I just slogged through a list of classics you’re “allowed” to skip.

And, you don’t have to read every classic in order to be considered well read. We’re all reading for fun and unless it is required reading for school you don’t have to read anything you don’t find enjoyment in. Anyone that tells you otherwise is engaging in intellectual gatekeeping in order to feel morally superior.

But, if your biggest critique of a work of literature is that there are too many foreign names to keep track, that the story is disturbing (the metamorphosis and the yellow wallpaper), or that the work is challenging to read—that’s just intellectual laziness