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

[boston bean]

You might expect hefty Russian tome War And Peace to be the book that Britons are most likely to have lied about reading.

But children's favourite Alice's Adventures In Wonderland by Lewis Carroll is responsible for the most literary fibs, according to a BBC survey.

Those who have struggled to make any headway into Leo Tolstoy's classic, currently taking centre stage in the Sunday night TV schedule, can take heart that it is still responsible for plenty of deceit, coming fourth on the list of books that we lie to our friends about having read.

George Orwell's 1984 and JRR Tolkien's Lord Of The Rings trilogy came second and third respectively, while Tolstoy made another appearance at number five with Anna Karenina.

The erotic Fifty Shades trilogy, four Charles Dickens novels and Jane Austen classic Pride And Prejudice are among the top 20 books that Britons have lied most about reading.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/books/what-to-read/the-book-most-people-have-lied-about-reading--and-its-not-war-an/

Why would people lie about this?

[oberliner]

1. I thought it was going to be The Bible

That's gotta be up there.

[boston bean]

3. Yeah, I'm surprised it wasn't mentioned.

[m-lekktor]

5. I did as well.nt

[backscatter712]

11. Yeah, I'm surprised.

Or for those in the Utah set, the Book of Mormon - as Mark Twain put it, it's chloroform in print.

[Dr Hobbitstein]

25. Same.

[Shrike47]

26. Me, too. D. Trump, for instance.

[Fozzledick]

36. That was my first guess too.

I've found that those who thump it the loudest have no idea what's actually in it.

[sharp_stick]

2. War and Peace took me 3 years

I'd read about 150 to 200 pages, get bored and put it away for months at a time. I'd pick it up and do another 150 pages.

It was a massive slog but by gawd I got it done. By the time I'd read 500 pages I was just too invested not to finish it.

[hobbit709]

8. Someone once said they learned Russian to see if it was any better in the original.

It was even more stultifying and boring.

[SwankyXomb]

31. That might have been Robert Heinlein

That line showed up in Number of the Beast.

[Nitram]

18. It took me a couple of years to finish Gravity's Rainbow.

But it was well worth it. About halfway through I really got into it. Had me laughing out loud at times.

[sharp_stick]

22. That one

is on my list. One day I'm going to take it on.

[treestar]

23. I did it by reading a chapter a day

the chapters weren't very long, so that was doable. Parts were good enough that I read several chapters.

It is a good story. The hard part is the beginning, with a lot of military stuff.

[smirkymonkey]

28. I actually loved that book.

I was completely absorbed by it, but then again I love Russian literature.

[Retrograde]

39. If you skip all the philosophical digressions it's a big soap opera

It's essentially the lives of three aristocratic families during the Napoleonic wars: who's marrying whom, who's sleeping with whom, who really should be with whom, etc. Kinda like Gone with the Wind on steroids - even to the point of buying serfs. (Yes, I've read it - twice. Didn't care as much for the newest English translation: it left out my favorite line - Nikolai Rostov at his first battle: "They're shooting at me! Me, whom everyone is so fond of!&quot

Just finished Anna Karenina (and IMHO the heroine was a whiner who left a good but boring husband to chase after a pretty face, and most of the book is digression on farming methods), and I have read both Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass (I recommend reading The Annotated Alice, by Martin Gardner (if it's still in print) for the now obscure Victorian works it parodies).

[FLPanhandle]

4. Probably because they count watching the movie as equivalent to reading the book

I've tried a couple of times to get into War & Peace, but never made it all the way.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

6. 50 shades of shit. It is unreadable.

I've read all the others, even that two part fairy tale, which is actually bloodier than Tolkien's multipart fairy tale.

The only way I read Alice was to my 'phew when I babysat.

[Quantess]

14. Are you sure it was the original version you read to your nephew?

And not an illustrated, shortened version?

[ChairmanAgnostic]

21. It took many visits. It was not the shortened version

but we both had fun.

[Quantess]

32. Right on!

Exposure to classic literature makes you the cool aunt / uncle.

[TexasProgresive]

7. I have read 13 of the 20-no lie

But I haven't read any Tolstoy, Fitzgerald or even one shade of gray.

[hobbit709]

9. I've read 15.

Haven't read gray, Fitzgerald, Austen, and the other Tolstoy's beyond War and Peace-which was boring as hell.
About half of them were boring.

Hell I even tried to read Ayn Rand once. It was so bad I fell asleep after about 20 pages and never tried again. Which for me is an accomplishment since I've been known to stay up all night reading if it's an interesting book.

[TexasProgresive]

20. Judging by your name would I be right in assuming you've read Tolkien

more than once?

I'm guilty of reading The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings trilogy, The Silmarillion and The Children of Húrin. The 1st two several times.

[surrealAmerican]

10. I imagine it would be a very different list in the US.

The bible would top the list here, and Alice would probably not be on it.

[ohnoyoudidnt]

35. I would expect to see Gone With the Wind on that list.

I gave it a try but, meh.

[Quantess]

12. Maybe because they assume it's a children's book?

As in, "oh sure, I know that story! I saw the Disney animation!"

I actually read Alice in Wonderland, and it's not a children's book. It's full of political metaphors, and it is also too bizzarre to be a good bedtime story for kids.

[annabanana]

15. (depends on the kids). . .n/t

[annabanana]

13. That's just so hard for me to imagine!

Steeped as I am in the tea. . . .

[whatthehey]

16. Barely breaking the midpoint at 11

Basically the old stuff plus Catch 22 and Harry Potter for me, but sans W & P. Never even attempted it. Probably should one of these days.

I would surely imagine though that more people would lie to say they had NOT read 50 Shades. It sold by the truckload but most literate people disavow it. I (honestly!) haven't read it, but oodles of people must have.

Given that this is a British list I'm surprised The Satanic Verses is not on it. Certainly would have been 25 years ago. The joke of that one was that they saved money by not printing past page 15 or so in the mass market paperback as it was bought mostly by the curious rather than Rushdie fans.

[Javaman]

17. can't believe they included that colossally brain dead novel 50 shades of crap in this list.

why on earth would anyone ever want to lie about actually reading that stinking pile of a novel?

I'm more horrified and embarrassed to admit at reading it because my GF said that "I SHOULD READ IT!!"

I held my nose and kept back the vomit the entire time.

I'm in no way a "literary snob", that book was beyond bad, it was bad on an epic scale.

[Nitram]

19. I've read all but four.

I probably never will read War and Peace, Anna Karenina, Bleak House and Pride and Prejudice. Oh wait, make that 5. Why is 50 Shades on that list?

[kydo]

24. I would thought it was the Bible

But this was a poll about Brits .... I bet if it was about the US the Bible hands down wins as the book many claim to have read but didn't really.

[smirkymonkey]

27. I admit, I have not read 1, 3, 6, 16 and 17

The rest I have read.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

29. Do you know what's even worse about 50 Shades of Gray that you might not realize?

That it was originally written as a Twilight fan fiction novel, with Edward and Bella (you know, Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart) as the main characters.

No, seriously.

And when it grew in popularity, EL James simply changed the names of the characters and published it as 50 Shades of Gray.

So you have one mediocre novel series directly spawning another mediocre novel series.

Hell, if we're going to be publishing fan fiction, anyone want to take a shot at reworking my Chuggo novella released here at DU?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1018626375

You too could be a millionaire literary sensation.

[Shrike47]

30. I had to read Bleak House in college. Oh, lord. And the class had 10 people in it so no hiding.

It put me off Dickens forever.

[Retrograde]

42. I found Bleak House the most difficult Dickens to get through so far

"bleak" is a good description. I didn't care for Dickens when I was younger, but after a few decades of reading up on the period he makes more sense. IMHO, a lot of English teachers (that's teachers of English literature) seem to forget that he was writing best sellers for his contemporaries, who would of course get all the references and understand the culture: it's largely alien to us.

[littlewolf]

33. my 2 favorite authors are Hebert and Tolkin …nt

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

34. I've read, cover to cover, 13 of the books.

Most of the ones I've read, I've read more than once.

I haven't read

Catcher in the Rye
Harry Potter
50 Shades of Gray
David Copperfield
Bleak House
Great Expectations
Crime and Punishment

Of the ones I've read:

War and Peace is the best book I've ever read
Anna Karenina is a close second
Catch-22 is third

Despite claims of most people, I think War and Peace and Anna Karenina are very "readable" and enjoyable. Much more so than Dickens.

The 2 books that influenced my thinking most were:

Catch-22
War and Peace

[haele]

37. There are some there that I'd lie about enjoying, but other than W&P and 50 Shades...

I've read all of the others all the way through. And I wouldn't lie about not reading them, if I didn't. I'm not a fan of crushing despair or hopeless downwards spirals, but I can wade through them if the characters are realistic enough and the wallowing lightens up occasionally. I made it through Steinbeck and Sinclair, I can make it through 1984 and Catcher in the Rye.

Couldn't get through W&P (for class) in the time allotted (Nor could I finish Moby Dick for the same reason), and I refuse to pick up 50 Shades of Grey. I burned out on bodice-rippers and fan-fic long before that came out, and the few people who read it before it was "all the rage" told me the book seemed to take itself too seriously, the humor was forced, and the writing was at a clueless teen-aged drama-queen level.
I'd rather read 50 Shades of Gronk.
I am interested in the TV series of W&P, though. The production values look to be good enough that plot holes, "re-interoperating" of the original story, and other editing issues might be overcome.


BTW, to really enjoy Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (book and movie), you do need to have read the original - or watched the 8 hour BBC production.

Haele

[Glassunion]

38. I've never read Alice in Wonderland. However I have read 1984 and the LOTR series.

Not sure why folks would lie about reading a book. If you get called on it, it makes you look even stupider than having said you've never read it.

I'm surprised that Lord of the Flies didn't make the list.

[Retrograde]

40. I've read all but one and intend to keep it that way

Have not read 50 Shades, but over the years have managed all the rest. It helps that I'm old, went through a pretentious phase in high school when I read people like Dostoyevsky (and we had to read The Great Gatsby), and recently found that Dickens makes for good audiobooks (IIRC, reading aloud was a popular pastime when his books were published).

[Doc_Technical]

41. The wealth of Nations by Adam Smith?

Right wingers love to reference this book but I wonder
how many have actually read it.