What the dickens?

I have several Charles Dickens books lying around the place that I've bought in those cheap book shops for a pound each at some point in the past, but never read. I just can't get into them, as a rule. Which is strange, since I really like a lot of books by lesser Victorian writers. Have you ever tried East Lynne, by Mrs Henry Wood? It's awesome. Although it's a sort of modern Victorian book, and Dickens was more mainstream, I suppose. Perhaps I'm just too up-to-date, 19th-centurily-speaking.