It was required reading at several companies I've worked for. I recommend it to anyone who's negotiating a contract or starting a company, simply because there's a good chance the person on the other side of the table has read it. ETA: Classic book I've not read: Two or three abandoned attempts at Anna Karenina . The similar character names do me in at about one-third of the way through.
What classics haven't I read? Most of them. I have copies of Dante's Inferno, The Iliad, and The Odyssey that I intend to read as soon as I run out of excuses. No, seriously, I want to read them, but it's quite heavy stuff, and I'm waiting for a good opportunity (time on hands + peace and quiet). Same thing for Le Morte d'Arthur. I like this kind of stuff, but I have to be in the right frame of mind to enjoy it. Ah, I read that ages ago because I wanted to get better at Starcraft and Total War. It's quite interesting.
Well, not me, although it's one of Hardy's books I've never attempted. Hardy writes about a period I love reading about, and he's a Victorian writer, and I normally like Victorian writers. But I have NEVER managed to get through a Thomas Hardy book—and I've attempted several. Mayor of Casterbridge. Tess of the D'Ubervilles. I've enjoyed some of his stories when dramatised well in movies or made-for-TV movies, but his writing style is far too !melodramatic! for me.
I've not read so many classical stories, it's almost embarrassing. I'm planning on reading Bram Stoker's Dracula as soon as I can find a copy to read.
In my opinion, Moby Dick is one of the few Great Books™ which I've read that is also a very good book. However, I read it (probably close to a dozen times to date) as an adventure novel by someone who walked the walk; I leave the literary analysis to the sort of professors who make their living dragging that kind of thing out of bored undergrads. Melville shipped on a whaler and the book has been dissected by historians and found accurate to the point where it can serve as an historical reference. Recommended, but don't feel the need to sweat the big stuff.
I've never read the magazine, but the book was surprisingly readable. One thing that I've always wondered about stories set in the ruling class in that period is how they made their money and what they provided in turn. I don't really remember the story, but there's a chapter in the book which serves as a scathing indictment of the idle rich and the damage they could cause based on the assumptions their "inferiors" had about them. Think I need to read that one again actually.
I've not read Go Set a Watchman. As I understood it Harper Lee never wanted that book published, that's why it didn't come out until after she died. I feel like I'm honoring her wishes.
I haven't read any apart from two. A decade or so ago I read Lord of the Rings. Was a stuggle to get though it as he just went on and on and on and on about trees. The other was recent. Found a copy of The Old Man and the Sea at the tip. Due to next to no experience in reading fiction books, I failed to see what was so amazing about this book. Most of my book reading is non-fiction, psychology, science, spirituality, metaphysics, etc. I read two books in school, Tom Swift (the science fiction character, I think it was Tom Swift) in primary school and The Pigmalion in high school. Didn't start my non-fiction reading till my 20's, and have only read about 40 total.
I'm one who thinks Truman Capote really wrote "To Kill A Mockingbird" and let her have the credit. She never really could quite cut it.
I've got another one to add to the list: Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. Even during my philosophy days (around age 19 to about 25), I never bothered reading her work. Mainly due to disinterest and now its just something I'll most likely never read.
The Iliad, have started this book so many times but never have enough undisturbed time to read it. My bookmark is at page 37 from last years attempt
I wish I’d never read Wuthering Heights! I would insist everyone serious about writing read Crime and Punishment, The Picture of Dorian Gray and 1984 (for a variety reasons). I’ve taken the easy route with Ulysses and opted for the audio book. Started War and Peace, but had other more pressing reads to attend to, Don Quixote has been sat on my shelf untouched for probably about 3 years! I wish I’d read more Dickens, Huxley’s Brave New World and I’ve never read anything by H.G. Wells - although I often think I have! Haha!
It was very meh for me. It was part of my The 19th Century Novel course in my second(?) year along with Tess of the D'Urbervilles, North and South, Great Expectations, and a few others. The only one I actually enjoyed was Great Expectations, but I get the distinct feeling I wasn't target audience for most of these books.
Gather all the 'classics' and I've perhaps read 5% of whatever that total figure would be. No, wait, that doesn't work, does it? It would have to be a fraction, yes? So 1/20 ??
There are several books for me like that. But some books I cannot finish due to my distraction of ADD.