I went through a huge post college Classics phase.
About half of it I read because I “should” About half I started because I should, and enjoyed it.
I like Hugo, but I skip the sewers exposition. I’ve read it twice (once where I read all about Paris’ sewers).
Cliff Notes often make these books a lot more enjoyable to read. Having someone else do the heavy lifting of telling you what is happening on minor plot points and tracking minor characters can let you enjoy the core of the story.
Y’know, people always talk about the boring sewer parts in Les Mis, and it makes me want to dig up the unabridged version, because that sounds really interesting to me.
This, times 1000. Les Misérables is one of my favorite books, but I have read the unabridged only on my first reading of it. It’s for pure masochists, and none of that extra crap adds a damn thing of any consequence.
I read fiction for entertainment, not because people who I don’t even know think I “should”. Especially when their claimed reason to read it is because it’s somehow “important” rather than because it’s a fun read.
I feel the same way, I think it’s just because gulp… I’m a snob. I just am. There’s that great South Park episode* where the kids find that suddenly the music they used to like starts to sound like fart noises. And I thought: wow, that’s exactly what most music sounds like to me, what most contemporary “literature” reads like, what most films seem like. Classics just have a higher chance of not being crap. I’ll put in some effort to read them.
*Yes, South Park appreciation and snobbery.
Even if I pick up a classic because I’m supposed to read it, I don’t keep on reading it if it can’t hold my interest. There are too many other ways to learn what I need to know to be conversant in it.
One of these days I’m going to have enough money to pay my library fine and get my hands on the Lord of the Rings, which is more a book I’m supposed to like than one that actually sounds interesting (due to the boring parts and already knowing the basic story). We’ll see how well that goes.
Give us an update when you do! There is something magical about that first time others read something that you love. Even if you hate it, we’ll get to experience the excitement of reading it the first time all over again…
PS there is a library I still can’t go to :eek:
Same as most respodners to this thread I’m sure, I read a lot. Used to read mostly fiction, the last decade or so has been mostly non. While I enjoy the act of reading, I also thrill at the knowledge it gives me - I regularly rue that I don’t retain more of it.
A considerable portion of what I read is because I feel there is a vast body of literature an individual ought to at least be familiar with if they aspire towards - I don’t know one word suffices - intelligence? Being well-informed? Sophistication? Being educated/literate?
I’ve got a ton of books on my shelves that I inherited from my mom - and picked up from other sources. Montaigne, Marx, Darwin, a collection of the UofC’s “Great Books”… Many of which I have never read, tho I have read about. I just moved, and after hauling all of those damned heavy books, I determined to work my way through them. Not straight, but maybe one a month. Last month was light, The Guns of August. Das Kapital has been staring me down lately.
I’ve tried to read Ulysses a couple of times, and just can’t get past those damned oxen of the sun. There is a point in A Brief History of Time that my head just starts hurting. And I keep hitting a wall in The Brothers K. But I feel I am more of the person I desire to be for having made an effort - having some personal familiarity with the texts, than simply relying on others’ opinions of them.
Also, my tolerance for various literature has changed over time. In grade school I read Moby Dick several times, simply because it was the largest book in the school library. Having read it on my honeymoon 25 years ago, I can imagine not reading it again. In college, I read all of the plays of Shakespeare. Now, they are more work than pleasure. In law school, I hated all of the crap I was supposed to read, so in one semester I read Anna Karenina and War and Peace almost out of defiance. But re-reading W&P a couple of years ago, it impressed me as almost more work than it was worth. Maybe I had a poor translation.
I desire to be a certain type of person, so there are any number of things I do in order to be nearer that person, even tho I might not love doing those things individually. And reading certain material, seeing certain films, encountering certain art, are all part of what I feel I need to do to make the most of this brief existence I have been given.