Reading a classic you have never read but know anyway

I love reading classics. Even if I haven't read them before, it's almost like visiting an old friend, or finally getting to know that best friend of a good friend. Because, even if I haven't read a classic, I might have heard about it, seen a play, watched a movie, talked to friends who read it ... there are so many ways we hear about classics, we get to know them.

Classics are my all time favourites. So many people have read it before me and liked it. There must be something about that book, right? Alright, there are some that are outdated after a while but if they didn't reach that point after several hundreds of years  why should that be the case now.

A classic also links me to all those human beings that have lived before me. I can follow their thoughts, dream their dreams and compare their lives to mine. I can try to find whether life has changed. I don't think so. Circumstances have changed, ways of life have changed but we still have the same dreams as our ancestors. Reading their novels makes us understand that.

So, what stops you from reading a classic?