30+ Books Everyone Says They've Read But No One Actually Has

30+ Books Everyone Says They've Read But No One Actually Has

I was a lit major, so I actually have read all of the top 13 except The Diary of Anne Frank.

And I actually like a few of them, especially Catch-22.

But farther down the list, I have only read On the Road (which is 99% crap) and The Master and Margarita in both English and Russian (which is brilliant in parts, but often confusing and too obscure for me to understand all the in-jokes). I think I have four different English translations of M&M and I frequently have to refer back to the translations when I attempt to read it in my rusty Russian. I have tried to read Dead Souls and Gravity's Rainbow, but never got far because I couldn't get "hooked" and lost interest.

I would add to the list Look Homeward, Angel; The Name of the Rose; and The Satanic Verses, books which require a tremendous amount of patience, but way too many people claim to have read.

* I love The Name of the Rose, but it requires a long time to read because it includes Latin, foreign languages, and mixed-up languages (one monk has spoken many languages, but is dotty and speaks in a melange of all of them), all untranslated. (Plus it is both erudite and recondite, which always presents a challenge. Keep your reference books handy.)

* I couldn't make it through The Satanic Verses. The style is dense without being beautiful, and has the killer combination of complexity and tedium.

* I have mixed feelings about Look Homeward, Angel. His writing style is soaring, original and beautiful. It's so masterful that passages can move you to tears. I wish I could write like that, but it's as much poetry as prose, and every time I try to read that book I always think to myself, "Will you stop trying to impress me and get on with it!" I inevitably read a little bit, go back or forward to read a few eloquent passages, then set it on my night table and forget about it for a few more years.