Friday, February 05, 2016

The book most people have lied about reading

The book most people have lied about reading – and it's not War and Peace

14 comments:

Deb said...

I'm surprised REMEMBRANCE OF THINGS PAST wasn't on that list--that would have been my first guess.

Also, why would you lie about having read 50 SHADES? If be more likely to lie about NOT having read them! (If I HAD read them, of course.)

Rick Robinson said...

I've read almost all of the top ones (not Karenena) but what I don't understand is why people would lie about having read a book they haven't read.

Jerry House said...

Like Bichard, I'm not sure why someone would lie about this, but a look at this list reminds me how many books I have not read. I certainly don't claim to have read DAVID COPPERFIELD or GREAT EXPECTATIONS because the versions we were assigned in high school were so abridged that we may as well have been reading CLASSICS ILLUSTRATED comics books. At least two items on thse list were books I tried but could not finish -- CATCHER IN THE RYE and the HARRY POTTER series. And, Deb, I freely admit I could not get into Proust -- perhaps the only book assigned in college I could not read.

Unknown said...

I've read 14 of the books on the list. I was a big Dickens fan when I was in college. Never tried Proust, though.

Jeff Meyerson said...

I loved David Copperfield and liked Great Expectations.

Like Deb, I would have thought Proust was #1.

Jeff Meyerson said...

I've read 17, all but 50 Shades, Anna Karenina and, surprisingly, Catch-22.

Gerard said...

I read 6 or 20. I've thought I about trying Proust. A more ambitious plan - to me - is to read the A DANCE TO THE MUSIC OF TIME novels.

I'm guessing people lied about 50 SAHDES because their friends read the book.

Dan_Luft said...

I've read seven, I mean, all of them. Yeah, read 'em all. In a row. When I was in fifth grade.

Don Coffin said...

I'm stunned. Alice? Perhaps my favorite 19th century book. I have Martin Gardner's Annotated Alice, and read it maybe every other year. I think this year is my year to read it.

Neither 1984 nor LOTR surprises me. They're not "easy" books, and LOTR is, after all, over 1,000 pages.

I've read #1, #2, #3, #6, #9 (which took me more than a year), the first 3 Harry Potter books, but not the rest, #13 (but only because I had to, in HS), #17, #18, #19, #20.

Of course, people could be lying about which book they have lied about having read...

Bud said...

I Cliff-Noted through Crime and Punishment in high school, but, thankfully, my English teacher caught me out and browbeat me into actually reading it. Lo and behold, C & P immediately expanded my literary interest beyond SF&F.

Unknown said...

We used Crime and Punishment in freshman English at a college where I taught. We always called it C & P. I always thought of it as a crime novel, so I probably liked it more than the students did.

RHovey, CA said...

Fun stuff that I'll share with my English teaching son. I've read 7, my fave of course being Alice which I worked into my two out-there short story sequels to The Maltese Falcon. I still very fondly remember how fun Catcher in the Rye was in high school. Surprised Moby Dick didn't make the list.

S.B. said...



I've definitely read - ALICE IN WONDERLAND and in the same annotated paperback ALICE THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS. Very good one.

'And Hast Thou slain the Jabberwock? - come to my arms, my beamish boy! O Frabjous Day! Calloo! Callay ...' he chortled in his joy.

Unknown said...

Surely most people have read Alice.