# What Books Have You Lied About Reading? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 16, 2009, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-books-have-you-lied-about-reading/510352 "2009-09-16T19:42:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![prettydorky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f04885/32.png) [@prettydorky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/prettydorky)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2009, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-books-have-you-lied-about-reading/510352/81 "2009-09-19T02:45:33Z")
I don’t know about claiming to read books I never finished. Even for assigned reading, I have this weird thing where even if I HATE a book, I have to finish it so I can get to the end of the story. Mr. Dorky finds this hilarious as I sometimes get myself stuck in, say, a Nora Roberts or a Danielle Steele. The exception is _Confederacy of Dunces_. I can not finish it. Can’t! When I was 8 or so, my mom told me she’d give me 5 bucks if read _A Wrinkle In Time_. I told her I had so I could get the cash before I finished reading whatever completely stupid book I was actually reading. She didn’t believe me, thankfully, so I actually did have to earn my 5 bucks. Then a few years later she saw me reading _The Hobbit_ and said she didn’t think I’d be able to finish it, and she was right… but I lied and told her I had, SO THERE. I also lied and told my mom I had NOT read _Still Life With Woodpecker_ when I was in middle school, because she thought it “too old” for me. ---
**Author:** ![iftheresaway](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/ecae2f/32.png) [@iftheresaway](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iftheresaway)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2009, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-books-have-you-lied-about-reading/510352/82 "2009-09-19T04:20:45Z")
> [@prettydorky](#): > > I don’t know about claiming to read books I never finished. Even for assigned reading, I have this weird thing where even if I HATE a book, I have to finish it so I can get to the end of the story. Mr. Dorky finds this hilarious as I sometimes get myself stuck in, say, a Nora Roberts or a Danielle Steele. The exception is _Confederacy of Dunces_. I can not finish it. Can’t! I’ve only VERY recently been able to get past this need. I would get stuck in some work that didn’t live up to its promise and just fell like I had… to keep… going… I agree with someone who said upthread that it’s liberating to finally just put the book down and walk away. As for the OP, there is one person that I have learned to lie to about books read: my boss. I’m a big reader with a fairly eclectic taste, so I’ve always got something different to read at lunch. Frequently, when less bookish people notice this they will begin recommending things for me to read, and while I appreciate the thought, the recommendations are often terrible. My boss is very different from me both politically and philosophically, and she’s always trying to give me stuff like _[Permission to Succeed](http://www.amazon.com/Permission-Succeed-Noah-St-John/dp/1558747192/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1253333679&sr=8-1)_ or random David Baldacci books that I’m just not interested in. I’ve learned the hard way that all she’s really interested in is telling me about the books (at considerable length), so now I just lie and say something like, “yeah, I think I read that last year” or “I’m pretty sure I’ve picked that up before.” She never really wants to talk about the books if I’ve read them, only explain them to me if I haven’t, so I’ve been pretty safe with this strategy. And if she mentions a book that genuinely seems interesting, then I’ll happily listen to the infodump and put it on my TBR list. ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2009, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-books-have-you-lied-about-reading/510352/83 "2009-09-19T14:01:22Z")
> [@Rack-a-Bones](#): > > :smack: > Considering the fact that I followed the election very closely and was an early supporter of Obama I feel really stupid that I didn’t know that. I knew he had written a book of course, but I thought it was called something else. Perhaps you were thinking of _The Audacity of Hope_, which he also wrote? ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2009, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-books-have-you-lied-about-reading/510352/84 "2009-09-19T18:51:41Z")
The only ones on the list I’ve been anywhere near is The Bible. I’ve read a good portion of it, maybe half. In pieces. I’m not the kind to want to impress people for random reasons just to be impressive, so I don’t really have a lot of motivation to lie about reading something. Perhaps the exception was in high school, where I gave up on _The Return of the Native_ after about chapter 12 (they’re short chapters, but feel really long). It was the boringest book I’ve ever read, and I read _Silas Marner_ and skimmed the begats in the Bible. I suppose technically I lied about reading it by never telling my teacher I didn’t and participating in class discussions and tests. **Goblin Queen** said: > [@](#): > > I’ve accidentally lied about having read a few short stories by well-known authors. I would assume that the story was in one of their anthologies that I had read and say yes when asked about a particular title, only to find out later that I was mistaken. I wouldn’t characterize that as a lie. It was a mistake. To me, a "lie "is a _deliberate_ misrepresentation. It can be a direct misrepresentation or a misrepresentation of omission, but it must be deliberate. Being wrong is just an error, not a lie. **iftheresaway** said: > [@](#): > > I’ve only VERY recently been able to get past this need. I would get stuck in some work that didn’t live up to its promise and just fell like I had… to keep… going… I agree with someone who said upthread that it’s liberating to finally just put the book down and walk away. I had the same problem, even after I bailed on TROTN. I have managed to read through some real dreck because I hoped it would get better, or I felt I had to. But now I’m much more likely to bail - why waste time on something I don’t enjoy? ---
**Author:** ![Proudest\_Monkey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/proudest_monkey/32/13257_2.png) [@Proudest\_Monkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Proudest_Monkey)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2009, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-books-have-you-lied-about-reading/510352/85 "2009-09-19T23:29:32Z")
I lied about reading the whole **Twilight** series. I said I hadn’t read them. Does that count? ---
**Author:** ![jackdavinci](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackdavinci/32/3259_2.png) [@jackdavinci](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackdavinci)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2009, 8:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-books-have-you-lied-about-reading/510352/86 "2009-09-20T08:45:35Z")
I’ve never lied about reading something for the prestige. Only for the purposes of a book assigned in class. ---
**Author:** ![Shot\_From\_Guns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ccd318/32.png) [@Shot\_From\_Guns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shot_From_Guns)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2009, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-books-have-you-lied-about-reading/510352/87 "2009-09-21T17:22:46Z")
> [@prettydorky](#): > > Mr. Dorky finds this hilarious as I sometimes get myself stuck in, say, a Nora Roberts or a Danielle Steele. The exception is _Confederacy of Dunces_. I can not finish it. Can’t! You can force yourself to slog through crap… but you can’t read _Confederacy of Dunces_?! Ah well, _de gustibus non disputandum est_, as the saying goes. > [@](#): > > I also lied and told my mom I had NOT read _Still Life With Woodpecker_ when I was in middle school, because she thought it “too old” for me. My mom caught me reading her copy of \*The Handmaid’s Tale \*probably around that same age and took it away. I think she said I could have it back when I was 12, but I IIRC I just got it from the library instead. ---
**Author:** ![TV\_time](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f17d59/32.png) [@TV\_time](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TV_time)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2009, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-books-have-you-lied-about-reading/510352/88 "2009-09-21T21:40:30Z")
> [@Yllaria](#): > > Once in high school I turned in a book report for a non-existant book. Does that count? I did that too. It was called, “The Pale Drummer” by (I think - it was so many years ago) Richard Wrightly. If I remember my report correctly, it was a story about a young drummer boy during the civil war who went through the civil war growing more and more disenchanted with the war. He is finally killed in a battle a week after the surrender is signed between Grant and Lee. He then is seen at pointless battles with which America was involved continuing up to the present (well, the present at that time - Viet Nam). I think my feelings on the book were, if it had ended with his death after Appomattox, it would have been a very good book, but the reappearance throughout history thereafter was a little much. I also thought the discriptions of Civil War battles were very well done, although I thought they were a bit too similar to Red Badge of Courage. All in all, I don’t think I recommended it to anyone beyond high school. ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2009, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-books-have-you-lied-about-reading/510352/89 "2009-09-28T16:34:18Z")
> [@loshan](#): > > I never could get through Moby Dick…2 pages and straight to sleep every time. But i told the teacher I read it and (barely) passed the test. Maybe you can try it again, using [this version](http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/fred/emoji-dick). 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Michael\_Ellis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/977dab/32.png) [@Michael\_Ellis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Michael_Ellis)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2009, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-books-have-you-lied-about-reading/510352/90 "2009-09-28T17:17:55Z")
_1984_ - Read it. - War and Peace\* - Will read eventually when I have two years to spare. - Ulysses\* - Tried and failed twice. - The Bible\* - Read bits of it. - Madame Bovary\* - Don’t care. - A Brief History of Time\* - Read it several times. - Midnight’s Children\* - Never heard of it. - In Remembrance of Things Past\* - Don’t care. - Dreams from My Father\* - Don’t care. - The Selfish Gene\* - I’ll probably read it some day. I have, however, read _Gravity’s Rainbow_. All of it. During my senior undergrad year. Voluntarily. ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2009, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-books-have-you-lied-about-reading/510352/91 "2009-09-28T17:35:49Z")
> [@Michael\_Ellis](#): > > - The Selfish Gene\* - I’ll probably read it some day. I lied about reading this one in this very thread. I was confusing it with _The Extended Phenotype_; I think my copy has “By the author of _The Selfish Gene_” on the cover. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-books-have-you-lied-about-reading/510352.md?page=4)