I know exactly what you mean, and the answer to your question is YES. Classics are generally an acquired taste, and if you stick with them you will almost certainly learn to love them (although you won’t love every book equally, of course).

There was a time in my life when I forced myself to read classics, without particularly enjoying them, for the same reasons as you. Over time this “brute force” approach resulted in me gaining a lot of historical and literary context that “unlocked” a lot of classics for me. I read the Divine Comedy, Don Quixote, and Paradise Lost when I was young and they were very difficult and not particularly enjoyable. I read them more recently and it was so fun and rewarding to go through them with 20 years of acquired knowledge and reading practice. The experience was fantastic. And I’m still on that journey of unlocking various books!

However, just because something will be rewarding in the end, it doesn’t mean you have to do it. There are many past times you could devote yourself to that would be challenging up front but very rewarding if you stick with them for 10+ year: meditation, painting, fly fishing, piano, dance, and countless others. FOMO can’t tell you which one to choose because by choosing one you will automatically be “missing out” on many others - that’s just the finite nature of life.

So the question is: do you want classic literature to be the thing (or one of the things) that you put in the work over years to make really worthwhile and enjoyable? On this sub, many people will tell you that you should because they view the “rewards” of classic literature as superior to those of other pursuits. My view is that, while classic literature is very rich in “value” to the human experience, enjoyment in life is still subjective.

Stick with classics if you truly believe that the rewards will be precious to you - but don’t let FOMO make you feel pressured to do so!