Classics You Don't Have To Read

If you’re plagued by guilt from your own reading list—with the classics piling up—have no fear. Second Pass has compiled a list of much-revered books that simply aren’t worth the read. Their list includes One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, because “magical realism wasn’t much of a trick to begin with”’ The Road by Cormac McCarthy, which “threatens to send even his best work off the rails”; On The Road by Jack Kerouac, which the Second Pass readers “slogged through until the last line, repulsed by the sloppiness, the sexism, the sappiness.” They even take down Charles Dickens for A Tale of Two Cities, which “remains one of his most read novels because of its appeal to high school-age students—or rather, to their teachers.” The list may be a controversial one, but if you listen to them, it’ll likely be a big weight off your chest. Or at least, your bookshelf.