The most lied about book....

[TheGreatElvenWarrior]

Originally Posted by Lalwendë

I know someone who adores fantasy but has never read any Tolkien whatsoever; I'm the opposite, have read too much Tolkien but generally do not have any particular taste for fantasy. This guy I know loves to wind up Tolkien fans by telling them the films are the only thing worth bothering with. He only does it because it teasesssss....

I am much the same way. I do not read much fantasy as a genre, but do read as much Tolkien as I can get my hands on. Unfortunately, like many of you who have posted above, most of the people I have met and tried to talk about Tolkien to said that they had not read his books. They are proud to not have read any Tolkien, they think that LotR is boring, despite the fact that they have never read the books and maybe saw the films once. As far as anything else Tolkien has written most don't even know it exists. The Sil? "What's that?" HoME? "Huh?" It goes on.

And me, the only time that I've ever. . . expanded the truth, is maybe sometimes exaggerating how many times I've read LotR.

[Galadriel55]

Originally Posted by TheGreatElvenWarrior

I am much the same way. I do not read much fantasy as a genre, but do read as much Tolkien as I can get my hands on. Unfortunately, like many of you who have posted above, most of the people I have met and tried to talk about Tolkien to said that they had not read his books. They are proud to not have read any Tolkien, they think that LotR is boring, despite the fact that they have never read the books and maybe saw the films once. As far as anything else Tolkien has written most don't even know it exists. The Sil? "What's that?" HoME? "Huh?" It goes on.

And me, the only time that I've ever. . . expanded the truth, is maybe sometimes exaggerating how many times I've read LotR.

Ditto! (about everything, lol) I also sometimes "expend the truth" by saying that I know LOTR or The Sil or etc by heart, when I really don't.

[alatar]

I can see being mistakenly called out on not reading a book, not because I hadn't read it, but that it wasn't *that* interesting to get logged into the brain. How do you differentiate between a person that is lying and one that is forgetful?

For example, I read "A Brief History of Time," some...ahhh...time ago, yet can't remember if it was about quarks and muons or the work of Briton Hadden and Henry Luce.

[Shelob]

Having been accused of chronic honesty, I rarely find myself outright lying about what I have, or haven't, read.

I do, however, often fudge the truth by saying "I'm familiar with [book/movie/etc]". Most people don't call me out on it, everyone seems to assume (if they want me to have read the book) that I've read it or (if they'd rather that I've never sunk so low as to read such a thing) that I haven't. Very very useful.

Even more interesting to brag about having read plausible made up books to lure the uninitiated to their doom...

Now THAT sounds like a fun game. I have considered making fake dust jackets for some of my books, and combing the two ideas could lead to all kinds of free entertainment (I commute via train a lot and, while I don't care so much about people knowing what I'm reading, when I don't like the cover art I don't want everyone else to see it).

[alatar]

Originally Posted by Shelob

Having been accused of chronic honesty, I rarely find myself outright lying about what I have, or haven't, read.

Don't remember ever trying to impress a lass with some book that I might have read...a bank statement might have been a better lure.

What would be even better than catching someone out about reading LotR would be to listen to two persons discussing the trilogy, and it being obvious that neither one had read it.

[Morthoron]

Originally Posted by alatar

For example, I read "A Brief History of Time," some...ahhh...time ago, yet can't remember if it was about quarks and muons or the work of Briton Hadden and Henry Luce.

Then are you sure it was "A Brief History of Time" or "The TIME History of Briefs" -- the magazine's chronology of Playtex, BVDs and Fruit of the Loom?