From: the.wise.one@abel.co.uk   
      
   Most Britons have lied about the books they read   
      
   (Agencies)   
   Updated: 2009-03-06 15:53   
      
      
   LONDON -- Two out of three Britons have lied about reading books they   
   have not, and George Orwell's "1984" tops the literary fib list,   
   according to a survey published Thursday.   
      
   Commissioned by organizers of World Book Day, an annual celebration of   
   reading in Britain, the study also shows that the author people really   
   enjoy reading is J.K. Rowling, creator of the bestselling Harry Potter   
   wizard series.   
      
   According to the survey, 65 percent of people have pretended to have   
   read books, and of those, 42 percent singled out "1984." Next on the   
   list came "War and Peace" by Leo Tolstoy and in third place was James   
   Joyce's "Ulysses."   
      
   The Bible was in fourth position, and newly elected President Barack   
   Obama's autobiography "Dreams from My Father" came ninth.   
      
   Aside from a list of ten titles which respondents were asked to tick or   
   leave blank, many admitted wrongly claiming they had read other   
   "classics" including Jane Austen, the Bronte sisters, Charles Dickens,   
   Fyodor Dostoyevsky and Herman Melville.   
      
   Asked why they had lied about reading a book, the main reason was to   
   impress the person they were speaking to.   
      
   The study, carried out on the World Book Day website in January and   
   February, surveyed 1,342 members of the public.   
      
   Those who lied have claimed to have read:   
      
   1. 1984 - George Orwell (42 percent)   
      
   2. War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy (31)   
      
   3. Ulysses - James Joyce (25)   
      
   4. The Bible (24)   
      
   5. Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert (16)   
      
   6. A Brief History of Time - Stephen Hawking (15)   
      
   7. Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie (14)   
      
   8. In Remembrance of Things Past - Marcel Proust (9)   
      
   9. Dreams from My Father - Barack Obama (6)   
      
   10. The Selfish Gene - Richard Dawkins (6)   
      
      
   http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/world/2009-03/06/content_7547849.htm   
      
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    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)