[KindleKay (aka #1652)]

This is from a story on CBS Sunday Morning on March 8, 2009. It came up on the "abandonded books" thread, but now I am interested how my fellow Kindleboarders fall in the findings of this study..... Please reply if any of these books apply for you:

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Sixty-five percent of participants in a Book Day survey confess to having LIED about reading a famous book. There's even a Top Ten list of never-read books:

10. "The Selfish Gene" by Richard Dawkins (6%)
9. "Dreams From My Father" by Barack Obama (6%)
8. "Remembrance of Things Past" by Marcel Proust (9%)
7. "Midnight's Children" by Salman Rushdie (14%)
6. "A Brief History of Time" by Stephen Hawking (15%)
5. "Madame Bovary" by Gustave Flaubert (16%)
4. The Bible (24%)
3. "Ulysses" by James Joyce (25%)
2. "War and Peace" by Leo Tolstoy (31%)

... and the Number 1 unread book: "1984," by George Orwell (42%), the novel about a dictatorship that proclaims, among other things, that "Ignorance is strength."

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I'd love to make a poll but don't know how?!?!

 

[KindleKay (aka #1652)]

By the way, I read 1984 in High School and by my recollection, I enjoyed it! 

 

[pomlover2586]

I read 1984 for school........it was horrible- didn't like it at all....

 

[Atunah]

I read 1984 too, in school in Germany, I loved it. But then I got a kick out of the Tin drum too.

1984 had other meanings for us of course being in Germany. I remember quite the discussions we had in class. Great teacher. I think I was 14 or so. I can't remember exactly. Actually, thinking now, I read 1984 in 1984, that sounds about right 

I admit to not reading any of the other books on the list. I am not counting the bible as I was forced to read that. Blocking it out 

 

[Leslie]

They made me read Portrait of the Artist as Young Man. Oh God, that was torture. And I also was forced to suffer through The Great Gatsby.

Actually, when you come down to it, I have a real problem with assigned reading. If I am supposed to read something, I usually hate it. If I pick it up on my own...that's a different story. That's probably why I don't join book clubs.

L

 

[Silver]

Read 1984 in school and thought it was brilliant.  Well, I was at an impressionable age.  BTW, at the same time I read Canticle for Leibowitz which was assigned as a companion piece for 1984, and I even enjoyed that one.  Slogged my way through War and Peace.  Tough going (oh, those names!), but I finished it.  Read Madame Bovary.  I can't remember ever lying about reading a book.  Interesting survey.

 

[TM]

I hadn't even heard of some of those books...

 

[ScottBooks]

10. "The Selfish Gene" by Richard Dawkins


How many people have even heard of this to lie about having read it? Where does Book Day conduct these surveys? How did "Midnight's Children" get on there instead of "The Satanic Verses"? If they're gonna lie about Rushdie they're gonna lie about that one.

It's a really weird list.

 

[KindleKay (aka #1652)]

10. "The Selfish Gene" by Richard Dawkins

How many people have even heard of this to lie about having read it? Where does Book Day conduct these surveys? How did "Midnight's Children" get on there instead of "The Satanic Verses"? If they're gonna lie about Rushdie they're gonna lie about that one.

It's a really weird list.

I thought so too....which is why I brought it up

 

[David J. Guyton]

I have read 1984 and also Hawking's A Brief History of Time.

Orwell made brilliant points, although I must admit it's not a FUN read.

Hawking I think is a little overrated in the physics community. He is by no means a stupid person, certainly a genius and he has certainly overcome his share of hardships, but in the two books I have read by him, he didn't present any new ideas, just old ones. I will say though, that for advanced physics, he writes very well in that the average person can understand what he is saying very easily.

For a better book about time (for you physics fans) pick up About Time by Paul Davies. Brilliant, brilliant book.

 

[Geemont]

Orwell made brilliant points, although I must admit it's not a FUN read.

I disagree. I've read 1984 once and listened to the unbridged audiobook once. I really enjoyed it both times. Maybe is is all in how you define FUN.

Other than that, I read (or listened to the unabridged audio) to five others,

 

[David J. Guyton]

I disagree. I've read 1984 once and listened to the unbridged audiobook once. I really enjoyed it both times. Maybe is is all in how you define FUN.

Other than that, I read (or listened to the unabridged audio) to five others,

Well yes it's all in how you define fun. For me, the book is set in such a dreary way that it just saps all the energy out of what comes across in the writing. But I know that that's sort of the point of how it's presented.

 

[Lotus]

I've read 1984, too. I haven't read any of the others, but I've never claimed I have. I've read parts of the Bible, but I can't claim that I've read all of it.

 

[kevindorsey]

I bet this number is probably even higher than that.  I admit it, I lied about some book probably too at some point.

 

[mom133d (aka Liz)]

Like others, read 1984 in school. Recall that I didn't think it was that bad, like leslie I had a harder time with Portrait of the Artist as Young Man. Ugh.
I have read the Bible, in its entirety.
Didn't even make it through the first chapter of Hawking.
Obama's book(s) are on my to do list - which is so long who knows if it'll ever get read
Hmm, War and Peace. I might have read the Cliffs for it. One of those huge tombs was assigned in my AP English class. We begged our normal English teacher for her Cliff notes. She gladly loaned it to us - but only for this once.

 

[Seamonkey]

I remember when I was pretty young, deciding to read the whole Bible.. but I got bogged down in "begats" .

I DID actually read the entire (including footnotes) Rise and Fall of the Third Reich in HS.  Heaven knows why I felt compelled to read every word.. I mean, I know why, but I could have been equally impacted, probably, without reading every word.

 

[robin.goodfellow]

10. "The Selfish Gene" by Richard Dawkins

***Disclaimer: I know just enough here to be dangerous without actually contributing to the subject.***

Was this the book that came out in opposition to Darwin's Origin of the Species? B/c I see the name Dawkins associated with Charles Darwin a lot, but not like they agreed. So it may either be an "Origin of the Species" type book, or the complete opposite. Hard to say.

I have not read any of these books. Although I did like Great Gatsby. I had a tendency to not read required reading in high school. What? I was busy reading stuff that was WAY more interesting.

 

[bosslady402]

Was this the book that came out in opposition to Darwin's Origin of the Species? B/c I see the name Dawkins associated with Charles Darwin a lot, but not like they agreed. So it may either be an "Origin of the Species" type book, or the complete opposite. Hard to say.

It's not in opposition at all; it just takes the concept of 'survival of the fittest' and applies it to the level of the gene rather than the individual or group.

He also coins the new term 'meme', which is sort of a 'cultural' gene as opposed to a biological gene - the mechanism where ideas or religious/cultural beliefs are passed on through generations and how they compete with other ideas/beliefs. He tries to figure out what attributes make one idea spread through a population and stick around relatively unchanged through generations, vs those that come and go.

that's the lesson for the day, gotta go back to work now...

 

[horrorauthor]

I've read 1984 too. Madame Bovary is actually a great read; don't be intimidated. And I did read Proust for a French Lit class in college; I don't know if I still would have the will and patience to read it today. I once attempted ULYSSES, but was too dumb to understand it, although I did enjoy his PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST AS A YOUNG MAN.

 

[robin.goodfellow]

It's not in opposition at all; it just takes the concept of 'survival of the fittest' and applies it to the level of the gene rather than the individual or group.

He also coins the new term 'meme', which is sort of a 'cultural' gene as opposed to a biological gene - the mechanism where ideas or religious/cultural beliefs are passed on through generations and how they compete with other ideas/beliefs. He tries to figure out what attributes make one idea spread through a population and stick around relatively unchanged through generations, vs those that come and go.

that's the lesson for the day, gotta go back to work now...

^^^what Bossladysaid. I knew it was something like that. Vaguely.

A little.