Davina Mcall hasn't read 1984...

[gentlegreen]

1984 recently came top of the list of books people most often lie about having read.

Though I've only read a handful of proper books myself, I'm very grateful for my English teacher making me read it and Brave New World.

Books we pretend we have read:

1. 1984, by George Orwell42%
2. War and Peace, by Leo Tolstoy31%
3. Ulysses, by James Joyce25%
4. The Bible24%
5. Madame Bovary, by Gustave Flaubert16%
6. A Brief History of Time, by Stephen Hawking15%
7. Midnight's Children, by Salman Rushdie14%
8. In Remembrance of Things Past, by Marcel Proust 9%
9. Dreams from My Father, by Barack Obama6%
10. The Selfish Gene, by Richard Dawkins6%

Authors we actually like reading:

1. J K Rowling61%
2. John Grisham32%
3. Sophie Kinsella22%
4. Jilly Cooper20%
5. Mills & Boon18%
6. Dick Francis17%
7. Robert Harris16%
8. Jeffrey Archer15%
9. Frederick Forsyth13%
10. James Herbert12%

http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=e...ust+1984+lied+about+reading&btnG=Search&meta=

 

[foo]

I'm speechless x 1m

fucksake.

so what?

do a poll, i bet some quite intelligent people on here haven't read 1984. would you post your faux shocked at them too?

Davina gets on my tits cos of her stupid affected facepulling, i can live with her not reading a sodding book.

 

[Geri]

1984 recently came top of the list of books people most often lie about having read.

It's the only one in that list I have actually read!

I don't lie about what books I've read though.

 

[Maggot]

I dunno if I've read 1984. Maybe I did at school.

Does it matter??

I read Animal Farm if that helps

I think, seeing as the programme she fronts has bastardised Orwell's legacy so hideously, that the reading of the source material would have been a good thing, yes.

Fairy nuff. I don't watch tv much so no idea she is/was fronting something other than that reality cack, or is this more reality cack?

I thought you were intelligent.

 

[isitme]

they should make kids read it at school i reckon its' one of the most accesible explanations of 20th century history around imo

 

[N_igma]

i reckon its' one of the most accesible explanations of 20th century history around imo

You're mad in the head!

 

[butchersapron]

It's not like there's much substantial connection with the book is there? They've just lifted a name and a vague idea of being watched all the time - does she need to have read Bentham or Foucault on the Panoptican to front the show?

 

[electrogirl]

It's not like there's much substantial connection with the book is there? They've just lifted a name and a vague idea of being watched all the time - does she need to have read Bentham or Foucault on the Panoptican to front the show?

Yeah exactly. It's not as if there's much political/social commentary underlying the show. Or, any.

 

[Madusa]

She's a television presenter not a literary critic or historian or somesuch.

 

[bouncer_the_dog]

OI! What are you still doing here?

I sent the Thought Police after you in a previous page and you're still here.

*Stomps away, muttering furiously about there never being a Thought Policeman around when you want one*

I was given a fixed-penalty re-education ticket by a Community Support Thought Officer.

 

[Maggot]

It's not like there's much substantial connection with the book is there? They've just lifted a name and a vague idea of being watched all the time - does she need to have read Bentham or Foucault on the Panoptican to front the show?

But I would have thought she'd be interested in the origin of the phrase, and the original context.

 

[Madusa]

why?

Bet the makers of BB havent read Orwell's work either.

 

[butchersapron]

But I would have thought she'd be interested in the origin of the phrase, and the original context.

She's probably perfectly aware of the origin of the phrase, and the original context. I am and i've never read the book either.

 

[beesonthewhatnow]

She's lovely IRL

 

[DotCommunist]

1984 recently came top of the list of books people most often lie about having read.

Though I've only read a handful of proper books myself, I'm very grateful for my English teacher making me read it and Brave New World.



http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=e...ust+1984+lied+about+reading&btnG=Search&meta=

heh I've read various from both lists. I'm so middlebrow.

 

[nino_savatte]

She was too busy with a smack habit I reckon.

Or her coke habit...lol!!! She's a dozy, mouthy one to be sure.

 

[scifisam]

1984 recently came top of the list of books people most often lie about having read.

That's weird. I wouldn't have thought it was a difficult book to read - it's not that long and the language is modern and fairly plain. It's not the sort of book that seems pretentious at all.

 

[Agent Sparrow]

1984 recently came top of the list of books people most often lie about having read.

Though I've only read a handful of proper books myself, I'm very grateful for my English teacher making me read it and Brave New World.



http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=e...ust+1984+lied+about+reading&btnG=Search&meta=

Why would someone lie about having read a book? If that then led to conversation about said book then you'd just look like a lemon! And agree with scifisam; it's really not a difficult book to read, and it's pretty short too. Perhaps people build it up into something it's not?

I did start reading the thread thinking "so what", but then I twigged about her fronting Big Brother. It's not the worst thing in the world not to have read in the circumstances, but her lack of curiosity about it does surprise me a bit.

 

[DotCommunist]

Congratulations on having read this far. Reading anything whatsoever is apparently a dying art. According to a survey released last week to help promote World Book Day, 65% of respondents admitted lying about which novels they'd read in a desperate bid to impress people. The news was accompanied by a top 10 rundown of the least-read and most-lied-about books. Top of the list: George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four. Presumably people don't feel the need to actually read it because they can see the film adaptation taking place all around them every day, yeah? Yeah. In your FACE, Jack Straw.

lol and thrice lol

 

[_angel_]

That's weird. I wouldn't have thought it was a difficult book to read - it's not that long and the language is modern and fairly plain. It's not the sort of book that seems pretentious at all.

It's not difficult at all! Seems a bit weird people would lie about reading it.

 

[DotCommunist]

It's not difficult at all! Seems a bit weird people would lie about reading it.

tbf, it might be if you aren't used to owt but easy reads like stephen king and that sort of tightly plotted stuff. It does require a level of concentration that those used to easy reads might not be familiar with.

 

[butchersapron]

Perhaps some of the sniffy reactions on this thread might offer a reason as to why?

 

[_angel_]

tbf, it might be if you aren't used to owt but easy reads like stephen king and that sort of tightly plotted stuff. It does require a level of concentration that those used to easy reads might not be familiar with.

Really? I thought it was an easy read at 14, and I'm not one for overly difficult writing styles.

I thought it was fairly tightly plotted tbh, Orwell is a fairly easy read.
IMO, of course.

 

[scifisam]

tbf, it might be if you aren't used to owt but easy reads like stephen king and that sort of tightly plotted stuff. It does require a level of concentration that those used to easy reads might not be familiar with.

It does, but that's not saying much. It's pretty easy to read 1984 at a fairly superficial level - the other books on that liars list are genuinely difficult to read.

Perhaps some of the sniffy reactions on this thread might offer a reason as to why?

Why, are 42% of the respondents to that poll presenters of Big Brother?

 

[DotCommunist]

Really? I thought it was an easy read at 14, and I'm not one for overly difficult writing styles.

I thought it was fairly tightly plotted tbh, Orwell is a fairly easy read.
IMO, of course.

for people who read regularly and read books like orwell at 14, it can seem easy. But plenty of folks don't read much at all. I have a mate who struggled with The Hobbit at 21, not cause he is thick-far from it. He was just so unused to reading anything more complex than a tabloid newspaper that he genuinely struggled.

 

[butchersapron]

Why, are 42% of the respondents to that poll presenters of Big Brother?

No they're not, but there's clearly a feeling that there are books, classiscs that people feel they should have read (hence the poll results), and some of the sniffy attitudes on this thread might reinforce those sort of feelings.

Not that your reply has anything to with my suggestion as to the motivations of the people responding to the poll.

 

[Geri]

Really? I thought it was an easy read at 14, and I'm not one for overly difficult writing styles.

I thought it was fairly tightly plotted tbh, Orwell is a fairly easy read.
IMO, of course.

I found it an easy read as well, but maybe because it is considered a "worthy" book, people think it is going to be more difficult than it actually is.

 

[FridgeMagnet]

It's often set for GCSE english lit in schools so it can't be considered all that hard to read.

 

[_angel_]

for people who read regularly and read books like orwell at 14, it can seem easy. But plenty of folks don't read much at all. I have a mate who struggled with The Hobbit at 21, not cause he is thick-far from it. He was just so unused to reading anything more complex than a tabloid newspaper that he genuinely struggled.

I can't actually remember if I've read The Hobbit, or not, now. But I lost the will to live trying to get to the end of The Lord of the Rings, because it just got so dull.

Felt the same about the films, too. (Well the last one definitely!)

 

[scifisam]

No they're not, but there's clearly a feeling that there are books, classiscs that people feel they should have read (hence the poll results), and some of the sniffy attitudes on this thread might reinforce those sort of feelings.

Not that your reply has anything to with my suggestion as to the motivations of the people responding to the poll.

Everyone on this thread has been very clear that they only think Davina McCall should have read the book because of her connection to Big Brother. They're really not being snobby at all.