Do you read/watch it because you like it, or because you feel you should?

I am in the position of having checked out a paperback, unabridged copy of Les Miserables by Victor Hugo.

On the one hand, I wanted to see what all the fuss was about. However, on the other, I got the feeling this was something I “should” read, regardless of my level of actual enthusiasm.

I was wondering how many of us read or watch stuff because, well, we feel we should be doing it, rather than because it’s something we really want to do.

I look forward to your comments!

The Bible?

I have a copy of ‘Madame Bovary’. I love the movie. I seem reluctant to start it because there are various translations, some said to be better than others…but how would I know? I’ll just give it a try.

No, maybe long ago, but not now. I don’t have the time to read stuff I’m not enjoying.

(OK, not entirely true. I read a lot of technical stuff in order to keep up with my career.)

I’m too feckless, impatient and old to slog through something because I think I should, there are just too many books I want to read. If I’m not involved by about page 50, I’m on to the next.

Get the abridged copy. The original is about 40% story, 60% stream-of-consciousness babble from Mr. Hugo about God only knows what. I slogged through it because I felt it was the “pure” form of the story but all it really taught me was that the 19th century needed better editors.

I’ve read books because I thought, “How can I say I’m well-read and not have read that?” I also don’t mind books that require effort to experience. In fact, my go-to genre is literary fiction. But I have also abandoned “great” books that were such a slog it became pure drudgery.

I don’t think I have ever felt obliged to read or consume anything. I will sometimes give things a try to see if I’d like them as much as everyone else seems to, but if I don’t I have no guilt in giving up on it.

College was twenty years ago, when I had hair. While I’m known to read for thing things others find onerous (The Epic of Gilgamesh comes to mind), I don’t expend my pleasure-reading time on things I don’t like.

As for watching it … hell no. I have a short trigger on walking out of movies i’ve paid for and don’t like, much less television.

“A classic is a book everybody wants to have read, and nobody wants to read.” --Mark Twain

I read what I want to read, but I also want to read classics. I think it gives me a window to know another person or time. I usually read 2-3 modern books, then a classic. Some I read with pleasure, others I work or slog through trying to catch the meaning.

I have only work friends. I think I have a skewed sense of time. I have difficulty connecting to people, either I have no patience for them or they don’t have time for me. Everyone wants a sound bite right now, and my brain doesn’t work that way.

Books have been my friends since I was a child. They are accessible and durable, and I want to know their many forms. I think it’s my way of being sociable.

I read what I want for the sheer enjoyment of it. I read recommended books like classics because they are the rock stars of their day. I read a wide variety of genres and centuries because I need human connection in a way I can digest.

I’ll read classics because they fill a gap in the history of the world, before which Thing X was not done, and they either did it first or wildly popularized it. I’ll do the same with movies.

But I don’t try or claim to enjoy them. Most of the times, the only enjoyment I derive from having read a classic is when a later author give a very subtle nod back to the original when he copies or adapts a trick or feature from it. It’s like a little “if you see what I did there, well played” kick, like recognizing how a magician does his illusion.

Most people would say that you should read only you what you enjoy, and I’m all for that, but I’ve had five years worth of slow night shifts in which to read out pretty much anything I think I would enjoy, so I went grazing. :stuck_out_tongue:

Most of what I read, I read because I want to (primarily history, science fiction, and politics). I’m a member of two book clubs, however, and do my best to read all of those books as well. I end up enjoying about half of 'em.

That’s my rule, too. If the author hasn’t hooked me by p. 50, I know from hard experience that he or she never will. Life’s too short to force your way through books you don’t have to.

I don’t read anything I don’t want to read. I rarely watch anything, so I certainly don’t watch stuff I don’t want to watch.

As far as actual literary classics go, I’m addicted to the original Sherlock Holmes stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and I love A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens.

If a classic’s available as a free eBook, oftentimes I’ll pick it up; sometimes I’ll read it, sometimes I won’t.

I only read stuff I like. If something isn’t grabbing me, I generally won’t make a conscious decision to stop reading it, I’ll just move on to something else. The Kindle makes this ridiculously easy. For instance, right after the election, I started reading Nate Silver’s book, The Signal and the Noise. Because I love his blog, and the subject matter sounded interesting, I thought I would enjoy it. But after getting a few chapters in, I saw something online about Oliver Sacks’ work, and started reading The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat. That book was compelling, and I ended up staying up to finish it last night. I might ultimately go back to Silver, but only if I start to enjoy it.

I currently have 58 book samples on my Kindle. I love that I can read the sample, buy the book if I enjoy it, or just delete the sample if I don’t. Life is too short, and there are too many books, to spend time on one that isn’t working for me.

OTOH, I love a lot of classics that are sometimes considered tedious, particularly War and Peace, Les Miserables and one of my favorite books, Moby Dick. But that doesn’t mean I’ll read a classic I don’t like. I’m a big Dickens fan, but I’ve never been able to get through The Pickwick Papers. I read the sample of Gone with the Wind, but never went any further. And at Thanksgiving dinner, someone asked me about The Diary of Anne Frank, which I’ve never read. I took a look at it, but didn’t think I could handle it.

I don’t think there’s that much of a distinction. “I should read this” generally means “A lot of other people have enjoyed this, and therefore there’s a good chance that I will too”. Obviously I don’t know whether I actually will enjoy something until I’ve tried it, until which point the opinions of others are all I have to go on.

Now, that said, if I start something because it comes highly recommended, and then find that I’m not actually enjoying it, then I’ll just put it aside. Quite often, though, it turns out that the book is a classic for good reason, and I do enjoy it and finish it.

I usually read something when I have a pretty good reason to think I’ll like it. Either a friend who knows my taste, or its the “sort of thing I’d like.” When I was a kid my parents used to send me to (all summer) summer camp with some books of my choosing and some of their choosing, usually some of the more obscure classics. I would tend to resist reading the one they chose but actually some of those became some of my favorite books of all time.

I devoured Les Miserables when I was 13 and I’ve reread it a few times. It has some slow bits, for sure (some of which are almost wholly irrelevant to the advancement of the plot). Make sure you get the Penguin Classic translation by Norman Denny NOT the Signet edition. If you’ve got the Signet edition, seriously, just return it now and save yourself the boredom. It’s bad.

The Bible does come to mind. Not “should” for religious reasons, but “should” because I don’t think I’d be qualified to criticise it if I hadn’t read it. Same thing for the Qur’an. I read most of it, but it was so mind-numbingly boring, actually worse than the Bible, that I skipped large sections.

Kafka gives me the creeps, but I’ve read a few of his books just because you have to. At least they’re short.

I tried reading the Russian authors, I’ve started War & Peace, Crime & Punishment, The Brothers Karamazov and Anna Karenina. Can’t do it. They make me want through myself off the nearest bridge. I’ll keep at it though. The thing is, I can see what makes them “good”. I just don’t enjoy it.

It can still be an addition though, to have read it even if you don’t enjoy it. I feel the same way about watching a bad film or a bad piece of theatre (I’m not including bad music, because that’s just impossible to avoid). It helps form an opinion. I’ve walked out of bad films and left during the intermission of bad plays, but often I sit them out just to know that my opinion is based on the whole thing.

The only book I regret finishing was The Lovely Bones, and I once read a romance novel to see what that is all about! That is a few hours of crap I will never get back. Reading that actually made me more stupid. It’s an insult to the alphabet and a waste of the trees that died to provide the paper for printing.

Yep. I had the unabridged version and I read it in high school, and after the first couple chapters that when on and on and on about boring histories of sewers or whatever I just started skipping the ramblings and picking up at the story. There’s no prizes for torturing yourself reading something incredibly dull.

I have finally allowed myself to quit books that I’m not enjoying. I used to feel guilty giving up too quickly, especially on books recommended by friends, but if it’s not fun, it’s just not worth it. I wasted many reading hours on things I was convinced I would start to like… soon… maybe next chapter…

I’ve put more effort into reading some “classics” or important works, even if they’re not captivating, because I feel like I should be familiar with them. Sometimes it feels like work, but I almost see it as such from the outset, so it’s not as bad. It’s like I’m studying.

I’m finding more and more that I don’t really need to do the same for big pop culture phenomena - between the Dope, Twitter, and SNL sketches, I get a pretty good feel for many books and movies and don’t feel left out when a reference is made to them. There are countless movies I’ve never seen, and folks sometimes gasp in horror when they learn I haven’t seen this or that film, but I’ve just never been much of a movie person. I was poor growing up and rarely went to the movies, and I never developed much of a taste for it.