"Lied about reading" Topic

Lying is never pointless, but it is always stupid: you have to remember everything you said. Telling the truth is the only way to go for people with bad memories. I always tell the truth, even if it hurts.

I've read the Silmarillion several times, ditto LotR (and slowly rereading it again); finished Churchill's History of the Second World War; and A History of the English-speaking Peoples. Read War and Peace, the unexpurgated version, once. The entire Bible cover to cover twice; the Book of Mormon cover to cover well over two dozen times (and if THAT doesn't qualify as a hard book to read, as in stay focused on, nothing does, boys and girls; you should give it a try some time). I've read I Claudius (including Claudius the God) at least twice. I have read half of the Icelandic Sagas: one day I will return: it's all those same-sounding names that kick my trash.

I am a slow reader. So reading constantly, that is every day, I still don't get a lot of books read. These days, I usually don't waste time reading something that I have already read.

Well I don't know about lying so much but one book I often speak of as if I've read it all and haven't is Battles and Leaders of the Civil War.

I've picked bits from time to time but all four volumes are just too much.

There's only a certain amount of old Generals blaming other old and often dead generals for getting things wrong I can stand!

There are quite a few books I started and couldn't finish, but I've never claimed to have read one all the way through when I didn't.

Add me to the list of not having completed The Iliad, and just couldn't get past more than 50 pages of Don Quixote.
Quo Vadis was another I put down, and The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire.

Fell asleep about a dozen times, including four times on one certain paragraph, reading The Rise half of the Rise and Fall of The Third Reich, but finally got past that. The Fall half was a breeze. A paper chase vs. the meat and potatoes of battle.

Couldn't get through Catch-22 the first time I tried (Major Major Major was beyond my comprehension level at the time), but have read it through twice and is one of my favorites.

"Take Major Danby out and shoot him."

JW

I have lots of books I have read and lots of books that I haven't read YET. And I sometimes get the two confused. (Keep finding books on the shelves that should be on the haven't-read-yet shelf). But I don't lie about it, intentionally. What would be the point?

I have read (and reallt enjoyed) War and Peace

the freemasonary bit gets a bit dull after the 3rd or 4th tract but the rest is good

Do Cliff Notes count?

Actually there is a set I let people think I've read but have not really read. I own leather and gold bound 17 volumes of the works of Joseph Conrad. I have it sitting in prominent display for all to see. They are really lovely books. When I was in college I agreed with the bookstore owner to purchase one book a month until I had them all. I haven't read any of them.

I've read Clausewitz's On War. In fact I have two different translations, underlined and footnoted. Sun Tzu cover to cover. The Bible and the Book of Mormon I read as a child for the interesting war stories. I have gone back and reread them. There are a number of books I've only read parts of but they were the only parts I needed such as Machiavelli's The Art of War, and Discourses on Livy. The book that I am currently having a hard time finishing is Kant's Prolegomena. You need a dictionary of Kant's words to get through that thing. Also, Heidegger: Through Phenomenology to Thought. Heidegger is not so hard to read. Understanding what he wrote is the trick. One that I have not mastered and probably never will.

Rich

Yup definitely On War Clausewitz's only half way threw and gave up. War & Peace three quarters of the way threw about 25 years ago so I may pick it up again and read to the end this time.

Regards
James

John the OFM said:

I read War and Peace in bed with Kate Jackson. She was the Smart One.

Liar! You didn't read W&P with her.

I would also bet that a high proportion of people who quote Clausewitz haven't read his book either. Full disclosure: I have never read Herr Clausewitz nor do I quote him.

I read a lot, especially on vacation. I try to finish at least 1-2 books a week, which is a challenge because I work 11-12 hour days, so I'm happy to finish one a week. On vacation I can burn through three-five books in a week. More than once I ran out of reading material and had to go buy some more. I read history and science. The only fiction is age of fighting sale – Bolitho, Aubrey, Hornblower type books. "Dr Dogbody's Leg" is a book I recommend to everyone, a great read. Gaming and reading are my favorite activities (except sex). I especially like reading about a conflict I've not read before, however, I keep returning to the AWI and the ACW.

Lying about reading is like lying about military service, those that do, know know a poser when they meet one.

I have several books on Roman armies that I just can't get into.

Now War and Peace I enjoyed! But you need a copy that has all those French bits translated at the bottom of the page.

Lord of The Rings……so dull, Simarillion…..couldn't get past page 15!

hussarbob1746.webs.com/index.htm

Don Lowry wrote:
"But I don't lie about it, intentionally. What would be the point?"

I couldn't agree with Don more. Why lie about it ? There are some books all you need to read is a few sentences to know what there about. For example, H.W. Hegel. I read one paragraph from one of his famous and influential books a few years ago. I knew immediatley what the book was about and put it down. If someone ever asked me if I knew Hegel's thought, I'd say "yes" and I wouldn't be lying. You wanna make circles around yourself and in your mind, read Hegel.

Clauswitz: I've read some chunks of him. Friction. Objects and subjects… very Kantian. I like Kant too, but I'm not putting him on my desk as if a Bibile. Read the New Testament cover to cover to once.

I do have one particular volume I would really like to buy one day and that would be something I could see myself reading day in and day out or at least on regular basis.
Not saying what that book is. Took too much effort to figure that one out :)

I have many books that I have read (either once, or multiple times), and still more that I have read parts of – or looked up information in.
Other books in my collection wait for me to have the time and inclination to read them – just as many miniatures in my collection are waiting for me to have the time and inclination to paint them.

I've slogged through some boring books, but I have never been able to get far in the Iliad.

Maybe I need a better translation?

SpaceCudet wrote:

I have read all but the last 50 pages of War and Peace which, I discovered too late, were missing from the second hand copy that I borrowed from the mother-in-law who kept in the toilet as a joke (no I didn't get it either).

Ummm, I don't think you would want those missing pages.

I get, I read hundreds of books thing in debate all the time, yet few if any titles are cited, and never the specifics from the books. I am sure many are misleading about what they've read, as well as what it means.

I got Clauswitz as a present and never got past the first 50 pages. Sun Zhu, however, is great toilet reading. I read the Illiad in prose and got a poetry translation because I thought that since it was written as a poem that would be the way to read it… Mistake!

BH Lidell-Hart's "Strategy." This was one of my initial picks when I joined the Military Book Club in about 1973. I never read it. My brother gave me another copy a few years ago for Christmas, and I never read that one, either.

Is it permitted now to admit to having read 'Wellingtons smallest victory', twice ?

My only failure has been the incredible THE SILMARILLION! I swear that it would have been easier to read in Elvish!! JRR Tolkiens other stuff is quite good IMHO, but THE S is a wilderness to me! I can't prove anything of course, but I suspect anyone who claims to have read it all (and understands anything much about it from reading it) is also lying!

It is my only failure because I have not even tried some of the other "tough ones"!

Started Clauswitz but put it down.
Illiad and Odyssey remain waiting to be read, as does the Pelopenesian War, and Caesar's Conquest of Gaul.
I have a whole pile of German generals to read from Manstein, von Mellenthin and Raus. I'm about halfway through the Rommel Papers and read sections of Monty's stuff depending on what I'm playing/painting.

OK, all of you who claim to have read "War and Peace", there is a scene about a third of the way in, in which an eager young Russian lieutenant in some garrison town on the Russian border is called in to his commander, and told to deliver a message to the opposing French commander (the French having just invaded).

Where is the location where he finally delivers the message to the French commander?

[there were a couple chapters in the beginning that were good in W&P, but about halfway in it slows to a dreadful crawl, then Tolstoy gets all weirded out and it becomes impossible to read.]

I can honestly say I have read every book I own. Though most in Japan with me my collection is fairly small, back in the UK my collection is quite larger.

Le Morte de Arthur (Malory) I finished, but I have to admit to skipping some chapters/pages.
I can say the same about the Romance of the Three Kingdoms.

Les Misaerables and War and Peace were lent to me and given back unfinished as they were just to hard going. And Hugo goes off on random tangents, leading into other tangents …. makes for horrible reading I reckon.

Agree on les Mis.

Do we really need a chapter explaining Parisian slang, or two explaining Paris' sewer system? And what does the chapter on Waterloo have to do with anything? It's like Hugo decided to throw in random unfinished ideas for Non-fiction books in there to take up space.

I'm in college, and consider myself pretty well-read, but there are certain things I will not touch with a 20 foot pole…

The comprehensibility of writing throughout history tends to move on a Sine curve (UP-DOWN-UP-DOWN)… We'll start out with some BS Ancient era text that's nonsense, then some medieval script that's easy, then to a Renaissance that's gibberish, then a 17th century piece that is incomprehensible, then an Enlightenment/Romantic Era work that's perfectly legible, etc, etc…

My favorite stuff to quote as though I've read it when I haven't is Shakespere. I've only read Henry V and Rich III, and only because they were historical in nature.

Largely, I now only read History or political stuff (My Majors are History/PolySci) and so I get to avoid certain unpleasant works but smack right into others…

Tried really hard to read Clausewitz. He is impenetrable.

Quite liked WAR & PEACE when I started it. hope to get round to it but think I'll wait for a long convalescence from a critical illness before I'll have the time. (Managed to get through Josephus' Jewish War post-vasectomy)

Read Sir Thomas Browne's RELIGIO MEDICI last week, full of great quotes

I love books with lots of pictures .
Cheers, Mark

Call me a sentimental fool,but I loved Les Miserables,and I wept when Fantine sold her hair to pay for Cosette's upkeep.

You sentimental Fool.

My daughters love 'The Glums', and before taking them to see it I had a go at the book. I found it beyond me I have to say.

Liked the Musical though….

Pat

I have never been able to get more than about 30 pp into The Catcher in the Rye. I figure he should be slapped around and sent back to school.
Weaselhoffen.

Hmm..lets see

Sun Tzu- Some really interesting ideas but I could never read the thing straight through. It just seems like something that you would flip through when bored or need a quick reference.

Achtung Panzer, Heinz Guderian- About 60% through with it. I want to finish it, but keep getting ditracted by other books. A large chunk of it is Guderian playing the blame game for the utter mess that was WWI but he also gives some interestign insights on the development of mechanized warfare.

I see a lot of people mentioning Catch-22. I thought that the book was hilarious and I read it straight through. You have to read it with satire on your mind.

I've read William B Griffith's version of Sun Tzu many a time. I've also read Clausewitz and Mahan.

The one I just can't do is Jomini.

I read some of James Clavell's translation of Sun Tzu. Also,The Red Air Fighter by Manfred von Richthofen in the past few months.

tuscaloosa – I only read W&P once, decades ago, but IIRC, the eager young Russian ends up back at his own garrison town because the French have advanced there whilst he's been gallivanting around?

Never cared for W&P as it seemed far too infused with Tolstoy's view of the world to the exclusion of reality or common sense.

I've read The Silmarillion and The Odyssey and The Peloponnesian War and am reading Churchill's History of the Second World War. Life's too short to bother reading things I won't like or don't like, and if you lie about reading a particular work, be assured that it will come back to bite you on the @rse in future.

Now, a challenging read would be "The Yawning Heights", a parenthetical satire that jumps around in time, written during the cold war by A. Zinoviev. It took me longer to read it than it took him to write it. Or you could try some Kafka: "The Trial" or "The Castle" for sheer impenetrable Mittel European abstractness.

I've never read any Mills & Boon, but an afficionado did tell me, once you'd got the essential format down, you could finish one in 45 minutes.

Not only War and Peace, but also at least 5 volumes of Will & Ariel Durant's The Story of Civilization (800pgs avg each)

I also started Mein Kampf (got it and was reading it on the quad at the start of my undergrad years; probably teed folks off), but gave up the hopeless struggle about halfway through.

JRR Tolkien never interested me, although I was intrigued to find his name as part of the committee responsible for a Bible translation.

I have also read Shelby Foote and a lot of Bruce Catton, plus a few Time-Life series (WWII, the Seafarers, the Epic of Flight, the Old West, the Civil War).

There are also books I've read many a time and can't put down each time, including the Bible (read it more than 20 times, cover to cover).

Still, I find time to run games….