Well, but guys don't read it, do they? I always had the impression that they were reading Tom Swift or something, and my, didn't that statement just date me.
My dad actually read Little Women out loud to me when I was a kid, and he cried when SPOILER SPOILER Beth died. That said, I had read Shakespeare, Twain, and Little Women from this list by the time I was 20. I was raised more on fantasy and science fiction classics than traditional American classics, and my tastes have stayed that way. :)
It was never covered in school. Nor was Holmes (well, maybe we read one short bit of him in elementary school). Shakespeare was only Romeo and Juliet, Julius Ceasar, and Hamlet. I think we had read a shortened version of Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer.
I thankfully took an extra class just on Shakespeare at a summer camp since the way it was taught in school was pretty bad (one teacher had us skip every scene in Ceasar that involved Portia because she didn't care for the character.
As for Austen, I've never been able to get into her work. I got about 50% through Emma before becoming bored with it, barely made it a chapter with Pride and prejudice, and got a chunk of Northanger Abbey done before getting tired of it. Granted I never read anything by Verne, either!
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Date: 2014-03-12 06:53 pm (UTC)Granted, I haven't read a single book out of that whole list you have at the top of the page. :/
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Date: 2014-03-12 06:57 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-03-12 07:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-03-12 07:46 pm (UTC)I do get what you're saying, but it's something I've found frustrating since I was a teen myself.
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Date: 2014-03-15 03:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-03-12 07:07 pm (UTC)I thankfully took an extra class just on Shakespeare at a summer camp since the way it was taught in school was pretty bad (one teacher had us skip every scene in Ceasar that involved Portia because she didn't care for the character.
As for Austen, I've never been able to get into her work. I got about 50% through Emma before becoming bored with it, barely made it a chapter with Pride and prejudice, and got a chunk of Northanger Abbey done before getting tired of it. Granted I never read anything by Verne, either!