Unread, claimed to have been read

The top 10 books people claim to read but haven't

According to an email I have received from some source (reliable or otherwise) these are:

1 1984 by George Orwell (26%)

Staggering, as it's such a joy, and so easy to read. Some Orwell, like Keep the Aspidistra Flying can be a bit slow and dry, but 1984 is pamphlet-thin, a breeze, and an extremely accurate look at how politics and the media have evolved in symbiosis.

2 War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy (19%)

More understandable, as this is a door-stop of a book. You wouldn't like to fall down from a stack of three or four copies. Not on my CV, and not near the top of my to-read list either, not sure why, really.

3 Great Expectations by Charles Dickens (18%)

Another joy to read, and not exactly daunting in length, either. I didn't get on with Dickens at school, but have made up for that fairly recently. I had an Eng Lit teacher that could suck the feel-good vibe from a B52's gig. In Bali.

4 The Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger (15%)

Another lightweight in terms of the number of pages, and another easy read. The subject of Mel Gibson's OCD in Conspiracy Theory, too.

5 A Passage to India by EM Forster (12%)

Not on my CV, this one. But Room with a View was good.

6 Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien (11%)

Now I do get this one as a sticking point. I made a number of aborted attempts, until I read somewhere that the way to go is to skip the boring campfire songs and get on with the story. Being a bit anal, I wasn't altogether happy about flipping pages unread, but it did the trick.

7 To Kill A Mocking Bird by Harper Lee (10%)

Another one that I find myself thinking “what's not to like”?

8 Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky (8%)

I had several aborted goes at this one, too. Not just a few pages, either, but I was getting through a fair proportion, without ever getting to halfway. Then I did two things: picked up a copy with thicker pages and slightly bigger print; and took the advice available on line about coping with the Russian custom of everyone having a plethora of names. It made a lot more sense when I could work out who was who at any given point in the narrative.

9 Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (8%)

Nope. Not on my radar for some reason. Maybe it's the old covers it was once packaged in. Too Mills and Boon-ey looking for me, I guess.

10 Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte (5%)

Same as number 9 above.