I've totally fallen prey to the "It's an important/classic book, so I should read it" thing.
The Charterhouse of Parma sat on a shelf for years before I finally read it and, really, I wasn't that impressed.
I have the entire series of Trollope's Pallisher (sp? because I'm too lazy to go look) novels and have never even opened them. They do look nice sitting there in the shelf though.
I went through a period in my early 20's where I decided to read "all" the classics and I really did read a lot of them. I've probably read more classics than the average person because I was so dorkily obsessed with the task. Still - as CCL knows - I never have been able to finish
Vanity Fair, although I've tried twice. Same with
Middlemarch. Sometimes, you just don't click with a particular writing style, I guess.