Too busy to read? You're not the only one
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Work, kids, checking your phone. But reading a book? It just doesn't happen as much as it used to.
A new survey, though, suggests more than two-thirds of Brits wish they had more time to read.
The survey of 2,000 UK adults by The Reading Agency found that 67% would like to read more, but nearly half (48%) admit they are too busy.
And more than 35% said they struggle to find book they really like.
List of books we're most likely to claim we've read, when we've actually only seen the film, in order of popularity:
- James Bond books, Ian Fleming
- Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien
- The Chronicles of Narnia, CS Lewis
- The Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown
- The Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins
- Trainspotting, Irvine Welsh
- The Wizard of Oz, L Frank Baum
- Bridget Jones's Diary, Helen Fielding
- The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Stieg Larsson
- The Godfather, Mario Puzo
- One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Ken Kesey
- Gone Girl, Gillian Flynn
- The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini
Perhaps because we don't read as much as we'd like, because two out of five of us (41%) are happy to stretch the truth when it comes to what or how much we've read.
Millennials are the generation most likely to lie about their reading habits, with 64% of 18- to 24-year-olds fibbing about the number of books, or the kinds of books, they have read.
One quarter of 18-24 year olds (25%) admit to having lied about reading JRR Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, when they have in fact just watched the Peter Jackson films.
The survey was commissioned ahead of World Book Night on 23 April, which calls on book lovers across the country to give a good book to someone who doesn't read often.
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