Actually, for me, many. I guess I am just not brainy enough to appreciate them. Those that come to mind are “Moby Dick”, “Ulysses”, “Crime and Punishment”. Many classics I had to read in high school I did finish because I had to, but I didn’t really enjoy them.
Then there are the ones I loved like “The Good Earth”, “My Antonia” that others probably didn’t care for.
Moby Dick! How many pages can you take to describe the head of the spear? My mom had to come into my room every 15 minutes to wake me up, it was so boring. Stupid me, I actually read the book while all my classmates read the Cliffnotes.
Jane Eyre…I just thought it was deadly boring.
A lot. I tried to get through the 100 greatest novels of all time or whatever the list was one time and I just couldn’t. I got about a quarter through and hated 80% of them.
Moby Dick is one. I just did not care. At all. We actually read it in the class that Mr R and I met in (I don’t remember him being in the class, but that’s another story). It’s been 10 years and he still laughs at how freaking miserable I was when I had to do my “creative project” on the book.
The Catcher in the Rye. My summary: “wahh! I’m rich and life is hard! Listen to me whine.” I didn’t finish it. Couldn’t.
Scarlet Letter - pretty much the same reason as Moby Dick. I didn’t need multipage descriptions of mundane things. It’s really not as deep as anyone wants you to think.
Shakespeare. Literally just anything from him. I know, I know I’m uncultured swine but I just don’t find his stuff as entertaining or profound as others. I’ve tried in so many forms and I just… can’t. It is what it is lol.
I’m a huge reader. As a child one of my favorite books was Anne of Green Gables so that should tell you a lot…and right now I probably read 50 books a year plus my weekly New Yorker and Economist.
That being said I could never finish, or even get very far into Little Women or Gone With the Wind as a child. They bored me to tears.
More recently I couldn’t finish Lolita (topic too unappealing) I also started and really liked Moby Dick, but didn’t finish. But it did make me want to visit Cape Cod in the winter… Basically at this point, a lot of history and non fiction books I start, but then don’t finish for whatever reason. I think they make their point and then make it again and again.
I say this as a recovering Philosophy major, so don’t come for me. When I read for myself I don’t want to be bored or have to wade thru too much dense language. Consequently, not a huge classics fan. Bronte sisters, Dickens’ Great Expectation, Hemingway’s Old Man and the Sea, most Shakespeare… nope nope nope. (Although I enjoyed Bell Tolls and Alls Quiet)
Now, hand me a classic children’s fantasy and I’m yours. Wind in the Willows, Narnia (just overlooking the allegory aspect), Aesop, Grimm, Irving, Anderson, Kipling… all of it! Love!
Mine too!! I actually dyed my dirty blonde hair red when I was around 9. How I convinced my mother, I have no idea!
@TheFrenchChef and @ChaosParent23 have either of you watched Anne with an E? It’s an Anne adaptation that my mom and I both fell in love with.
It does take some distinct deviations from the books and sometimes is a bit darker, but it’s won several awards.
No! I keep meaning to watch it, but haven’t gotten around to it yet. I should get to it though… it’ll be a nice change after watching the new episodes of Peaky Blinders!! 
@ChaosParent23 I will warn that the few episodes are a little rough - and a bit darker than the rest of the series (they explore her history and trauma a bit to set up for who Anne is). They find their footing though and then it really takes off.
And it’s absolutely, breathtakingly gorgeous. A lot of it was shot in PEI.
Does Ayn Rand’s work count? I tried to get through The Fountainhead. The hectoring tone was so offensive. She spent hundreds of pages telling me to think for myself, so I did. I still feel guilty criticizing her ideals never having finished any of her books.
Great Expectations. I was supposed to read it in a high school class but I couldn’t get past the first page.
Orwell’s Animal Farm–hated it! I understood who the animals were supposed to represent (even when I was a freshman in high school) but just couldn’t deal with the annoyance). The funny thing was I liked 1984, and even used it as the basis for an original oratory that I wrote and performed that won several forensic awards for me during my senior year in HS…
Literature major here who seriously dislikes Jane Austen. Sense and Sensibility is absolute drivel and one of the worst books I’ve ever read. Unlikeable characters, dull plot, and verbose. I much prefer the plain style of Hemingway over Austen.
The Odessey and the Iliad. I know they are poems not novels but could not enjoy them. Listened to a multipart breakdown of them by a noted academic and that was amazing. The underlying craftsmanship and symbolism is amazing. I just didn’t enjoy them at first glance.
However Canterbury Tales, although relatively ancient as well was more enjoyable. Even in old English. I enjoyed the iambic pentameter (?) or rhythm more. The stories were more relatable and kind of funny I recall, to me.
But it’s super short at least! I went through a Hemingway phase as a teen, sometime before or after my Wharton, Austen, Irving, Bellow and Heller phases.
I like Catcher in the Rye but I was raised in a New England boarding school environment and knew more than one angsty screw up like Holden.
Agree about Ayn Rand - so bad.
Wuthering Heights - blech.
I have family members who love Gabriel Garcia Marquez. I’ve tried more than once with 100 Years of Solitude. Just can’t. The sentences run on and on and his style is way too flowery for me.
Didn’t care for Alice in Wonderland at all.
Still have lots of classics I need to read.
Crime and Punishment. Ugh.
I think some of these books were real lightweights of their time though. Some are only classics by some arbitrary measure. My Chaucer option at A level was probably just a naughty trash mag story back in the day when you know, literacy wasn’t a thing. I am trying to catch up on audio and can’t get past the first sentence of Lolita. I am doomed.
Absalom, Absalom!
I actually loved Moby Dick. I’ve read it three or four times in my life.
Lonesome Dove and All the Pretty Horses. Both were slogs for me. Maybe it is the Western genre I don’t care for.