On the Guardian books blog there’s a list of the top 10 books people claim to have read but haven’t. Apparently, readers sometimes pretend to have read books so as to appear more intelligent. Can’t understand that. Anyway, I’ve read seven of the 10 books on the list (and I’m telling the truth), but I haven’t read A Passage to India by E.M. Forster, Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien and To Kill A Mocking Bird by Harper Lee. I’ll never read Lord of the Rings. I’m unembarrassed.
A more interesting list would be of books you have read but didn’t like and are happy to be honest about not having liked, even though a lot of other people like them and indeed praise them to the skies. Here are a dozen books I’ve read and am comfortable in admitting to not having liked.
John Banville, The Sea
Charles Baxter, The Feast of Love
Anita Brookner, A Friend from England (and nearly everything else)
Jonathan Coe, The House of Sleep
Ford Madox Ford, The Good Soldier
Shirley Hazzard, The Great Fire
Barbara Kingsolver, The Poisonwood Bible
Michael Ondaatje, Anil’s Ghost
Joseph O’Neill, Netherland
Philip Roth, Operation Shylock
Philip Roth, Sabbath’s Theater
Carol Shields, Unless
You got an honest list like that? (Thanks: @bombaylychee)