Ever Lie About What You’ve Read?
Ok, this article is over a year old, but I just saw the link to it on The Book Blog at Readers Read and followed it to the original article. Apparently, about a third of the British population admitted to fudging it a bit about “highbrow literature” they think will impress people. However, the list of books people lied about reading to jump into conversations is just plain funny. Roughly half are in fact viewed as great literature; the other half? Well, see what you think!
Top Ten Books We Lie About Reading:
1. The Lord of the Rings- J.R.R. Tolkein
2. War and Peace- Leo Tolstoy
3. Wuthering Heights- Emily Bronte
4. Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus- John Gray
5. 1984- George Orwell
6. Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone- J.K. Rowling
7. Great Expectations- Charles Dickens
8. Jane Eyre- Charlotte Bronte
9. The Da Vinci Code- Dan Brown
10. The Diary of Anne Frank- Anne Frank
That’s hilarious. I don’t think I’ve ever lied about reading any of them, but there are some that I just flat out didn’t read. Does it count if I listened to LOTR on audiotape instead of reading the book?
May I humbly add a few more titles?
East of Eden-Steinbeck
Crime and Punishment-Doestevski (sp)
Atlas Shrugged-Rand
I agree with your list, especially with Wuthering Heights. I admit to trying to read the whole thing, but when several characters have the same name, and I need to create a pedigree to follow, I am usually “out of there.”