20 Books You Pretend to Have Read

[mafh]

Might I suggest The Broom of the System? It is pretty good, and you can get your DFW feet wet without having to commit to 1200 pages

Thanks! I must admit that I am a bit intimidated by the size of Infinite Jest. I’ll give that one a try.

 

[Allegra]

Is that the same as the Classics Illustrated comic books? One of my great-aunts gave me the Wuthering Heights one as a kid, and that’s what started me loving the Bronte sisters. I read the comic book first at 12 or 13, and then I must have read the actual book 5 or 6 times. I still have the comic in my keepsake box.

These were just tiny paperback books that were easy for younger kids to read. There was a drawing on every other page. It wasn’t really like a comic book though.

 

[CHRISTINE77]

Pride and Prejudice - I never could read Jane Austin for some reason

Ulysses by James Joyce - No - too long and obscure

Moby-Dick] by Herman Melville - nope -don’t like sea tales

War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy - no - too LONG!!

The Bible - Actually yes, and I continually reread it

1984 by George Orwell - Yes in high school

The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien yes

The Great Gatsbyby F. Scott Fitzgerald yes - and F Scott Fitzgerald was a great writer!!

Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy - No

Catcher in the Ry by J.D. Salinger - Yes in high school, ( it is really dated now)

Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace - Never heard of it

Catch-22by Joseph Heller - Yes GREAT!!!

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee - Yes High School

Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L. James - Oh come on - thats pornography isn’t it? Why is this here???

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte Yes - I really loved it when I was younger

Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky Yes, but it kind of turned me off russian writers - too dark

Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte Yes - Loved it

Great Expectations by Charles Dickens - Yes High School, but it was good

Harry Potter (series) by J.K. Rowling I read the first book, and all I can say is she is very highly overrated as an author. Right up there with Dan Brown

A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens - Yes and I like it

 

[NeedsMercy]

Have not read Jane Eyre, but just saw Zefirelli’s film and want to read it now (also 'cause gracepoole is one of my favorite CAF posters

I thought I was the only one who knew “Grace Poole”! Hurray–not as crazy as I thought I was! (I like gracepoole, too :yup: )

 

[Tantum_ergo]

20 Books You Pretend to Have Read

Let’s say “people pretend to have read”. I’m sure you have.

1. 
   *]Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (85 mentions)
   *]Ulysses by James Joyce
   *]Moby-Dick by Herman Melville
   *]War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
   *]The Bible
   *]1984 by George Orwell
   *]The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
   *]The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
   *]Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
   *]Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
   *]Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace
   *]Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
   *]To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
   *]Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L. James
   *]Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
   *]Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
   *]Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
   *]Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
   *]Harry Potter (series) by J.K. Rowling
   *]A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens (21 mentions)
   
   I don’t even bother to claim I’ve read most of these & I suspect most of the people who have read them have done so under duress (for school).
   I suspect most people who claim to have read the Bible straight thru from Genesis to Revelation are liars, esp. atheists who claim reading the Bible as a reson for quitting their belief in God.
   
   As for Russian novels, the Brontes & Joyce they’re all an acquired taste by why bother acquire it?

1. 
   LOL.
   
   I REFUSE to read ‘50 shades of gray’. Yuck. I’m almost 57 and just like I can’t eat junk food without paying for it healthwise, I can’t "read’ junk food either.
   
   I read Catcher in the Rye in high school. Hated it then and still do. I didn’t like Catch 22 either; I preferred reading Kurt Vonnegut’s “The Sirens of Titan”.
   
   I have to say I have never read "infinite jest’ but I’ve read all the others and then some, but that’s just because I love to read and I had a great education by the Sisters of Mercy back in the glory days.
   
   I preferred “Dubliners” to Ulysses too.
   
   And while I have read the Bible ‘cover to cover’ there are parts that I find ‘more interesting’ at a given time, and parts that are less so,.
   
   I’ve read all Jane Austen’s work including her letters, the unfinished ‘the Watsons’, and I did read P. D. James “Death Comes to Pemberly” because I liked her earlier work, but all the ‘modern’ sequels to Jane Austen make me want to, in the vernacular, hurl. Bleah. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, of all dreck. . .
   
   Compared to the list that most schools want their high school students to read, the one you’ve listed is GREAT (except of course for Catcher and 50 shades.) Most want to push things like Twilight (bleah) or Judy Blume’s "Forever’, plus “Their Eyes were Watching God” and “Beloved”, or Kate Chopin’s “The Awakening”.

 

[NeedsMercy]

It’s not your age. You were fortunate to have a father who instilled in you his love of literature. For many of us, in school, literature was never presented as something to be loved, but something to be studied, dissected, analyzed – much like a cadaver. My personal opinion (and your mileage may vary) is that some works considered capital-L “Literature” only remain so because they are force-fed to students at schools and universities, and if left to their own devices would wither to dust and be blown away on the wind of indifference.

Ask any Newfoundland kid who had the misfortune of reading Lure of the Labrador Wild.

I was indeed very fortunate to have had such a man as my father. Yes, it is curious at the selection of some of the books which are force-fed at school. The life perspectives of some books are just so far beyond the psychological grasp of even high-schoolers, that you have to ask “What was this teacher thinking?” However, if you are going to college–where you choose your own classes–and you think that you are being “force fed”, you’ve probably selected the wrong major.

 

[aragonjohn1]

20 Books You Pretend to Have Read

Let’s say “people pretend to have read”. I’m sure you have.

1. 
   *]Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (85 mentions)
   *]Ulysses by James Joyce
   *]Moby-Dick by Herman Melville
   *]War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
   *]The Bible
   *]1984 by George Orwell
   *]The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
   *]The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
   *]Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
   *]Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
   *]Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace
   *]Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
   *]To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
   *]Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L. James
   *]Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
   *]Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
   *]Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
   *]Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
   *]Harry Potter (series) by J.K. Rowling
   *]A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens (21 mentions)
   
   I don’t even bother to claim I’ve read most of these & I suspect most of the people who have read them have done so under duress (for school).
   I suspect most people who claim to have read the Bible straight thru from Genesis to Revelation are liars, esp. atheists who claim reading the Bible as a reson for quitting their belief in God.
   
   As for Russian novels, the Brontes & Joyce they’re all an acquired taste by why bother acquire it?

1. 
   ( moby dick was my first novel and I enjoyed that )
   
   have read all except for
   
   Ulysses by James Joyce
   
   Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace
   
   Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
   
   except for some of the Bible
   
   Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L. James
   
   Harry Potter (series) by J.K. Rowling ( do not wanna read )
   
   God bless

 

[Razanir]

Yeah… Maybe it’s just that the people who have read a lot of the other books tend to be outside the age range that Harry Potter is aimed at? It’s probably not that they think they’re both immoral, just that the people who read War and Peace are unlikely to read and enjoy children’s fantasy literature.

Yeah. And I’ll admit to respecting that opinion a bit more. People who think HP is immoral often have opinions that sound like hearsay. But people who have read one and didn’t like it, or people who weren’t interested in the premise and a more sound argument to my ears.

The Bible - Actually yes, and I continually reread it

I’m planning on doing that. I’m considering reading through it every 91 days. A bit more reasonable than every 60, but not long enough for the readings to feel like piecemeal.

Harry Potter (series) by J.K. Rowling I read the first book, and all I can say is she is very highly overrated as an author. Right up there with Dan Brown

I have to agree a bit. She wasn’t horrible, just not my favorite author. I still enjoyed the plot, though.

 

[OxygenMan]

Surprised something like Bullfinch’s Mythology isn’t on there.

 

[LilyM]

I’m very guilty of faking my knowledge of “A Tale of Two Cities”. I’ve read the Great Illustrated Classics version and listed to an excellent BBC dramatization to fill in the not so kid friendly bits (namely Jerry Cruncher beating his religious wife). I love the story. I’ve written school papers about the book. I’ve aced tests about the book.

I’ve never actually read the book past the first chapter.

Similarly here with ‘Great Expectations’, although I suppose I’ve never actually claimed to have read it. I have read TOTC though, as well as David Copperfield and Bleak House, which is probably my favourite Dickens being one of the darker ones.

 

[Kamaduck]

( moby dick was my first novel and I enjoyed that )

What do you mean it was your “first novel”? It’s way too hard to be anybody’s first novel!

Yeah. And I’ll admit to respecting that opinion a bit more. People who think HP is immoral often have opinions that sound like hearsay. But people who have read one and didn’t like it, or people who weren’t interested in the premise and a more sound argument to my ears.

Certainly, everyone is entitled to like what they like. I’m currently loving her books, but it’s partly because I wasn’t allowed to read them before. And they are indeed much better than the stuff I was actually reading in fourth or fifth grade.

 

[Oren]

http://bookriot.com/2013/07/17/top-20-books-you-pretend-to-have-read/#.Ue84UoukuVQ.twitter

Let’s say “people pretend to have read”. I’m sure you have.

1. 
   *]Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (85 mentions)
   *]Ulysses by James Joyce
   *]Moby-Dick by Herman Melville
   *]War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
   *]The Bible
   *]1984 by George Orwell
   *]The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
   *]The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
   *]Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
   *]Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
   *]Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace
   *]Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
   *]To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
   *]Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L. James
   *]Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
   *]Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
   *]Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
   *]Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
   *]Harry Potter (series) by J.K. Rowling
   *]A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens (21 mentions)
   
   I don’t even bother to claim I’ve read most of these & I suspect most of the people who have read them have done so under duress (for school).
   I suspect most people who claim to have read the Bible straight thru from Genesis to Revelation are liars, esp. atheists who claim reading the Bible as a reson for quitting their belief in God.
   
   As for Russian novels, the Brontes & Joyce they’re all an acquired taste by why bother acquire it?

1. 
   The ones I haven’t read are Great Expectations, Fifty Shades of Grey (why would you pretend and say you’ve read that piece of garbage? I read the first page of it and could tell it was illiterate trash.) Never read Ulysses, never read Anna Karenina, never heard of Infinite Jest, never read Crime and Punishment, never read To Kill a Mockingbird, never read War and Peace.
   
   The rest I have read. I read Wuthering Heights on my own and I loved it. I read Harry Potter on my own, liked them. I read Lord of the Rings and Pride and Prejudice on my own…not too fond of them really. I read Catcher in the Rye on my own and I hated it. Catch 22 was stupid but my own idea to read. The rest I did read for school but I liked some of them. I liked the Great Gatsby. Moby Dick was really great and I’m very glad I read that for school. The others ones were ok I suppose. 1984 was good.
   
   I want to read Crime and Punishment one of these days. The other ones I don’t really care that much about.
   
   As for the Bible, I read it front to back straight through after I converted. I felt I needed to so I did. It isn’t that hard.

 

[GEddie]

Why would anybody pretend to have read something they didn’t?

It’s not like this is a culture that admires extensive reading any more.

And what if the one you lied to about the book then wants to talk about it??

ICXC NIKA

 

[Kamaduck]

Why would anybody pretend to have read something they didn’t?

It’s not like this is a culture that admires extensive reading any more.

And what if the one you lied to about the book then wants to talk about it??

ICXC NIKA

Our culture does admire extensive reading. Not everybody does it, but most people still seem to think it’s a good thing to do.

Other than that, school. And possibly because all of your friends have read it. If you’ve seen the movie, you might be able to squeak through.

 

[Contra_Mundum_1]

I’ve read the following from the list:

*]Moby-Dick by Herman Melville

*]War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy

*]1984 by George Orwell

*]The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

*]Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

*]Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger

*]Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky

*]Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte

*]Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

I have not read the whole Bible yet.

I’m not sure I understand the attitude of why bother to acquire a taste for certain literature? That is not very open minded, is it? Believe it or not, those Russians wrote some fantastic novels. Give it a try. Dostoevsky is amazing. Amazing! But I’m a Slav so maybe I just get it

 

[GEddie]

I’ve read the following from the list:

*]Moby-Dick

Because reading is often quite an effort and time intensive (not to mention wear and tear on one’s eyes).

Because folks have limited discretionary time, “acquiring a taste” for certain literary genres, while admirable, doesn’t make the to-do list.

ICXC NIKA

 

[Contra_Mundum_1]

Because reading is often quite an effort and time intensive (not to mention wear and tear on one’s eyes).

Because folks have limited discretionary time, “acquiring a taste” for certain literary genres, while admirable, doesn’t make the to-do list.

ICXC NIKA

Depends. Reading is not necessarily a chore but can be pleasure. For me there is nothing better than a good book, and this pleasure goes beyond entertainment.

I also wonder who decides on these must read lists. Some high school teacher who never ventured beyond the English language literature and thinks those are the limits? I hope not. But many people see it this way. The foreign stuff is acquired taste. Oh well.

I still recommend Dostoevsky though.

 

[Mimi20]

Let’s say “people pretend to have read”. I’m sure you have.

*]Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (85 mentions)
I’ve also read Sense and Sensebility. I have a complete book with all the novels Jane Austen has ever written; will eventually read them all.

*]The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Plan on purchasing and reading.

*]To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
This is the only book I’ve read because it was school assigned but I really enjoyed it.

*]Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
This is my favorite book!

*]Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
Have made my way through most of it, will finish.

*]Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
On my list of books to purchase and read.

*]Harry Potter (series) by J.K. Rowling
This type of novel isn’t exactly a favorite genera. Haven’t read a single one. Never claimed to and don’t intend to.

As for Russian novels, the Brontes & Joyce they’re all an acquired taste by why bother acquire it?
For most people they may be an acquired taste; for me they’re among the standard of literature which I honestly enjoy.

Given the fact that Fifty Shades of Grey (of all books ) was on this list I’m surprised ‘Twilight’ wasn’t. I haven’t read it but it’s the only book I can honestly say has ever made me want to gag in disgust. Ugh.

 

[GEddie]

Depends. Reading is not necessarily a chore but can be pleasure. For me there is nothing better than a good book, and this pleasure goes beyond entertainment.

I also wonder who decides on these must read lists. Some high school teacher who never ventured beyond the English language literature and thinks those are the limits? I hope not. But many people see it this way. The foreign stuff is acquired taste. Oh well.

I still recommend Dostoevsky though.

Because, as someone else said, if you are teaching English, you should use English books. Else you are getting the writing style of an anonymous translator rather than the writer himself.

Personally, I am a word addict. I learned semi-speed reading as a child. If I have not read everything on this list, it is because other items are more interesting to me (including a lot of non fiction), and because my eyes are going to roll back long before I have read everything I would like to.

But I understand that for those with weak eyes or time limitations, extensive reading is just not what they want to do.

ICXC NIKA

 

[Allegra]

Why would anybody pretend to have read something they didn’t?

It’s not like this is a culture that admires extensive reading any more.

And what if the one you lied to about the book then wants to talk about it??

ICXC NIKA

Because you are in a literature class and you don’t want your teacher to find out that you didn’t have time to read it or it bored you stone cold so you didn’t pay attention.