Classics

So I decided I need to get back into reading, especially if I plan to be a writer. I need to study the best and mature my voice. So I turned to Google and found a number of lists of books that must be read before 30. Why before 30 I have no idea but most, if not all, of my friends are younger than thirty so I thought I'd share the link that refers to the first list I found and creates its own list.
I don't know about you but when I think of the classics I think of books that everyone has heard of and at least knows the title, or perhaps the author. Some of the books on these lists I've never heard of either.
For this reason, I'd add the Mary Poppins series and Alice in Wonderland, Sherlock Holmes, and The Phantom of the Opera which is also a book. These are stories we all know or at least recognize and have been altered and duplicated many times. So much so I feel like the source is a classic worth reading. Then there are books that we don't necessarily know the story but know the book like War and Peace and Anna Karenina (although that one is being made into a movie with Jude Law and Keira Knightly so the story will be known shortly). David Copperfield and Wuthering Heights also come to mind.
Just a thought.