Look, I’m not saying classic books aren’t important, but let’s be real—has anyone actually read every page? Or is this one of those books where we all just nod and say, “Oh yes, a masterpiece,” while secretly skimming half of it (or, let’s be honest, not finishing at all)?
I’ll admit it: I’ve never read Ulysses. Despite being fluent in Russian, I’ve tried multiple times to read War and Peace and just can’t finish it. I barely made it through Crime and Punishment (also in Russian), and that was a struggle. (Maybe because I was forced to read massive Russian classics as a teenager, and it left a permanent scar. Who knows?)
Some other classics I’ve never read, Don Quixote, The Great Gatsby, Brave New World, The Art of War (Read halfway, then skimmed the rest.)
So tell me—was it worth it? Did you actually finish classic books, or did you just push through out of sheer stubbornness? And what’s another book that everyone pretends to have read but secretly gave up on?
by RMKHAUTHOR
46 Comments
I read & finished The Three Musketeers last year. It wasn’t what I expected & I really enjoyed it.
I’ve finished *Pride and Prejudice* plenty of times, thank you very much lol
Life’s too short to waste on a book you don’t like, regardless of perceived “classic quality.” Never feel guilty about walking away from a book that didn’t connect with you.
That said, who doesn’t finish The Great Gatsby? That’s a delightful rainy day afternoon read.
Wait what? People are only reading part of it and saying they read it? No way. If im reading a book im reading every page
Some of them 100% worth it. I just read Frankenstein and while it was a slog with the language, it was a phenomenal story that is not what you think based on its use in pop culture. But at the same time it’s a common trope used in many movies and shows we all love. A classic indeed.
That being said, you don’t have to read anything you don’t want to. But every book you mention is 100% worth reading. If you want to.
Imagine not bothering to finish Dracula or Frankenstein…!
You’re missing out.
The Art of War is like 30 pages…
I really don’t think most people pretend to read books
I have finished all of the classic books I have read. Some have ended not being my thing but i enjoyed most of them.
I think it is normal that a lot of books feel uninteresting to people, especially books which are wildly disconnected for us if one is not into that topic but… sometimes reading something, not liking it but still experiencing it is valuable. At least to me.
I need to trust that the norm is not to lie about books or that everybody lies about liking books and claims they read it for… clout?
It bothers me because it reinforces the idea that if you actually enjoy a particular book you are either lying or pretentious. Very alienating and instead of creating space for people to enjoy ro not enjoy free of judgement, it reinforces it. Maybe because we also are living during times that are shockingly anti-intellectualism but it doesn’t feel isolated or just personal experience but reinforcing a pushback against difficult or hard books, as opposed to books which are just for fun and are forgotten by lunch time.
Okay, I apparently have a lot of feelings about this. 😂
This is an incredibly condescending post
I’ve read, finished and loved a lot of classics. Maybe it depends on what you’re trying to read and why.
Wuthering Heights and The Count of Monte Cristo are two of my all-time favourite books. I’ve read them both many times.
That said, I tried to read Don Quixote but just couldn’t do it. Different strokes for different folks … something like that.
I like dumas and hugo, maybe you’re just reading the wrong classics. There are dozens if not hundreds of classics spanning history, not all of it is going to be to your taste.
I’ve read and love many classic books. Classic books I didn’t like I didn’t finish and I don’t pretend otherwise.
Anyone lying about what books they’ve read values being seen as a reader over actually reading.
Yes. Why read a book and not finish it? Surprise yourself.
I mean there are many I didn’t read more than once but yeah I’ve read a ton of classic literature, from Shakespeare to Homer. I was a kid that consumed books though so sometimes it was what I had available.
Is this bait?
I don’t finish books I’m not enjoying, but I don’t then go lie about it and say I did finish the book when I haven’t.
I also have finished – and enjoyed – so many classics. Some of my favorites are Anna Karenina, The Count of Monte Cristo, East of Eden, and David Copperfield.
I haven’t finished all of them. The Name of the Rose will be one I will never finish. Moby Dick still stands here and waits for me to read it. But I finished some. 1984 and Animal Farm. Brave New World. Frankenstein and Dracula. All good books.
But my most favorit and definitely worth it: The Count of Monte Cristo. Big book but a really good story. I would not have thought to like it that much.
Classics are, much alike modern books, hit or miss. You either connect with it or not.
Is this satire? 😩
why would i pretend to have finished a book 💀
I guess it depends on what you define classics as. To me, The Chronicles of Narnia are “classics” and I’ve finished all of them, quite easy reads!
Weird question. Of course people finish classic books 😂
i read every page of every book that i decide to read unless i DNF it, in which case i literally state that i did not finish and do not pretend to. same goes with classics. i’ve finished every classic i started
If I DNF something I don’t count it as reading something. That’s just vain to do otherwise
Read what you want; I’ve read classics including some that you mention because I wanted to. This post seems to be a response to a question nobody asked
I had a teacher who read all of War and Peace except for one page so he can say he didn’t finish it like everybody else! Yes people finish these books. But it’s not like you’re finding a whole ton of people in the world who have finished War and Peace and the Brothers Karamazov, and conversely you do find plenty of people who admit to not finishing them. Of course some people lie but I don’t think in a significant number on this subject.
People on a sub about books and are actively writing about them definitely aren’t pretending. I’ve had a fair share of books I didn’t finish but I never pretend to have read them. Some books I even lazily read from front to back and you could consider them not technically finished. However that’s usually when a book doesn’t interest me much and I anticipate it getting better and it never does.
A lot of great classics are great classics for a reason, they’re not all just for study / tick sheets.
American classics are often page turners, Steinbeck, to kill a mockingbird, gatsby etc., Moby dick if you skip the fishing bits
1984, brave new world etc you should read now too. Brilliant
Crime and punishment / war and peace are a chore. but the death of ivan illyich, metamorphosis etc much more fun
Most classics are actually incredibly short reads compared to the modern lengths of books. People who love books and reading shouldn’t really struggle to consume them, to be honest, but I’m sure there are some people who just don’t like the genre as a whole or don’t like older styles of language.
Obviously there are a few beasty large ones. Ulysses is famous for being difficult to read, of course. I’ve read a bunch of classics out of curiosity and interest. Am I always as enthralled by the story as I am with a good fantasy novel? Not really. But the language? Hell yes.
I thoroughly enjoyed some (e.g., The Great Gatsby, The Plague) and really disliked other (e.g., Madame Bovary). Depends on the genre, subject, era and writing style, not whether someone considers it a classic.
What do you mean read every page?😭 girl yes people do read every page of books lol
Classics are classics because people keep reading them, so yes. Some unusual vocabulary and sentence structures can throw you off at first but it’s nothing you can’t get used to.
I can tell you from the bottom of my heart that nothing I ever read after The Brothers Karamazov could reach quite the same feeling in quite the same intensity.
Does anyone actually finish classic books? Yeah. But every single one? Of course not. I DNF classics at probably a similar rate as I do other books. Even if it’s an important work, there is nothing wrong with not vibing with it and setting it aside.
That said, it strikes me as odd that you sound like there are NO ‘classic’ books you have read through. There’s a large enough variety that you should be able to find something.
Anyway, to answer your last question, Meditations by Marcus Aurelius strikes me as one of those books that way more people claim to have read (and read deeply) than actually have. Maybe just because the book is so quotable, people seem to feel very comfortable speaking authoritatively about it and its messages.
I’ve read Les Miserables several times, and thoroughly enjoyed it. I think Don Quixote is hilarious. I read Pride and Prejudice when I was 14, and reread it often.
”Classics” is too wide a spread to treat as a monolith, because the only thing calling a book a ”classic” tells you is that the book is old and famous. Books within that grouping discuss a huge variety of subjects, and come at their chosen subject from all sorts of directions – some are funny, some as serious as a murder.
Maybe don’t worry about picking a book up just because it’s a classic. Pick it up if it sounds interesting to you.
I’ve read Dorian Gray, Haunting of Hill House, Christmas Carol, Alice in Wonderland and even Dante’s Divine Comedy (although that was definitely the biggest challenge of all and I had the Wikipedia page right next to me to read if I was understanding whatever I was reading). I have also read a variety of ghost stories by Henry James and I am almost finished reading all of Edgar Allan Poe’s work. I’ve read some Shakespeare stories as well and got HP Lovecraft lying around to read after Poe is finished.
So, yes, I’ve read loads of classics :p
Read of East of Eden last year and yep it’s a masterpiece and probably one of greatest novels ever. Would recommend.
Yes, have completed several in the last couple of years. The only one I gave up on was Finnegans Wake. Tried to read it too soon after Ulysses, should have spaced those out more.
Yes, yes we do actually finish classics. It turns out that many of them are classics for a reason; they’re good.
Look, it’s fine that you don’t like these books. But it’s no way to go through life assuming that just because you don’t like something that it must mean everyone else who claims to like that thing must be lying or pretending.
Also, it’s not like saying “I hate this so-called classic novel” is some kind of bold stance. There are way more hate posts about the classics on Reddit than positive posts. It’s pretty much a daily thing.
For what it’s worth, Don Quixote is one of my favorite books.
Ummm no? Never understood the point of pretending to read something or skimming. Don’t like something? Don’t read it. I like classics and I read them not to feel validated by other people but just because I enjoy it
I listened through the whole “Count of Montecristo” audiobook even after I realized it was a weekly novel – the author had an interest in dilating it as much as possible.
Extremely boring after the main prison and island events… Finished it just because of sunken cost and because I expected plot twists.
If you’re going to read it, only the 1st 3rd is worth. You’ll realize it has an ending and the rest is just filler.
Yes. I read books cover to cover. Some of them were classics.
My all time favorite read was Les Miserables.
They’re just books. And I have no reason to lie about reading something. So yes, I have read any “classic” which I claim to have read. Again, they’re just books, and I read them just the same as I read other books.
We use the genre “classics” to describe pretty much any well-known book published before 1950…yes there are books in that category that people think are good enough to finish.
I’m currently in a medieval lit class and we read a book published in 1485 (Le Morte D’Arthur by Sir Thomas Malory). I got so invested I cried at the end and I’m going back to read the sections my class skipped. People in the past had stories worth telling and usually if something has stuck around for that long it’s for a reason.
I’ve fully read (and enjoyed) multiple classics, yes.
There are plenty of classics I’ve *not* read (just not enough hours in the day) but I’m honest about those I *have* read (or *haven’t*) and don’t see any reason to pretend. For example, I’ve somehow made it through an entire English Lit degree and have never read anything by Jane Austen (I know, I know, it’s on the TBR list) but I would never pretend to have read something just for clout or whatever.