35+ Books Everybody Lies About Having Read
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35+ Books Everybody Lies About Having Read

Jacob Shelton
Updated February 16, 2025 967.7K views 80 items
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3.4M votes
93.7K voters
3 reranks
Voting Rules
Vote up the books that you've felt the need to lie about reading at some point for whatever reason.

As you slide comfortably into being an adult, one fact quickly becomes evident: everyone is a big fat liar, especially when it comes to discussing impressive books to read. Avid readers should definitely check out these popular book reviewers on YouTube. Not only are there too many life-affirming books out in the world to read in one lifetime, but there are also a bunch of books that become a part of the social zeitgeist, and if you don’t read them you’ll be left out of the cultural conversation. The books people lie about reading tend to be considered classics, but they’re also massive tomes that are responsible for destroying an entire forest. Some books people claim to have read would make better doorstops than they would entertainment, but you should still act as if you’ve devoured every page. If you don’t lie about some of these books, what are you going to have to talk about?

There are so many intelligent and cool people out in the world, and every single one of them says they have read all of the most important books. You know how you lie about what you scored on your SATs? Well you should also do that with literature. This list of books you should say you've read makes it easy for you to fool your friends and strangers alike. Because if you do come across someone who has actually read all of these books they’re not going to be able to keep the plot points separated in their heads long enough to call you on your BS. Keep reading to see all the books people pretend to have read – and then maybe actually read one of them. 

Most divisive: Gulliver's Travels
Over 93.7K Ranker voters have come together to rank this list of Books Everyone Lies About Reading