Classics that aren't Boring

As an English major and a sort-of English teacher (student teacher, at the moment), I always feel the need to read the "classics," (I do not intend this to be a place to debate the merits of reading canonical texts, but if you do, so be it), but am usually bogged down in how boring they are.

Now, I realize this is a subjective view, but it is how I feel. I just got done reading Joseph Conrad's