Earlier this year, a survey was conducted in Britain to see what books people lie about reading. The results are listed below:
1. 1984, by George Orwell 42%
2. War and Peace, by Leo Tolstoy 31%
3. Ulysses, by James Joyce 25%
4. The Bible 24%
5. Madame Bovary, by Gustave Flaubert 16%
6. A Brief History of Time, by Stephen Hawking 15%
7. Midnight’s Children, by Salman Rushdie 14%
8. In Remembrance of Things Past, by Marcel Proust 9%
9. Dreams from My Father, by Barack Obama 6%
10. The Selfish Gene, by Richard Dawkins 6%
Jonathon Douglas, the director of England’s National Literacy Trust, had this to say about people who lie about literature:
Research that we have done suggests that the reason people lied was to make themselves appear more sexually attractive.
People like to be seen to be readers. It makes them look good.
They said they were prepared to lie about what they’d read to impress people, particularly when it came to potential partners.
Anyone have something they need to confess?
From www.examiner.com