I had a really hard time getting through the Grapes of Wrath -- John Steinbeck, Pulitzer & Nobel Prize winning author wrote this classic masterpiece & I absolutely hated it!

But I LOVED Moby Dick! Also, C&P by Fyodor Dostoyevsky which a lot of people do not like. Guess I march to the out of tune beats of my own drum :-)

Yes, definitely, Debra! Stay tuned for that thread �

Thanks for your contributions, everyone. So here's the official BellaOnline Top Five Most Boring Classic Novels of All Time:

(Drum roll � )

Silmarillion � J. R. R. Tolkien
Tender is the Night � F. Scott Fitzgerald
War and Peace � Leo Tolstoy
Iliad � Homer
Grapes of Wrath � John Steinbeck

Sorry about the last one, Mona � it got a second vote at the last minute Luckily there are thousands of great books out there still, and I'm sure some of you are struggling, like me, to keep your to-read list manageable.

Happy reading!

Just thought I'd drop by and say I've finally finished Anna Karenina via audiobook. There were two times that I was a little bored and must admit to hitting the fast forward button for a few minutes.

There was a time that I felt as though I could kill Anna myself and put her out of MY misery as she neurotically went back and forth between loving/trusting Vronsky and seeing betrayal in every minute word or expression - thinking her suicide would punish him.

I was surprised her husband took the baby girl from Vronsky, but then I suppose I don't understand Russian society and culture of that time.

All in all - I'd rather listen to the book than read it. It's wonderfully charming while you're cleaning the house or driving, but I think it would become mind-numbingly dull to read.

Thank-you so much, I really appreciate that. I think it's such a shame.

There's a huge difference actually there - I've only read Lolita out of Nabokov's books. She's a very strong minded character and completley gets all her own way, and not even using her sexuality - Lolita's a very complex character - I ended up loving her and hating the lead.

I agree, there's not enough female leads - but I have to point the fingure back at girls. I remember on watching nearly all the Harry Potter movies in the cinema that when Emma Watson came on the screen (my favorite character) - every time apart from the last two movies, a hoard of boos would go up against her from other young girls, which I was really shocked by, as she's intelligent and usually gets them out of the scrapes they're in - I love Hermionie.

Nancy Drew is still the only one I can think of for teens, that I feel is a positive role model.

LOL, I know what you mean, Amy. She's like Hamlet that way � such a modern character, annoyingly unheroic and neurotic.

Audiobooks are definitely the answer to some of the classics we've mentioned here, because at least you can spend your "reading" time engaged in something productive. You still get the benefit of the whole text and the ability to use your imagination, so it's not like just watching the movie version. Plus, the fast-forward button helps move things along!

Well the Anne Radcliffe books are actually quite fun in their way but she does have a habit of building up climaxes and then nothing happens and then eventually you get a climax where something does happen and you've got a bit fed up! There's some beautiful descriptive writing though which is reminiscent of a Canaletto painting. I'd suggest starting with The Mysteries of Udolpho or The Italian and perhaps then give Romance of the Forest a try if you like the other two.

I know people just love this classic 'Wuthering Heights' but I found it extremely boring in the beginning, so didn't even complete it. Just read like 20-30 pages

I read a classic called 'North and South'and it was so boring. I can't remember the author though.