[Legate of Amon Lanc]

Originally Posted by Lalwendë

Makes me think of an English teacher I once worked with. I asked her what she thought of the Booker Prize shortlist and she looked at me oddly "What's the Booker Prize?" she said. And after I told her she must have seen there was no way of bluffing so she got huffy and said "I've not got time to waste reading books! I hate reading!".

And such people exist???

Myself, I proudly declare that I never lied to anyone about not reading LotR (why deny my very personality!) or about reading it (there wasn't much time in my life before I read it, I couldn't almost speak before). I actually do not remember if I ever pretended reading something - but with seeing movies, yes, quite often. But I think my case is a little bit specific: I do not want to pretend it, but most cases one of my friends comes to me and starts talking with me about the movie, presuming that I have seen it. I didn't, but instead of correcting him, I just nod and pretend that I know what he's talking about.
Now on second thought, there is actually one exception in which some people think that I have read something I actually didn't. One of my friends reads all these paperback fantasy books from Conan to D&D-inspired books and for some unexplicable reason, he thinks I have read them all as well. Funnily enough, he never read Tolkien. Me and other my friends who have read Tolkien, call him "a braque-fantasy reader".

To the top place of LotR in this "pretending contest", I think it's funny, and also interesting that Tolkien has earned such a high place. But I don't think it is a reason for celebration: the fact that people want to seem that they have read it does not, in my opinion, come from the fact that Tolkien would be taken as "high literature", but merely from the fact that there were the movies and many people would presume that when you saw it, you'd also read it. I think it is actually more sad than a reason for celebration.