Do Your Books Have Brown Covers?

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I confess to sneaking peaks to see what people are reading on planes or when dining alone in restaurants, but I turn my book over or slip it under my napkin when I leave my seat.  I just don’t like to be judged by the cover of my book.

Over half of the readers responding to a national Canadian survey  reported that they thought “reading classics makes you look more intelligent,” and had lied about reading them to impress others.

Some of books they said they read – but didn’t…

  • Lord of the Rings – J.R.R. Tolkien
  • War and Peace – Tolstoy
  • Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte
  • Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus – John Gray
  • 1984 – George Orwell
  • Great Expectations – Charles Dickens
  • Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte
  • The Diary of Anne Frank

Have you read any of them –  really?

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7 thoughts on “Do Your Books Have Brown Covers?”

  1. I can honestly say I read War & Peace last year and Jane Eyre is a favorite. Didn’t like Wuthering Heights. Why lie? Nobody cares. They’d probably judge you worse if you admitted to reading all of these books!

  2. I read the Lord of the Rings trilogy in high school. Around the same time I was introduced to Great Expectations in school. It became a favorite (which I have re-read, can I count it twice?).

    I have also read Wuthering Heights, 1984, and The Diary of Anne Frank. I have not gotten to War and Peace, though Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina is an all-time favorite. Is Tolstoy really worth 2000 pages? Probably yes.

    Jane Eyre is another I have not read but would like to read.

    I can understand lie about having read Men are from Mars. But only if they claimed not to have when they had.

  3. Like you I am always trying to sneek looks at books I see other people reading- although I am rarely able to see the cover, sometimes I will read over their soulder to try and work out if it’s something I have read- but I try not to!

    I’ve read The Diary of Anne Frank (well worth a look), Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights and 1984 (it was a favourite of mine for a while, despite a couple of slow section). I’ve started Lord of the Rings a couple of times but I’ve never been able to get into it.

    • I’v read those too, and, I agree, Lord of the Rings is better in the movie. If you sneak a peek, and find a good book, let me know.

  4. I have definitely read The Lord of the Rings and The Diary of Anne Frank. I seem to recall reading Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre. I have attempted War and Peace but didn’t get far. Great Expectations is on my list, as my friend just read it and said it was one of her favourite books of all time.

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