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I guess it's desire....
I just counted, and I've actually read about 40 or so of the list.

War and Peace again? No way. Uh huh. I read for enjoyment, not to slog through pages of detailed misery.

Please, it's a great book, but no, snow, death, freezing, war....hmrpt. No.

Anything by Austen, yes, I'd re-read. Same with books like Jane Eyre, Three Muskateers, etc.

But many of the classics just annoyed the bejeebers out of me....
Scarlet Letter, while great, the unfairness was grating.
Lolita made me squirm as a young girl reading it.
Grapes of Wrath, great, but a slog through misery.
Clarissa!?! Dear lord in heaven, let me just jump off the roof and be done with it.

All I'm saying is the 'pull' isn't in these books. You don't walk by and say to yourself "Wow, I know it read it last week, but I want to read it again!"

Can't see it with Moby Dick, that's for sure.

Moby Dick is hysterically funny. It's a comic novel to be sure. And Lolita is fantastic but I don't know why you read it as a 'young girl'. Just because the subject matter is adverse doesn't make the novel depressing. A great tragedy is upflifting.

Can't see it with Moby Dick, that's for sure.

I'm actually re-reading it right now, and I've got to say, Melville's description of a New Bedford church and a sermon given therein, in chapters 7, 8, and 9 (The Chapel, The Pulpit, and The Sermon), are downright chilling they're so spot-on and good.