Book Blogger Hop
This week’s question is courtesy of Billy at Coffee Addicted Writer and is…
“Name one classic novel you have always wanted to read.”
This is quite a hard question for me to answer because I really struggle with the classics. I have tried my hardest, but I just don’t think they are for me. Don’t all hate me but I have never even read a single Jane Austen or Charles Dickens book. I think my issue with the classics started when I was eleven and had just moved up to secondary school. Without wishing to sound smug, my English teacher could see how much I adored books and that the ones we were reading in class were quite a way below my reading level. As such she set me off on my own with Rebecca and Wuthering Heights. Now, Rebecca I loved and have read many times since – that opening line is one of my all time favourites. Wuthering Heights, that was another story entirely. I think at eleven I was just too young to understand the depths of the book. I have always meant to pick it up again, but have never got round to it. Anyway, I digress…
There are lots of classics that I own and want to read one day – I have collections by Dickens, Austen, Dumas, Conan Doyle. I even have The Canterbury Tales and The Iliad. But they are all sitting unread. I am determined to crack them at some point. Of all my vast collection though, I think the one that I want to read the most is one that is probably the most daunting, not least because it is enormous, and that is Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables. I have lost count of the number of times I have seen the stage show, and whilst I realise the book is going to be vastly different, I think I owe it to my love of the musical to read Jean Valjean’s full story. I have tried a few times, but never made it very far – tiny writing and a heavy book are not great for Spoonie readers. However, I now have a nice shiny version sitting on my Kindle, so those excuses are out the window. As soon as I sit down to tackle it again, I will let you know how I got on.
Are you a fan of the classics? If you had to choose one classic to read, what would it be?
Mai's Musings 
I struggle with classics too and haven’t read many. I loved Jane Eyre and Christmas Carol but need to read others because I feel like a dunce at writing group. My fave is an Australian classic The Term of his Natural Life by Marcus Clarke despite a whole chapter describing the sea. I loved the series in 80s which helped.
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