Ronni:
Tolstoy: "W&P," too darn long.
Austen: Never felt the urge.
Others: Read 'em all.

Top least-favorite: Henry James. I'd rather eat broken glass.

Started reading at seven, working my way through everything I could lay my hanbds on. Still going strong.

I used to feel guilty if I diodn't like a "classic," and forced myself to finish.

Now. If it doesn't grab me by the first 10 or 16 pages, I toss it. Nothing to prove; no time to waste.

I agree with MarcL - War & Peace did not appeal not to mention the length.

I belong to 3 libraries so this is obviously a big joy for me.
Got a Kindle only for when I travel; less schlepping to do!!

I adore Jane Austin because she's really a comic writer - as a writing teacher of mine at Boston's Grub Street says, "She skewers everybody."

I've tried reading "Ulysses" several times and have given up. I hate it. I'm also not fond of anything F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote, even "Gatsby," even though I know people who re-read it every year. Including that same writing instructor.

My sister-in-law says her mother told her that if she loved to read she'd never be alone, and that says it all.

6 out of 10 British - a pity there's no Steinbeck or Updike. Could never get into Lord of the Rings or War and Peace, but have read all the rest.

I feel antsy without a book (sometimes more than one ) on the go. A really rivetting one will find me preferring that to spending time on the PC.

Lately I've been enjoying older writers like May Sarton, Florida Scott Maxwell and Diane Athill whose recounting of their experiences at a great age seems more relevant to me now.

I think the reason more than half the authors mentioned are British is that the survey was done in Britain, right?

I have been a voracious reader all my life. Recently, faced with the fact that realistically I don't have that many more years left, I took stock and decided I needed to be doing what I truly love because it was now or never. Came to the conclusion that what I love is reading. And eating cake. LOL. Since I cannot eat all the cake that I would like, I am gorging myself on books.

I love those Russian authors and even E.M. Forster and Henry James but have never been able to go past the first few pages of an Austen book or the Lord of the Rings/Hobbit/etc.

Since time is short I have been maximizing my book time by listening to audiobooks. It's a good way to "re-read" Dickens or any very long book.

To the commenter who mentioned Ulysses: I had tried for at least 50 yrs to read Joyce and Proust. Can't count the times I bought their books. Then suddenly this summer something clicked and I was able to get into both authors and truly enjoy their work. I am so glad I persisted.

Hard list to crack, but no Hemingway? Have read nine of ten on the list, plus all of Papa's.Only recently got around to Jane Eyre. I thought it was excellent.

Read 8 of them....can't handle the Russians, keeping all those names straight gives me a headache. The Brontes are goddesses in my book, I made a pilgrimage to their home in Yorkshire and slept overnight in the Black Bull Inn where their brother drank himself to death. Ah, romance.

6 of 10 here. I once told my mother that reading was like watching a movie in my head. She is not a reader, but encouraged me to read anything and everything.

As a child I read every biography in the children's section of our library - but only about women!

Read 'em all but did NOT enjoy all. At a young age I had this stupid compulsion that I HAD to finish what I started!
Not anymore--have a doubt , throw it out!
My eyes are definitely on the fritz so I have to really like a book to read it through.
Have become a mystery fan--in fact have joked that the police should call me in on a case or two!
One of my old favorites was anything by Daphne duMaurier--no not just Rebecca or Suspician--she really took you wherever the action was--so much fun!
Bravo for the Last Tango in
Halifax! And thanks for that comment about Henry James to
Marc--agree completely!

Your post brought to mind hollow books (yes!) that people lined their bookshelves with! Leather-bound "classics" that were unreadable because nothing was between the covers! And yet these volumes/homeowners undoubtedly impressed (some) visitors who wouldn't approach a book, real or hollow. A high school pal's parents had friends with such "classics." I never forgot their sad "library" probably because mine was a book-lined home with well-eared books. And I have remained a bookworm!

1984:Read several times
W&P-same experience as yours
Great Ex: read three or four times
Catcher:Three or four
Passage to India:two or three times and liked it :)
LOTR: first read it in the 60's, over a christmas holiday, straight through. I was in bed sick. A great way to read it, and I re-read it every so often as it is a comfortable old friend. Have read it many times, most recently this last spring.
Mocking Bird : Two or three times
Crime and Punishment: not sure... I started it but found it hard going. Do not think all that much of the Russian novelists I guess.
Pride and Prejudice:more than once but I do not adore it as some people seem to
Jane Eyre: yes! Many times
So, what does this say? i have always loved to read and we did not get a T V till after the Kennedy assassination when I was 14. I was shy and an only child. Reading was and still is my escape and solace.
I raed two or three books a week and watch little or no TV -just Netflix, so the apple doesn't fall far or something. I am still working as a music teacher but with a reduced load, so 3 days a week.
I have many books in my bookcases that I have not read but they are there because where else would they be, LOL?

Read all but Great Expectations and that is some kind of accident as I've enjoyed other Dickens.

My partner just got an audio copy of Middlemarch by George Elliot -- we admitted to each other we'd never read it despite it being one of a general sort of classics we've both read. She likes it a lot.

I am seldom daunted by length: one of my all time favorite books is Moby Dick, another under-read classic.

I no longer read books. I will skim them at best.
I watch and listen to various news and financial shows. I have my computer on my lap for several hours a day and search, read, and skim. I don't know what happened--I used to read before the digital age. Films, aka, movies is also one of my pastimes.
I think reading looks like a great pastime, I just cannot do it any longer. My loss.

Yes:1, 2, 3, & 10; No:4, 5,9; Probably, can't swear to it: 6, 7, 8. I do remember reading most of Dickens, many Conrad, all Michener, and several Hemingway plus *Ivanhoe*. These days I'm into the mystery genre. I think my attention span has been shortened and I'm too distractible for heavier reading. I've rarely read a book more than once and move too often to lug books, so bookshelf these days is electronic. I can download both audio and print books from my library. How cool is that?

I repeated 3 grades in school because of math. Reading was my refuge.

Like Marc, I read all the books on the list above, and as an English teacher, I shared a long list of book room classics with my students.

Mom and I hit the library every week. She taught me to love reading.

I almost burned the house down as a kid while reading into the night.

I put a felt poodle skirt over my reading lamp so my father would think I was fast asleep.

But no. I was reading.

I've read all except A Passage to India (saw the movie) and Catcher (don't like the sound of it).
I've always been an avid reader and read W&P voluntarily while at school. After all this time, I can only think of Woody Allen's famous joke about speed-reading - it's about Russia! I think it was soon after that I decided I didn't have to finish every book I started.
And personally I'd put George Eliot (Middlemarch) ahead of Dickens (twee excerpts in school readers) and Brontes.

Surprisingly, I have only read three of the list and only one more than twice (Lord of the Rings). I think I started a couple of the others and never finished them. Over the last few years I came to a couple of conclusions. First, more books are published than I can possibly read. Second, not all of the so called classics are really worth the trouble to read them. Third, I don't feel much obligation to read or even finish everything out there. Often lately I read a reference to a book I remember reading many years and for the life of me I can't remember what they are about. I read what I want now and only as much as interests me.

Have read maybe half on your list, that I remember! I read for entertainment now (mysteries), alternating with a 'thinking' book, tho believe I get something out of most books, including hearty laughs or a flash of remembrance or a racing heart. I cheated and had others write reports for book evaluations in school, having no patience for the classics. Prefer reading about the American Indians.
So many good book ideas - now I'll reconsider those classics or reread some old favorites as LOTR. I believe it will be with different views and feelings, as my visions have changed and this adds to love of reading, even as a book hits the out box after a few chapters.