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Books you want to have read but don't actually want to read

April

Veteran

Laurie's thread about summer reading made me realize that I have a few in this category. I would like to have read it, either because

a.) I know it's great, or
b.) because everyone else has read it and I lack those cultural references.

And yet, I do not want to actually read the book.

The entire Harry Potter series (reason b)
Anna Karenina - got halfway through it twice before the baffling and overwhelming character set did me in. (reason a)
Almost anything described as a "beach read" (b)
Anything by Jojo Moyes (b)
Anything by Colleen Hoover (b) Perhaps Moyes and Hoover are covered under "beach reads".

Over to you.

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53 replies

Latest reply was from Jenni NZ

Helena

Veteran

Ahaha I love this! Every Victorian era British novel goes in this bucket for me. Ditto the movies, even Colin Firth can't make me care!! I still remember reading "Rebecca" in high school and the sheer torture of forcing myself to read pages and pages describing roses *thumbs down*

Tried Colleen Hoover and couldn't even get through a quarter before I was done. "BookTok" is a fail for me!

cat2

Veteran

Great thread. No non-fiction for me; I do so much substantive research and reading during my day that it’s not a fun escape.

Jules

Veteran

Ha, I felt the same when "everyone" was mourning the end of the Harry Potter series (when the last book or movie came out I guess?). I felt like I had missed out on a cultural moment/phenomenon. Meanwhile I couldn't even read the books to my kids without going on autopilot and have never been able to sit through the movies either. Just not my thing.

LJP

Veteran

100 Years of Solitude is my most recent *fail*. I know/think I should read it because, well, it's a standard-bearer classic, but I keep taking it out of the library (audio, hard copy, etc) and finding reasons not to get to it. Intimidation factor I think.

I always thought of HP as young adult fiction and had zero interest in it. I read it aloud to my daughter at the time it was a big deal and barely made it through!

There are LOTS of books that I have no interest in even though they are bestsellers or buzzing on BookTok (I deleted my TikTok app btw because it was such a huge waste of time and I felt i was losing brain cells eveyrtime I was on it ) . Never read Colleen Hoover, and read one of JoJo Moyes I think. They all blend into one long novel after awhile, don't they? Lol.

Irina

Veteran

Jane Austen and Shakespeare - I just can’t get through the language. But I will try again.

Bible. Don’t know in which language I should try it. But I think I should.

Bonnie

Veteran

Finnegan's Wake by James Joyce - Why is is on the Modern Library 100 Books of the 20th Century when I can't get past the first 25 pages? I've read the other 99 books but this one is unreadable.

judy

Veteran

I don't have many books I think I should have read. But there are certainly some I find too difficult...Shakespeare and the Bible here also. Thankfully their stories get portrayed in movies and tv shows.

I find epic books of fiction with many names to remember a bit challenging, like who is who kind of thing. Sometimes I have to write it down!

Also, unless the subject matter is truly interesting to me, nonfiction can be too dull. I sometimes look up the authors on youtube or podcasts where they are having great conversations about their book (for example the Breathing guy James Nestor) that I find much more compelling and easier to absorb the info.

JAileen

Veteran

When the first Harry Potter came out in the US, Harry was the same age as our son. He loved the books, of course. My husband had business in London, and the third one had been released there but not yet in the US. We all went on the trip, and we bought the book there. I told our son he couldn’t read it until we were on the plane home. He got on the plane, buckled his seatbelt, and opened the book. He read the whole book on the plane. I’ve read all of them, but the first one was best.

Bonnie, you make me ashamed of myself. I’ve tried reading James Joyce’ Ulysses. I had the physical book, but had to look up two or three things per paragraph. I found the book online, and looking things up was easier, but still a slog. I read the first part and then was distracted by something and never went back.

RobinF

Veteran

Hmm, good question. I feel that way about a lot of the "classics". I should have read them but just can't. I have read a few Jane Austen but they are hard because I have to concentrate and I prefer lighter reading (but not too light - haha).

I read the first Harry Potter because my oldest was reading it and I felt like I should know what it was like. That was enough for me. Don't care for the movies either.

I have read one or two Jojo Moyes, forgettable. I tend to not like books that everyone says are great. I don't know if my expectations are too high or what but I now tend to stay away.

Jenni NZ

Veteran

The famous ones for me are the Thomas Hardy novels. My mother was mad on them and owned a whole set. She especially loved “Tess of the D’Ubervilles”. I did try to read that in perhaps late teens or early twenties but I just couldn’t get into it. ( It might show my lowbrow tastes that I loved the popular Judith Krantz novels at the time). After Mum died when I was 38 I had some guilt about donating the whole Thomas Hardy set!
I did, however, love Jane Austen and the two I own, Pride and Prejudice plus Persuasion, have been read many times. BTW those are from the Regency period more I think.

Jenni NZ

Veteran

Oh, regarding Shakespeare, the best thing ever was this little book I still have by Charles and Mary Lamb “Tales from Shakespeare”, which summarises the story lines of most of his plays. This has allowed me to attend plays and even a ballet and understand what is going on.

Jaime

(website)

Veteran

Ok, the title caught my eye and I immediately thought of The Man without Qualities. But I did read it. A long time ago. It was worth it. Eventually.

Style Fan

Veteran

Harry Potter. I have no desire to read the series, but I wonder what the fuss is. I loved Tolkien and the Narnia series, so I get fantasy, but I was younger.
Cloud Atlas. Everyone raves about it. I can't get past the first couple of pages. I try and try.

I am sure there are others.

kkards

Veteran

Omg. So many books on my list. Half the books my mother recommendeds.

Generally but not always, if it’s “Award” winning, I’m a no… so many dense boring books seem to win awards…or at least that’s been my experience.

On the other hand, I loved Harry Potter! And I love the Bridgerton series, but refuse to watch the Netflix version. Leave my characters alone.

JAileen

Veteran

Re Shakespeare: Between my Sophomore and Junior year of college my mother told me she wanted me to take something like Shakespeare, or she wouldn’t pay any more of my tuition. I said, “I’d love to study Shakespeare.” I was a Geography major in a class full of English majors. You can imagine how well I did. Nevertheless, I’m glad I took it.

Peri

Veteran

A Gentleman in Moscow. So many people have recommended it to me but I've never gotten past the sample.

Suz

(website)

Veteran

Just nobody say my books, please.

I am a Ulysses failure. I have tried to read it in book form, and audiobook, and I just cannot. If I can't manage Ulysses, I am sure I can't manage Finnegan's Wake. So I am in awe of you, Bonnie, even for trying!

It's weird because I liked Joyce's short stories and Portrait of an Artist.

I just failed -- to an extent -- with Ducks, Newburyport. I did get through 70% of it. But I got very bored and irritated with its length after a while.

I have yet to get through War & Peace, but I have more hopes of that one. I just need to find the right time.

Lisa, I'm also a not-yet on 100 Years of Solitude. Again, I have greater hopes for that one than the others I mentioned.

Like Lisa, I forgo all kinds of books and really don't worry much about what others read, what's on the best seller lists, or similar. If I don't feel like it/ it doesn't interest me, I generally ignore it. Apart from these few exceptions of books I want to to have read, for one or both of April's reasons.

avicennia

Veteran

Elena Ferrante — I made it through the first three of the Neapolitan series, but couldn’t make it through the fourth and final novel. I doubt I’ll ever try another Ferrante novel, they are beautiful, but devastating. And I’m embarrassed to admit that I find Anna Karenina to be tedious.

Sisi

Veteran

Dostoevskij. Makes me depressed.

bella

(website)

Veteran

Suz - I see your Ulysees and raise you "In Search of Lost Time," Proust.
Both are my kryptonite.

I do hope to get through Ferrante's Neapolitan books just purchased the first one. Wish me luck!

cjh

(website)

Veteran

Pride and Prejudice. I must have started it ten times. And some other classics which are dreadfully detailed with so many characters and bad manners and questionable motives.

Nope on the “beach read” best sellers, popular fiction series, fantasy, mysteries, historical romances and self help type books - I’ve found many to be weak in plot, language or actual helpfulness, inconsistent characters, plus usually way too long. I guess this leaves out half the library.

What I do like to read are non fiction -history, archeology, biography, memoirs, cookbooks- and some historical fiction that’s not centered on romance but more on life of the times.

kkards

Veteran

i'm so glad that i'm not the only one who could not get into the

Elena Ferrante Neapolitan books. i tried, but a big no from me. as was

A Gentleman in Moscow. just could not get into it, and i've tried both of these a couple of times

LJP

Veteran

kkards - same here re the Elena Ferrante and Gentleman in Moscow. Tried both of them more than once too. Weird .

Gaylene

Veteran

Despite a Honors English BA, I decided that life was too short to wade through certain literary classics simply because I was told they were “musts”. I can’t say I’ve suffered by not having read the entirety of Ulysses or In Search of Lost Time.

I have read War and Peace, Anna Karenina, most of Shakespeare’s plays, all of Jane Austin’s works, most of the Brontë sisters’ oeuvre, and a ton of Dickens—but all of which I read before I went university. These stories expanded my world and fueled my imagination as a pre-teen and teenager. I loved them for themselves, NOT for being classics.

Plodding through a book just to say I finished it makes no sense to me. Instead of appreciating the author’s genius, those books just made me resolve to never again read anything by that writer. Even a “difficult” book ought provide some reading pleasure—other than “I’m glad that’s finished!”.

My current guide is to subtract my age from 100 and use that number as the approximate number of pages I should read before tossing the book aside. Right now, that gives an author about 25 pages to draw me into a work…

Irina

Veteran

Sisi, Dostoevsky makes me depressed, too and I’m Russian!
read him when I was younger, don’t think would try again soon.

I have a huge hole in my education in terms of classical literature. I hope to catch up in retirement on it.

Style Fan

Veteran

I loved your book ,Suz.

Suz

(website)

Veteran

Oooh, thank you, Style Fan. Music to my ears.

And Bella, you made me laugh!

It really is a case of horses for courses, right? But also timing. If we hit a book at the right time in our own lives, we will connect with it. And if not, not! I do love the experience of picking up a book I've tried with, before, and finding myself completely engaged this time round. I also love re-reader old favourites and seeing them in a completely different way.

Gaylene

Veteran

Suz, it is so true that connecting with a book is as much about who we are at that point in our lives as it is about the author’s skill—and that re-reading an old favorite can be an interesting experience. I recently re-read Jane Eyre for a bookclub and was totally appalled that I had ever thought of Mr. Rochester and Jane’s relationship as romantic. In 2023, my reaction was more “Yikes, Jane, that man is a total loser…run! You deserve so much more.”

The connection between a reader and a book is a mysterious thing. One of my top ten best-books-ever is Rohinton Mistry’s A Fine Balance. It’s a hard book in many ways—and left me emotionally drained—but that book pinned me to a chair for three solid days. So many of my friends gave up on it, calling it too long and depressing, but I’m eternally grateful I didn’t listen to them.

And, for what it’s worth, Suz, I’d suggest your “In Anna Karenina Furs” to anyone who wonders why Anna Karenina is on so many must-read lists. Your essay is a brilliant piece of writing!

Irina

Veteran

Funny, the first time I have read Anna Karenina, I was 13
Mostly thought about suicide and it’s reasons but 90% of the book flew over my teen head
I’ve read the second time in my 30s and was shocked to find how much author doesn’t like Anna (imo, of course). At the time for me Anna’s affair, leaving a child behind was my main interest. I’ve read it the 3rd time and was mostly interested in author’s thoughts about rural life, society and how to be a “good landowner “.

It is a book that keeps on giving to me. Looking forward to reading it for the fourth time.

Suz, I enjoyed reading your essay a few years ago!

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