Do you believe people when they say that they are reading the classics?

Question: Do you believe people when they say that they are reading the classics!?

Whenever anyone asks in a poll what people are reading, there is inevitably a large group that answers with things like 'Moby Dick' and 'War and Peace' and other impressive sounding titles!.
Do you think its true, or are they full of it and just trying to sound smart and educated!?Www@QuestionHome@Com

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker:

OK I liked the question and leapt in without checking out your other answers!.!.!.!.

The supposed scoop on Oprah's book club is that people buy those commended books, and they line rooms with them, and the books barely get read!. Its like having cookery books as a sexy substitute for cooking!.

Check the spine out on those books, then you know if its true!. A broken book spine says 'I was read', a partially broken spine says 'I might get finished'!. A perfect spine says 'I have never been read or only by an exceedingly cautious person'!. I have known that to happen, but only by one person, its rare!.

I read them, a lot!. I'm afraid I break their spines and get bath water on them!. But some truly defeat me!. The best judge of who reads what and what it means to them is to listen to them talk!. Someone who reads the classics (or pretends to) as a mere job of work will just bore you!. Someone who tells you about it and makes you WANT to go and read War and Peace is quite unique and actively reading and participating!.

Well as you may have guessed I never finished War and Peace' but Anna Karenina is just the business and feels as hot, true and dangerous as if it was written yesterday!.!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

I read one heckofalotta' classics years ago for Eng!. Lit!. --and found out why they are called classics!. Most can be re-read several times, and are usually found to be 'deeper' or 'different' each time!.

I just finished another cyberspace great by William Gibson!.
Now it's a toss-up between reading The Good Fairies of New York by Martin Millar or The Poet by Michael Connelly!.

Gibson's edges toward classic, since this one was written in '88, is still going strong, and is very re-readable!.!.!.
!.!.!.The other two don't sound like classics to me!. Not now!.
Connelly writes mysteries, and Millar writes fantasy, I think; both are as yet unknown quantities to me, but recommended!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

The demographics in Yahoo Answers give me reason to believe that a large number of people posting here are in high school or college!. This means chances are a good deal of them are actually reading classics (be it for pleasure or not, that I can't say)!.

When I was a teen, I read a lot of classics because I wanted to!. I liked the adventure ones, though, i!.e!. The Three Musketeers, The Count of Montecristo, Ivanhoe!. Or the romance ones like Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights or Rebecca!.

A true bookworm (and there are quite a few here as well) will read almost anything and everything, and that will include classics as well as pulp/trash fiction!.

Bottomline, a few may be trying to "impress" but I don't think most people are!.

*empties her commuter bag* This is what I have right now in my bag: "Dark Need" by Lynn Viehl (which I finished on my way to work), "Evermore" by Lynn Viehl, "When he was Bad" by Shelly Laurenston and Cynthia Eden, and "Ever Yours" by Gabriella Anderson (re-read)!. I also carry around a 4G flash drive with my collection of ebooks, in case I get too bored at work!. I have been reading mostly fluff over the past five years and having a grand time with it!. :DWww@QuestionHome@Com

well, Moby Dick and War and Peace are both long so maybe they HAVE been reading them!.!.!.for, like a year!.

I suspect there is a large amount who are "full of it", but there are probably also people who are rereading what they read in high school!. The teen brain reads things differently than the adult brain!. Many of the books I read in high school, I enjoyed much more as an adult!. Likewise, some of the things I loved in school, I go back and read as an adult and think "I thought THIs was good!?"

To answer your last question, last night, I just finished reading "Beastly", which is a modern take of Beauty and the Beast!. I teach 8th grade and this is on the state award list, so I'm trying to read them before the school year!. Next I'll read "Wednesday Wars"!. Overall, when it comes to enjoyment, I read trashy romance novels and bloody horror novels (I can read 1 a weekend duringt he school year)!. I read about 50 young adult books a year to make me a better teacher so I can give suggestions to my students!. Of the literary classics!.!.!.0!. I DO read some literary novels, but they are modern literary novels, not the dead white guy tomes they teach in school!. I had enough classics forced on me in school!. Now I like to read books by people who are actually alive to receive the royalties!. :)Www@QuestionHome@Com

My wife hated "Moby Dick"!. I thought it was at least a cool adventure story, without going into all the psychological stuff!. Herman Melville actually went to the South Pacific on a whaler, his stuff was pretty real for the time!. I thought the best thing about "War And Peace" was it proved I had patience - very slow reading, and from a mindset that I didn't understand well!. On the other hand, the Classics ARE the classics because they usually embrace important and relatively timeless pieces about people, which is the most interesting subject! Stipulating you actually did your homework in a typical US English class your junior and senior year in High School, you've read a lot of the "Western" classics already!. And if you're a movie-watcher, you've seen visual presentations of a lot of them, too!Www@QuestionHome@Com

Definitely!. I know that most of the books that I own are classics, so I can safely assume that there are other people out there who read the same books that I do!. Although, I do see where this question comes from, as I have friends who read one or two of the classics and then claim that they are well read on them!.

I am reading "War and Peace" (no lie, I promise) right now!. It does take a long time, but I hope to finish within a week!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

yeah, well, what's it going to do for them if everyone on yahoo answers knows you're smart!!? I mean yeah, you look smart to them but in real life you're still just a moron!.!.!.it doesn't get you anywhere!. You can tell them anything you want and nothing is going to change for you!

Then again!.!.!.maybe that's exactly why they say it!. So that they can have a place where they go where people think they are smart, since they have no life in reality, hmmm, could be!

Really makes ya think! : )

I'm not exactly reading anything right now, I finished all the books I recently got from the library!. I just finished the notebook!. I'll probably go and get more soon!Www@QuestionHome@Com

some people may be making it up, but a lot of people still do read the classics, i am currently reading lady chatterly's lover, but had you asked 2 weeks ago, i would have said Chantelle Houghtons biography!. i have read quite a few classics and still intend to read more, but i do like to break it up with more modern stuff, like J K Rowling and Garth Nix's stuff, and even the odd biograophy, or autobiography!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

I think some actually are reading them, and some are trying to sound smart!. I actually study world literature and wish I had a penny for everytime someone asks "have you read THAT book!? It's soooo good, you have to read it" (and it's mostly NOT classics :)
I'm reading Jean Anouilh's Antigone right now (and yeah, have read the one by Sophokles too) :)Www@QuestionHome@Com

I think that when people say they are reading a classic, they probably are!.!.!. at least I hope they are! I do think it is good to be reading pretty much no matter what you are reading!
Right now I am reading Eclipse (just got hooked on Twilight series--had to see what all this talk is about!) and I just started Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey last night!. Speaking of classics, I must recommend everything of Jane Austen's!Www@QuestionHome@Com

Some people do read, or have already read, classics, but there is also a possibility they do just want to sound smart!.

"The Notebook", (reread) 4th Harry Potter, "Treasure Island" and "The Man in the Iron Mask!." Not joking, I read more than one book at a time!. God bless!Www@QuestionHome@Com

Yes, I believe them; I like to reread classics!. However, if someone tells me they're reading "Finnegan's Wake", I always think they're lying!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

People actualy do read the classics, but some people do make it up!.

"Classics- books everyone praises, but nobody reads"-Mark Twain!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

There's no reason for me not to believe them!.

I'm certainly not reading one now!. I'm reading:
The Overlook, Michael Connelly (Harry Bosch)Www@QuestionHome@Com

The classics are worth reading!. And people who read do not have to lie about what they are reading or what they have read!.
The Confessions of Nat Turner by William StyronWww@QuestionHome@Com

Alot of people do read the classics, its what makes them classics! I am sure there are people out there making it up though, mainly younger people!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

yes there are people reading classics!. They are not sounding smart, just they know the best stuff out there is classics

I'm reading Dickens's Pickwick PapersWww@QuestionHome@Com