's House
The Odyssey
Lisistrata
The Great Gatsby
I, Claudius
and many more . . .

Some I've read and disliked
Moby Dick (ugh!)
Most of Dicken's novels (they make great movies, though)
The Iliad
Middlemarch
The Brothers Karamazov
and lots more here, too.

Answer 2

I think the only classic I've read is Wuthering Heights, and it gave me a headache. Just because people have deemed books to be 'good', doesn't mean I have to have the same opinion! I read every night for about half an hour, and have read all sorts of trashy novels and loved them. I think reading is educational to some extent no matter what the content. So long as your brain is working. And I've learnt lots of regional history and dialect from writers like Catherine Cookson. It's all extending your knowledge and vocabulary. I sometimes feel like I ought to read some of the classics, but if I get to the second chapter and I'm still not enjoying it, I will give it up!

Answer 3

When I was between 12 and 14, I was on a huge classics kick. I read Jane Austen, Mark Twain, Charles Dickens (but not a tale of two cities... it was too boring), and some of the Bronte sisters' work. I also read some Steinbeck back then. And (I don't know if this counts) I read every book written by Louisa May Alcott. Yes, I was insane, but I was lucky enough to find friends weirder than me. Now I'm into Shakespere... working my way through the comedies right now. And I've enjoyed it all.

Answer 4

what are the classics anyway ? I read A LOT, consider myself well read but I probably hevent read any of the books rated classics. I read to enjoy and to focus my mind inwards for a little while to relax I do not read to say 'have you read...' I enjoy a variety of genres and probably get through 1-2 books a week, sometimes having more than one on the go at once, an easy read to help relax me before bed and a deeper more heavy plot when I have time in the day, my partner doesnt read at all, unless Jeremy Clarkson brings out a new book !!!

Answer 5

a million) I almost continuously hearken to the tracks i know first and then hearken to something of the album. That way I make stronger in my innovations why i purchased it contained in the first position. 2) It relies upon. some i love rapidly. Others i favor to hearken to some situations to get an finished appreciation. possibilities are severe those i love rapidly are those I really have a larger opinion of (yet no longer continuously). 3) definite I really have and that i continuously will. the finest social gathering i grants is 36 Chambers. after I first offered it back in 1993 i assumed it replaced into in simple terms ok (to boot CREAM and would all of it Be So ordinary which I loved) It wasn't till many years later that I were given a finished appreciation for the album and the way it flows. To this present day its between the few that I play the most and is in my correct 5 all time.

Answer 6

Heya,
I am an Engish teacher, and trust me-not everyone has read the classics! Between you, me and the web-most English teachers even haven't, and one would think that was a pre-requisite, but there ya go!
Between youme and the web again, not all the classics are all that "classic"! It's like this-in time to come, our modern day drivel will be considered Iconic - like Rob Scneider or Paully Shore films will someday be considered classic comedies of their genre-but really, we know they are...just plain horrible and painful to watch, God forbid we'd pay for them...but anyway-
You go to the library/book shop, you pick something that you have a modern interest in, and see what is there in the classics section that fits the same interest for the time it was written in. Eg. - you like psychological thriller in a realistic but exciting setting-lets say you saw Apocalypse Now or read the Da Vinci Code (a greater stretch, but bare with me!)well, you see Conrad's Heart of Darkness, and give that a whirl-you like it? you look for similar.
DO NOT feel the need or onus to read all of them. People tell me all the time that The Great Gatsby is amazing etc-I find it boring to the point of tears, but I'd live in Austin or Dickens where others would say "cilché"! It isalway about personal tastes, trust me. Life is too short to invest in what you think you "Should" do, be happy and true to yourself. If you want to read something, let yourself be led by your own interests, passions, vices and pleasures, but don't feel the need to because someone said you should!

Course, if you wanna cheat, there is always Sparknotes.com :P

Hope this helped in SOME way!
Shane

Answer 7

The trouble is that some people tend to read he classics simply because they are. I don't think it's a sign of being stupid if you find most of them boring as I do, with some exceptions. I really enjoyed the following:

Jane Eyre
War and Peace
David Copperfied
Old St Paul's
Pride and Prejudice
Most of Aldous Huxley and Evelyn Waugh.

Er... that's it!

Answer 8

I ahve read plenty of "classics" and yes, I enjoyed them very much, but I guess I am just weird that way:-) and I never assume others have read them, why would I? but they are usually very well known stories, featured in TV and film, and most people know those. so, people assume that the story is known even if you haven't actually read the book. the "classic" I enjoyed most, btw, is "Crime and Punishment" by Dostoevsky.

Answer 9

I read a lot- my dad read me The Hobbit as a bed time story when I was about 5 and it started there. I started War and Peace once- it was okay to read, but so confusing- had to keep cross referencing to the family tree and date line included in the book to find out who was doing what to which member of who elses family... As for the other "Classics" I have read things like SHerlock Holmes, Mody Dick- all the ones you can get for £1 from the supermarket/book shop. They're okay, but my real love is Rebus novels by Ian Rankin!

Answer 10

We were made to read the Classics in Primary school. It did me no favours as I was too young to understand them. For instance, my abiding memory of Jane Eyre is Helen Burns curls being cut off and Jane Eyre's cousin throwing a book at her that hit her temple. Mr. Rochester, who's he? Same thing with Oliver Twist. So, Ive never pushed them on my kids. Sad to say, tho, they have no intentions of reading them whereas I went back and reread them to get the real picture. Little Women was the best! Also, What Katy Did. I enjoyed them first time around!