That there are many classic must-read books that I just have never read:
Emma,
Catcher in the Rye,
Don Quixote,
and so on.
To become a better writer one must always read. And I'm an avid reader, so why haven't I read these classics that people always talk about? For one, everyone always talks about them so it's not like I don't know what's going to happen in it and two, some of the truly older classics are so long-winded and boring that it's hard to get through the book to harvest the great story. I really don't want to have a whole chapter where all the author is don't is explaining the setting. If the characters aren't around to help break up the expository, why read it?
Yet I have read/seen most of Shakespeare's work, loved some of the ancient philosophical texts, and am always interested in great pieces of writing no matter when it was written. Someone recently recommended a book by Georgette Heyer Frederica. The style was definitely different and the pace slower but it was a delight to read something that wasn't the same old books that seem to follow out into the market today. Georgette Heyer though new to me started writing in 1921 and ended up writing over 50 novels and her first one has yet to go out of print.
So it's not as though I'm against older books but the modern audience doesn't want huge overloaded passages without paragraphs and over the top length descriptions of places (well, I don't know about you but I don't).
Are there any "classic" books that you absolutely loved but no one else has read?
To hunt for a new author (well new to me at least),
Melissa