Readers of the classics: do you read them because...?

a) You actually like them

b) You have to

c) You want to show people up with your knowledge

d) You want to refute the pretentious gits that talk about the classics

e) You keep hearing about them and want to know what all the fuss is about

Mostly a and e for me. I haven't liked them all (I gave up on Catcher in the Rye not far in; teenage angst, ugh), but it's nice to get out of my usual comfort zone and learn about history and the way different people think. Even though they are fiction, I think the tales are good historical ethnographies, painting a picture of how people thought and acted in the time/place the story was set in. Reading Les Miserables at the moment; he rambles, but the characters and the overall theme make up for it.