Discover new books on Goodreads
Meet your next favorite book

No matter how much you tell yourself 'it must be good because it's a classic!' you just couldn't wade through it. Maybe it was too depressing, too olde worlde, too complicated or just plain boring.....
1

by
3.76 avg rating — 141,049 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
2

by
4.11 avg rating — 960,472 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
3

by
3.57 avg rating — 631,421 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
4

by
4.17 avg rating — 375,647 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
5

by
3.61 avg rating — 457,755 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
6

by
really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 1,874,605 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
7

by
3.80 avg rating — 86,504 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
8

by
3.86 avg rating — 200,514 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
9

by
3.91 avg rating — 76,208 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
10

by
3.88 avg rating — 1,030,074 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
11

by
4.01 avg rating — 105,072 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
12

by
4.07 avg rating — 143,751 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
12

by
4.22 avg rating — 859,368 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
14

by
3.50 avg rating — 141,432 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
15

by
3.89 avg rating — 2,270,614 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
15

by
4.30 avg rating — 4,970,908 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
17

by
3.98 avg rating — 108,658 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
18

by
3.81 avg rating — 223,799 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
18

by
4.07 avg rating — 182,285 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
18

by
3.77 avg rating — 207,735 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
21

by
4.05 avg rating — 265,082 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
22

by
4.02 avg rating — 49,826 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
22

by
3.94 avg rating — 530,359 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
22

by
4.45 avg rating — 326,866 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
25

by
4.21 avg rating — 229,002 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
25

by
3.71 avg rating — 26,580 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
25

by
3.19 avg rating — 3,138 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
25

by
3.68 avg rating — 87,412 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
29

by
4.14 avg rating — 56,214 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
29

by
4.12 avg rating — 808,944 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
29

by
4.03 avg rating — 1,528,630 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
29

by
3.84 avg rating — 60,255 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
29

by
3.83 avg rating — 17,347 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
29

by
3.74 avg rating — 2,878,684 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
29

by
4.09 avg rating — 15,075 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
29

by
4.30 avg rating — 4,595,434 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
29

by
4.06 avg rating — 74,747 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
38

by
3.73 avg rating — 16,594 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
38

by
3.70 avg rating — 103,898 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
38

by
3.70 avg rating — 3,293,696 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
41

by
3.66 avg rating — 2,291 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
41

by
3.70 avg rating — 16,113 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
41

by
3.84 avg rating — 77,348 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
44

by
3.78 avg rating — 17,725 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
44

by
3.92 avg rating — 246,336 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
46

by
4.02 avg rating — 116,374 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
47

by
3.53 avg rating — 241,171 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
47

by
3.91 avg rating — 100,836 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
49

by
3.86 avg rating — 388,090 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
50

by
3.99 avg rating — 51,317 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
51

by
4.22 avg rating — 276,920 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
51 books · 41 voters · list created July 3rd, 2015 by ☆Ruth☆ (votes) .
5 likes · 
Lists are re-scored approximately every 5 minutes.


☆Ruth☆ 5223 books
45 friends
~☆~Autumn 8170 books
148 friends
Katherine 7733 books
119 friends
Misfit 5493 books
533 friends
Emily 3494 books
241 friends
Hunter 2836 books
59 friends
Michael 368 books
321 friends
P 756 books
10 friends

More voters…


Comments Showing 1-19 of 19 (19 new)

dateUp arrow    newest »

message 1: by ~☆~Autumn (new)

~☆~Autumn You are brave as some of these I would not even pick up as they appear to be so daunting!


message 2: by ☆Ruth☆ (new)

 ☆Ruth☆ Lol - They were daunting!


message 3: by ``Laurie (new)

``Laurie HA! Where do I begin??


message 4: by Michael (new)

Michael Schmicker Laurie wrote: "HA! Where do I begin??"

Aloha Laurie:
I found two on the list I could never get through. :)


message 5: by P (new)

P A couple weren't hard at all and were quite good, too, for me. Specifically, "On the Beach" and "A Tale of Two Cities."


message 6: by P.J. (new)

P.J. Sullivan James Joyce and William Faulkner come to mind.


message 7: by P (new)

P Autumn♥♥ wrote: "P. wrote: "A couple weren't hard at all and were quite good, too, for me. Specifically, "On the Beach" and "A Tale of Two Cities.""

I believe I read On The Beach twice but was unable to get into ..."


Autumn♥♥ wrote: "P. wrote: "A couple weren't hard at all and were quite good, too, for me. Specifically, "On the Beach" and "A Tale of Two Cities.""

I believe I read On The Beach twice but was unable to get into ..."


P.J. wrote: "James Joyce and William Faulkner come to mind.

I'll give Lucifer's Hammer a look.



message 8: by ``Laurie (new)

``Laurie P. wrote: "A couple weren't hard at all and were quite good, too, for me. Specifically, "On the Beach" and "A Tale of Two Cities.""

We were forced to read "A Tale of Two Cities" in the 9th grade or I would've never stuck with that one.


message 9: by ``Laurie (new)

``Laurie P.J. wrote: "James Joyce and William Faulkner come to mind."


I wish I could remember the Faulkner book I tried to read once but it's been so long ago.

I'm not even going to attempt reading Joyce.


message 10: by ~☆~Autumn (last edited Jun 26, 2016 11:53AM) (new)

~☆~Autumn Laurie wrote: "P.J. wrote: "James Joyce and William Faulkner come to mind."


I wish I could remember the Faulkner book I tried to read once but it's been so long ago.

I'm not even going to attempt reading Joyce."


I read a couple of little James Joyce books just so I could say I read it. He was mostly boring but will recommend the one I read to you as it wasn't too bad. I don't know what the big deal could be! Mostly for people who love Ireland I think.


message 11: by ``Laurie (last edited Jul 05, 2015 10:14PM) (new)

``Laurie Autumn♥♥ wrote: "Laurie wrote: "P.J. wrote: "James Joyce and William Faulkner come to mind."


I wish I could remember the Faulkner book I tried to read once but it's been so long ago.

I'm not even going to atte..."


I believe it's his book "Ulysses" that is either loved or abhorred. His other books might be good but I've never gotten around to reading them.


message 12: by ``Laurie (new)

``Laurie I hear all these rave reviews about how great a book is and I become very curious to see what all the fuss was about. I'm too impatient to tolerate the "stream of consciousness" style of writing anyway. I'm busy and I don't have time to figure out what the author is talking about, but that's just me.


message 13: by P.J. (new)

P.J. Sullivan Some of Joyce's books are readable, but "Ulysses" and "Finnegan's Wake" are not. Both have been made into semi-intelligible movies.


message 14: by ``Laurie (new)

``Laurie Thanks for the information P.J. and I think I would prefer to watch the movie instead of reading the books.


message 15: by Malika (new)

Malika The Time Traveler was simply magnificent!!! Idk how anyone could pick that one, but that's just my opinion :)


message 16: by ~☆~Autumn (new)

~☆~Autumn Is Outlander a classic? I don't think so! Some of the books on here are NOT classics IMO.


message 17: by Chris (new)

Chris Gager King James bible is in there twice. Some of the books on my list were ones I couldn't get through in HS, but did happily later on(David Copperfield) and others WILL(I promise) be read in full at some date(The Iliad).


message 18: by P.J. (new)

P.J. Sullivan Dan Poynter said that the ideal length of a book is 144 pages; the maximum is 288 pages. This is good advice for authors.


message 19: by Chris (new)

Chris Gager If only writers would follow those guidelines!


back to top



Related News

This weekend, take some time and catch up with the latest in the book world! Let's begin with the books that trended this week on Goodreads. These...

Anyone can add books to this list.