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The Top Ten Books People Lie About Reading
The Federalist ^ | 01/16/2014 | Ben Domenech

Posted on 02/03/2014 2:13:32 PM PST by jocon307

Have you ever lied about reading a book? Maybe you didn’t want to seem stupid in front of someone you respected. Maybe you rationalized it by reasoning that you had a familiarity with the book, or knew who the author was, or what the story was about, or had glanced at its Wikipedia page. Or maybe you had tried to read the book, even bought it and set it by your bed for months unopened, hoping that it would impart what was in it merely via proximity (if that worked, please email me).

(Excerpt) Read more at thefederalist.com ...


TOPICS: Books/Literature; History; Hobbies; Society
KEYWORDS: 1984; adamsmith; alexisdetocqueville; ataleoftwocities; atlasshrugged; aynrand; bookclub; books; charlesdarwin; charlesdickens; democracyinamerica; fiction; georgeorwell; hermanmelville; jamesjoyce; lesmiserables; literature; mobydick; niccolomachiavelli; nonfiction; originofspecies; pages; reading; suntzu; theartofwar; theprince; thewealthofnations; ulysses; victorhugo
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To: yefragetuwrabrumuy
1) The Long Ships, by Frans G. Bengtsson. It is all about the life and times of Vikings in the 10th Century, and has been a best seller in northern Europe since it was written in the 1940s. Translated into 23 languages.

I'll have to read it. I do remember a corny but fun movie by that name from the 60s.

I would add to your list anything by Bernard Cornwell. Real page turners and you can learn tons about history. I love the historical notes at the end, because he separates out the fiction from the history, and lets you know what he has changed (not much). I really knew very little about Wellington's campaign in Spain and Portugal until I read his Sharpe's series. He gives an accurate description of every battle fought there.

141 posted on 02/03/2014 4:07:32 PM PST by Hugin
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To: jocon307
One that I still can't decide if it's worth learning the language for is Riddley Walker by Russell Hoban. He wrote a lot of children's books, but this one is a post-apocalyptic dystopia.

Sort of a funhouse-mirror reflection of "A Canticle for Leibovitz".

The entire BOOK is written in the sort of English that might have developed (or devolved) a couple hundred years after a devastating nuclear war.

Good book, but it was a lot of work.

142 posted on 02/03/2014 4:09:29 PM PST by AnAmericanMother (Ecce Crucem Domini, fugite partes adversae. Vicit Leo de Tribu Iuda, Radix David, Alleluia!)
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To: left that other site
I think Wallace controlled it better. He was also a child of his time AND treating a delicate religious topic (the preachers could kill your book in those days!) I still don't know what Rand's excuse was.

< looking carefully around and donning safety helmet >

143 posted on 02/03/2014 4:11:06 PM PST by AnAmericanMother (Ecce Crucem Domini, fugite partes adversae. Vicit Leo de Tribu Iuda, Radix David, Alleluia!)
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To: jocon307

LOL...when I gave that answer to Mom, she realized i was “old enough” to watch Dr. Zhivago.

It has been one of my favorite movies for YEARS. (like...a half CENTURY! hahaha)


144 posted on 02/03/2014 4:11:33 PM PST by left that other site
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To: DManA

I read Jonathan Livingston Seagull, Love Story, Siddhartha and Zen & The Art Of Motorcycle Maintenance. And On The Road...great books.


145 posted on 02/03/2014 4:11:43 PM PST by Sir_Ed
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To: Hugin
Cornwell is MUCH better researched than C. S. Forester (I also think he's a better writer, although he also inserts 20th c. mores and thinking into early 19th c. England, which in my view is wrong. Which is why I prefer Marryat).

My undergrad degree was in history with a concentration in military history - English Civil War, Napoleonic Wars, and American Civil War, mostly. He is right on the money, historically speaking.

146 posted on 02/03/2014 4:13:21 PM PST by AnAmericanMother (Ecce Crucem Domini, fugite partes adversae. Vicit Leo de Tribu Iuda, Radix David, Alleluia!)
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To: Buckeye McFrog

Atlas as with Moby are hard to get started. Democracy in America I have on my desk and has proven my foil to this point but ultimately I’ll perservere much as I just did with the Simarillion last week... again a hard start. War and Peace for me was the same but then 800 pages flew by and the last 200 seemed as long as the first 100.


147 posted on 02/03/2014 4:14:48 PM PST by reed13k (For evil to triumph it is only necessary for good men to do nothings)
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To: left that other site

Back when I was a hippie, I read the Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test and The Pump House Gang. They were o.k. Wolfe has a biting wit.


148 posted on 02/03/2014 4:15:10 PM PST by AnAmericanMother (Ecce Crucem Domini, fugite partes adversae. Vicit Leo de Tribu Iuda, Radix David, Alleluia!)
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To: left that other site

I sure agree about Dr. Zhivago. One of the best movies ever. Also really beautiful music.


149 posted on 02/03/2014 4:15:31 PM PST by yarddog (Romans 8: verses 38 and 39. "For I am persuaded".)
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To: AnAmericanMother

“Riddley Walker by Russell Hoban”

I read that and loved it. “The heart of the wood’s in the heart of the stone”? Something like that.

Another of the few books I’ll probably read again.


150 posted on 02/03/2014 4:16:00 PM PST by jocon307
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To: Terry L Smith

“a few writings of Madame Blovetsky...”

Did you mean Madame Blavatsky?

I read some by her, and Annie Bessant, and others from the TS, as I was raised in that evil stuff.

Ed


151 posted on 02/03/2014 4:16:56 PM PST by Sir_Ed
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To: AnAmericanMother

The first time I read “Atlas Shrugged”, I skimmed over the 100 page radio speech.

I have since read it all, but that part was very repetitious, and interrupted both the action and character development.

In an interview that Ayn Rand did on TV (I think with Dick Cavett), she very frankly stated that the entire book was just a vehicle for expressing her Philosophy of Objectivism.


152 posted on 02/03/2014 4:17:16 PM PST by left that other site
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To: DManA

I speed read Moby Dick once. It’s something about a whale.


153 posted on 02/03/2014 4:17:35 PM PST by wolfman
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To: DManA

The last 65 pages - Reardon’s speech.

Wow. Cure for sleeplessness.


154 posted on 02/03/2014 4:17:42 PM PST by RinaseaofDs
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To: AnAmericanMother

Hoo-boy!

We should start an ex-hippies anonymous ! LOL!


155 posted on 02/03/2014 4:18:49 PM PST by left that other site
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To: left that other site

“It has been one of my favorite movies for YEARS.”

Yeah, it’s a great movie! David Lean really knew how to make a big screen extravaganza. I guess I need to watch “Lawrence of Arabia” I saw so much praise about it when Peter O’Toole died.


156 posted on 02/03/2014 4:18:57 PM PST by jocon307
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To: Hugin
Georgette Heyer's Napoleonic War novels are a little bit of a hop out of the romance genre for her. "The Spanish Bride" is set in the Peninsular War, "An Infamous Army" at and around Waterloo.

And of course there's "The Fortunes of Harriette", written by Angela Thirkell (niece of Kipling and writer of the modern Barsetshire novels, bringing Trollope up to the 30s and 40s) under a pen name. Harriette Wilson was the courtesan who tried to blackmail Wellington by threatening to publish some imprudent letters he had written to her, eliciting his famous response, "Publish and be damned!"

157 posted on 02/03/2014 4:19:15 PM PST by AnAmericanMother (Ecce Crucem Domini, fugite partes adversae. Vicit Leo de Tribu Iuda, Radix David, Alleluia!)
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To: jocon307

I’ve read five of ‘em. Really. Only skimmed The Prince.

Unclear why Tale of Two Cities would be on the list. It’s short and an easy read. Much more so than a lot of Dickens.


158 posted on 02/03/2014 4:19:41 PM PST by Sherman Logan
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To: perez24

“I’ve read parts of most of them and all of none of them.”

You are like a reading nosher!


159 posted on 02/03/2014 4:20:22 PM PST by jocon307
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To: yarddog

I especially love the theme “magnificent music for “Lawrence of Arabia.”


160 posted on 02/03/2014 4:20:24 PM PST by left that other site
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