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The eNotes Blog A Cheaters Guide to theClassics

A Cheaters Guide to theClassics DISCLAIMER: If you are a student assigned to read any of the following classics in school, you should ABSOLUTELY read them all the way through! Not only are they classics for a reason, but thats your job as a student, and as members of the educational community we would be remiss if we didnt point that out. If you are, on the other hand, one of the 62% of adults who are simply willing to lie to make themselves appear smarter, well then this article is for you! Thats right, roughly 6 out of 10 adults claim to have read books theyve never even opened in an effort to appear more intelligent and impress others. How do they get away with it? Mostly through movie adaptations. But why rely on a directors interpretation of Great Expectations  when walking into the potentially vicious traps set by your dinner party counterparts? I mean, if you really want to get serious about appearing smarter, youll have to study with some study guides. And what a surprisewe just so happen to have some of those!   You could read the 1,225 pages this Tolstoy classic, or you could just prop it on your bookshelf at home and internally vow to get around to it one day The top ten books people claim to have read, but havent, are: 1984  by George Orwell – 26% War and Peace  by Leo Tolstoy – 19% Great Expectations  by Charles Dickens – 18% Catcher in the Rye  by J D Salinger – 15% A Passage to India  by E M Forster – 12% Lord of the Rings  by J R R Tolkein – 11% To Kill A Mockingbird  by Harper Lee – 10% Crime and Punishment  by Fyodor Dostoyevsky – 8% Pride and Prejudice  by Jane Austen – 8% Jane Eyre  by Charlotte Brontà « – 5% Titles that just missed the cut are The Bible (3%),  Homer’s Odyssey  (3%) and  Wuthering Heights  (2%). Be serious about appearing smarter: study smarter. Never walk into a dinner party unprepared again!