Telling tales: Our habit of wishful reading

“YES, I said yes, I will yes,” — er, actually, I won’t bother. I’ll just pretend to have read it instead.

Pretending to have read the classics seems to be a very popular way of boosting your intelligence in the eyes of your peers, according to a survey which lists James Joyce’s Ulysses as among the top 10 books people have pretended to read.

Surprisingly, heading the list is George Orwell’s 1984, with the Bible in fourth position.

The most faddish book to pretend to have read is US President Barrack Obama’s autobiography Dreams from My Father.

While the poll, conducted among readers in Britain, indicates that two-thirds of people have lied about reading a book, the world of literature is also full of guilty pleasures.

While pretending to have read Flaubert’s Madame Bovary, readers are instead, it seems, feasting their eyes on Jilly Cooper’s sex romps, Mills and Boon’s bodice rippers and wizarding tales from Hogwarts.

Those surveyed said the most popular author they liked reading was Harry Potter creator JK Rowling.

Whatever the material, it seems reading habits are widely spread, according to the survey of more than 1,300 people.

The findings of the survey have prompted plenty of comment as to why people lie about their reading habits, including that fibbing about having read the classics makes you seem more intelligent.

But then, maybe Molly Bloom, in between her ‘yes’ soliloquy and her reveries about the cuckolded Leo Bloom, might have done the same.

*Interview with Jeffrey Archer in tomorrow’s Weekend section.