10 Books People Pretend They've Read
On average, Americans
spend about five hours reading each week. According to our calculations, unless we're a country of
speed-readers, that is not enough time to cover all of the classics.
Fair enough - not everyone enjoys
pondering the guiding words of thinkers who lived before us. Why, then, do so
many of us lie about having read their novels? Is it to sound more intelligent,
or worldly? Or is it simply a bad case of
FOMO?
Regardless of the reason, The Guardian has reported
that "the majority of people" (according to a recent survey of 2,000
people) pretend to have read books they've never actually read. Topping their
list are "Nineteen Eighty-Four" by George Orwell, "War and
Peace" by Leo Tolstoy, and "Great Expectations" by Charles
Dickens. Tolkein and Austen also make it into the top ten, and rank towards the
top of a similar list complied by Book Riot earlier this year,
indicating that maybe people lie about books with faithful film adaptations.
Other explanations are suggested in
a recent Goodreads
infographic they wittily title "The Psychology of
Abandonment." Commonly abandoned classic authors include Tolkien (once
again!), Joyce, Melville, and Rand. But Goodreads offers a beacon of hope:
According to their survey, over 38 percent of their readers "always
finish, no matter what."
Here's The Guardian's full
list:
1. "Nineteen Eighty-Four"
by George Orwell
2. "War and Peace" by Leo
Tolstoy
3. "Great Expectations"
by Charles Dickens
4. "The Catcher in the
Rye" by JD Salinger
5. "A Passage to India"
by EM Forster
6. "Lord of the Rings" by
JRR Tolkien
7. "To Kill A
Mockingbird" by Harper Lee
8. "Crime and Punishment"
by Fyodor Dostoevsky
9. "Pride and Prejudice"
by Jane Austen
10. "Jane Eyre" by
Charlotte Bronte
6 Common Punctuation Mistakes That
Drive Us Crazy
Happy National Punctuation Day!
In honor of this very important
holiday, we decided there's no better time to reveal our biggest pet peeves
when it comes to society's lack of proper, well, punctuation.
We've covered the three common
language mistakes that drive us nuts, and we've highlighted the four
mispronunciations that put us over the edge. Now, with the help of
our Facebook following, the misplaced semicolon doesn't stand a chance.
In addition to the items listed
below, many readers expressed an overall frustration with the way many
Americans write. "Spelling is not considered punctuation, but the improper
use of their, there and they're drives me nuts," said Scott Guiher.
What punctuation faux pas make you
feel like fingernails on a blackboard? Be sure to let us know in the comments.
1) The misused apostrophe. This little squiggle sparks a whole lot of controversy--but
the rules are pretty simple. To make a word plural, you add an "s" to
it. To make a word possessive, you add an apostrophe, as in "my son's
book." To make a plural noun ending in "s" possessive, you need
only add the apostrophe, as in "my sons' books." Don't use
apostrophes to pluralize acronyms and abbreviations, such as CEOs and DVDs. And
the plurals of numbers do NOT use apostrophes. It's 1970s, not 1970's.
2) The ubiquitous exclamation mark. Unless used sparingly, an exclamation mark doesn't add any
emotion to your statements!!!!! The pervasive use of the exclamation mark only
dilutes the powerful feelings you may be trying to convey.
3) The crazy comma. John Garger, a copy editor and proofreader, said there's
usually a fine line between conjunctions that need a comma before them and
those that don't. When in doubt, he says to read the sentence aloud and see if
you automatically pause. If that's the case, use a comma. And don't place a
comma with words like "and" or "but" if the second sentence
doesn't include a subject. For more advice on how to use a comma correctly, click here.
4) The misplaced semicolon. People probably have more trouble with the semicolon than any
other punctuation mark. But high school students are taught a simple rule of
thumb that's often forgotten over time: A semicolon should be used to separate
two independent clauses (or complete sentences) that are closely related in
meaning. Use colons, not semicolons, before a list of three or more items. And
when items in a series themselves contain commas, separate them with
semicolons. For example, you'd write: We visited Miami, Florida; Austin, Texas;
and Salt Lake City, Utah.
5) The quotation mark. Quotation marks should be used to denote quotations. They
should not be used to add emphasis to a word, which is sometimes the case in
advertisements. If you are writing in American English, other punctuation marks
should be placed inside the quotation marks, even if it's not part of the
quotation itself. If a question mark is part of the quotation, it goes inside
the quotation marks. But a question mark follows the quotation marks if the
question mark applies to more than just the exact quote.
6) The blurring of text talk with
real writing. Simply put, :) is not punctuation.
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