I'll jump in on LotR, whole family loves it and I can't bring myself to read them. Only works that Tolkien did that I sorta enjoyed was The Hobbit though I had to skip quite a few chapters, and the Silmarrion which was great until it got into the elven history. In fact, Tolkien is pretty much responsible for my hatred of elves.

I have a love/hate relationship with Mark Twain. His novels are generally long winded and boring. Even Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn are just tedious and boring at times. Life on the Mississippi is one of the most boring pieces of work I ever had the displeasure of reading. His short stories on the other hand are awesome, especially The Diary of Adam and Eve which was quite hilarious. Especially Adam's experiments to determine what exactly Cain wasp; or talking about how annoying Eve was and her constant need to name everything.

I do like Shakespeare but he does have a few stories that have been played to death in the mainstream (Romeo and Juliet/Hamlet) but I actually quite enjoy all of his other pieces. Macbeth, Othello, and The Taming of the Shrew are easily some of my favorite classic plays.