Damn, I'd rather read Shakespeare than Tolstoy. I find him really hard to get into. A vote for reading the original Shakespeare, too. His plots are... okay, although often stolen. His characterization is sometimes great, sometimes less so. But his language. Damn. The way the man could put words together is what makes him timeless, as far as I'm concerned.
Dante's The Divine Comedy is considered a classic. I often go back to that one. Wuthering Heights, Dead Souls... great stories and that's why they hold up. I keep reminding myself of what Jennings said in Animal House: "Don't write this down, but I find Milton probably as boring as you find Milton. Mrs. Milton found him boring too."
@Zorg: Dead Souls. Haha I read that a while back. I remember it being funny. Another one I want to read is Oblomov. For some reason I like provincial Russian literature. Fathers and Sons. Tolstoy's short stories. It's weird because I have no knowledge of Russia or any relation to Russia. But I see so many similarities between Russian provincial life in the 1800s and suburbia today. Also a Hero for Our Time
Speaking of classic literature, as many other people have mentioned Russian literature, I would recommend to read Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District by Nicolai Leskov and Viy by Nicolai Gogol. And stories by Edgar Allan Poe are my favorite reads, for so many years!
I always find myself struggling through classic literiture. I'm reading Dracula right now and every so often I just have to take a break. The plot is a lot slower than n average book, and the laguadge is just hard. The story though is interesting, and Stoker does know how to create a good horror story. (Dracula isn't your average drink just kill people vampire. He's a freakin serial killer who makes a connection, killing his victims slowly)
Currently reading Hamlet. I thought I had a good grasp of Shakespearean language from "Much Ado About Nothing", "The Tempest" and "Romeo & Juliette". But nope. Could barely understand the first scene.
I read Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea and loved it. I'll be ordering his To Have and Have Not in a day or so, but other than these, no I haven't read any 'classics'.
There are hundreds of thousands of books we would love but will never get the chance to read, so dont read a book "just because its a classic."
