CRP's Blog

Six brave individuals bared their literary souls and shared the classics they’ve avoided or missed.  We’ve managed to hold our own despite these reading resumé gaps, but…there are plenty of ellipses in this roundup. Share your unread classic with us on Twitter (if you dare) using #CRPreads.

Somehow, I was never required to read any Faulkner in high school, or as an English major in college. I’m not sure how I managed to get off the hook. Struggling through The Sound and the Fury alongside one’s classmates seemed like a very common rite of passage that I completely missed out on. Still, the FOMO wasn’t enough to ever get me to take up the daunting task of tackling the book alone. —Caitlin Eck, publicity manager

I’ve never read Julius Caesar (unless this version counts). My sophomore-year English teacher assigned Henry V instead—probably because she’s a Kenneth Branagh fangirl and wanted to screen the movie version in class. There’s also a gaping hole in my literary education where Hemingway should be. I was assigned The Old Man and the Sea when I was fourteen, and unfortunately it poisoned the well. Haven’t picked up a Hemingway title since. Now that my old wounds have (mostly) healed, I should probably try The Sun Also Rises or A Farewell to Arms, but. . .I haven’t. –Ellen Hornor, project editor

I’m embarrassed to admit I’ve never read Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe. Somehow it was never a part of assigned reading and I never picked up the book on my own. I read selections from it, especially after Achebe’s death, and I’ve let people think by sin of omission that I’ve read it. But I haven’t. . .yet. —Mary Kravenas, marketing manager

I haven’t read The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn or Tom Sawyer. Since they’re so short, I know I could finish them pretty quickly so I keep putting it off. One of these days I’ll get around to it. . . —Emily Lewis, editorial and marketing assistant

I’ve never read 1984 or Catch-22 (they were never assigned, either) and commonly refer to them as the “number books that I’ll get to one day.” One day. . . —Meaghan Miller, senior publicist

Female colleagues at a different publishing house called me a “traitor to my gender” when I confessed that I’d never read any Jane Austen. It wasn’t required school reading for me, and I’ve just never gotten around to it. Sorry, ladies. —Lindsey Schauer, project editor

Tune in next week when we’ll be back to sharing books or articles we’ve read (or are in the process of reading).