A great deal of classics require a boatload of history and context to enjoy. For instance: Most of Dickens is about 3x more interesting when you know the histor

A great deal of classics require a boatload of history and context to enjoy. For instance: Most of Dickens is about 3x more interesting when you know the history of England for the timespan as well as the Poor laws and all that. Additionally it's very important to know Dickens was paid by the word (so if it feels like a section can be skipped, it likely can). For modern classics, you already have most of the context and history, so you don't have accessibility issues. I'm not saying "Don't read the classics" I'm saying "Start reading modern fiction which is considered a classic, even genre classics". Once people catch the reading (fiction) bug, they eventually try a classic or two.