It happened to me recently. I was t

It happened to me recently. I was telling someone how much I had enjoyed reading Barack Obama’s Dreams From My Father and how it had changed my views of our President. A friend I was talking to agreed with me that it was, in his words, “a brilliantly （精彩地）written book”. However, he then went on to talk about Mr. Obama in a way which suggested he had no idea of his background at all. I sensed that I was talking to a book liar.

And it seems that my friend is not the only one. Approximately two thirds of people have lied about reading a book which they haven’t. In the World Book Day’s “Report on Guilty Secrets”, Dreams From My Father is at number 9. The report lists ten books, and various authors, which people have lied about reading, and as I’m not one to lie too often (I’d hate to be caught out), I’ll admit here and now that I haven’t read the entire top ten. But I am pleased to say that, unlike 42 percent of people, I have read the book at number one, George Orwell’s 1984. I think it’s really brilliant.

The World Book Day report also has some other interesting information in it. It says that many people lie about having read Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, Fyodor Dostoevsky (I haven’t read him, but haven’t lied about it either) and Herman Melville.

Asked why they lied, the most common reason was to “impress” someone they were speaking to. This could be tricky if the conversation became more in–depth!

But when asked which authors they actually enjoy, people named J. K. Rowling, John Grisham, Sophie Kinsella (ah, the big sellers, in other words). Forty-two percent of people asked admitted they turned to the back of the book to read the end before finishing the story (I’ll come clean: I do this and am astonished that 58 percent said they had never done so).

結果 (中文) 1:

最近，它发生在我身上。我告诉别人我是多么享受阅读奧巴馬我父亲的梦想，它是如何改变我的看法，我们的总统。一位朋友，我跟到商定我认为，用他的话说，"出色地 (精彩地) 写的书"。不过，他接着谈谈先生奧巴馬，在某种程度上建议他根本就不知道他的背景。我感觉到我在说话书骗子。似乎我的朋友不是唯一一个。约有三分之二的人撒谎读一本书，他们没有。在世界读书日"报告上有罪的秘密"，我父亲的梦想是在 9 号。该报告列出了十本书和各种各样的作者，有关阅读的人撒了谎，以及我不是一个谎言太多 (我不想被难住了)，我承认在这里，现在我还没读整个前十名。但我很高兴地说，与 42%的人，不同的是我读过这本书，第一，乔治 · 奥威尔 1984年。这是真正的辉煌。世界读书日报告也有其他一些有趣的信息。它说: 很多人都读过简 · 奥斯汀、 查尔斯 · 狄更斯、 费奥多尔 · 陀思妥耶夫斯基 (没读过他，但没撒谎要么) 和赫尔曼 · 梅尔维尔。问为什么他们撒了谎，最常见的原因是为了"取悦"别人对他们说话。这可能是非常棘手，如果谈话变得更多 — — 深度!但当被问及哪位作家，他们实际上享受，人们命名 J.K.罗琳、 约翰 · 格里森姆、 索菲金塞拉 (啊，大卖家，换句话说)。42%的人问承认他们转向之前看完故事读完这本书的背面 (我会来清洁: 我这样做，感到惊讶，58%说他们没有这样做)。