It's not altogether unsurprising to hear that people lie about some of the books they have read. Books such as 1984 and The Infinite Jest are popular repeat offenders, but recently a survey looked into who is lying about what they have read and what books are offenders. The findings are fascinating, especially in terms of millennials, who frequently stretch the truth related to the books they have read. In fact, a lot of millennials are lying, especially when it comes to J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings books.
A study conducted by the The Reading Society for World Book Night in Britain found that millennials love to lie about reading The Lord of the Rings trilogy, which is made up of The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers and The Return of the King. The movies were made into feature films thanks to Peter Jackson in the early 2000s, and thanks to the flicks being in existence, a lot of 18-24 year olds feel pretty confident about lying about having read the books. In fact, 25% of the people surveyed admit to having lied to someone about reading LOTR when they've actually just watched Jackson's movies.
The Lord of the Rings aren't the only books people will lie about. The survey also found that overall 2 out of 5 individuals will lie about how much they read, and a whopping 64% of millennials will also decline to tell the truth when asked about the number of books they've read. The moral of this story? You may want to have a healthy skepticism when people are talking about books the books they've supposedly delved into. In fact, when you consider that this was a survey and there's no guarantee that people even told the truth while responding, the numbers could be even higher.
We live during a time when a lot of book properties are being remade into movies and TV shows. In films, we've seen remakes of Anna Karenina, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, Fifty Shades Darker, Hidden Figures, The Zookeeper's Wife, The Lost City of Z, Allegiant, In The Heart of The Sea and many many more. On TV, book properties from Game of Thrones and Outlander to Big Little Lies have all earned onscreen components. There are usually differences between the visual mediums we see on the big and the small screen and the overall books, but the gist is often the same, which I suppose is what prompts people to feel comfortable with lying about what they've read versus what they've just actually seen.
To check out more from the survey, head over to The Reading Agency. And if you are one of those millennials who is always lying about having read The Lord of The Rings, you can feel free to totally tackle that behemoth series for real this time by ordering your own copy of the novels.
