What do you think Salman Rushdie, Bill Clinton, Paulo Coelho and Fyodor Dostoyevsky all have in common? They are all writers, you might say. Yes, and all of them are also members of a new club: writers of books that British people cannot finish. In a recent survey of 4,000 adults on books, there were some interesting findings
32% of the people said they couldn't finish Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling. Another book was James Joyce's 1922 novel Ulysses, which has more than 1,000 pages. Surprisingly (出人意料地), Louis de Bernières' novel Captain Corelli's Mandolin was also included. The book has sold more than 2 million since 1994, but not many people seem to be able to finish it.
There were more interesting results in the survey. 55% of the people said they bought books for decoration (装饰) and they had no plan to read them. A spokeswoman (女代言人) from a publishing house said,"It seems that people buy some books just to make their bookcases (书架) look good, rather than actually buying a book that they want to read," she added. "People are buying books because they think they will be good for them, rather than because they think they'll enjoy them."
The findings said many people found it hard to make time for reading. Main reasons for this included: feeling tired (48%), watching TV (46% ), and playing computer games (26%).
But who really cares? The book industry is happy because people are buying books anyway. And readers are happy because they can decorate their bookcases and make a good impression (印象) on others.
