Cindy at Dominion Family has an interesting and funny discussion going on (archived link). People are admitting the books they absolutely hate that are considered to be “classics” within the culture, the church, and/or the homeschool movement.

What a catharsis! Really. I’m going to admit something I’ve never admitted here before. I am not a fan of classic literature and I am abysmally poorly read in this area. For being a teacher, an honors college graduate, blah, blah, blah… I’ve read very few classics and I don’t particularly feel that I’ve missed anything.

I read for three reasons.

• First, I read to escape. And when I want to escape I don’t want to think, I don’t want to deal with someone else’s horrific problems written in the form of a novel, and I don’t want to wonder every time I turn the page if I am going to be assaulted by language or content. So that narrows down my reading possibilities quite a bit.
• Second, I read to know and understand who God is. So I stick to the classics of the Christian faith, dead authors I respect, and other carefully chosen newer works.
• Third, I read because some aspect of our culture or life has caught my fancy and I want to understand it.

I don’t read to impress people or to say I’ve read all the great works of literature. I don’t read because Oprah says it is a good book. And I don’t read something just because “everyone” is reading it.

By and large, I don’t like contemporary Christian fiction. At all.

So here are some of the books I’ve never read. I have attempted some, but gave up. These are just a few that I thought of off the top of my head. I’m sure once other people start leaving titles in the comments my list will grow significantly.

Jane Eyre
Wuthering Heights
War and Peace
Tom Sawyer
Uncle Tom’s Cabin
Huckleberry Finn
Nothing by Tolkien
The Catcher in the Rye
The Grapes of Wrath
To Kill a Mockingbird
Lord of the Flies

There’s a whole additional list of books I read in school that are classics that I didn’t like. But Caroline needs my attention so I’ll offer my personal pan of those books as other people mention them.

So what do you dislike? What have you never read that everybody just loves?

Can’t wait to see what makes the list!