It is the dirty little literary secret of which most are guilty but few openly admit: pretending to have read highbrow books like War and Peace to make ourselves appear more intelligent and sexy than we actually are.
Under the cover of an anonymous questionnaire, two-thirds of people admitted to fibbing about having read a book Languishing on shelves up and down the country are copies of such worthy tomes as Leo Tolstoy's epic, George Orwell's political allegory 1984 and James Joyce's Modernist classic, Ulysses.
But while we like to brag about how we have read - and understood - them, most of us simply lie, according to a survey released to mark World Book Day today.
Under the cover of an anonymous questionnaire, two-thirds of people admitted to fibbing about having read a book.
Surprisingly, given its brevity and pace, 1984 heads the top 10 list of books we falsely claim to have read.
The rest of the list is largely predictable, stuffed full of weighty volumes most have seen dramatised on television but not read line by endless line.
Besides War and Peace and Ulysses – which can both exceed 1,000 pages depending on edition – other unread works include the Bible, Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert and A Brief History of Time, by Professor Stephen Hawking.
Many also bluffed about reading classics by the likes of Jane Austen, Charles Dickens and the Brontë sisters.
In reality most people would rather pick up a JK Rowling, John Grisham or a Mills and Boon, the poll found.
The results show the lengths to which people will go to appear intelligent and well-read, said Jonathan Douglas, director of the National Literacy Trust.
He concluded it all boiled down to sex.
He said: "Research that we have done suggests that the reason people lied was to make themselves appear more sexually attractive.
"People like to be seen to be readers. It makes them look good.
"They said they were prepared to lie about what they'd read to impress people, particularly when it came to potential partners."
People gamble that the object of their affection will not have read the book either, he said.
But he warned it was a high risk strategy: "If a date comes back with some obscure quotation from Proust then you might be in trouble."
Of those who had lied about reading a book, 42 per cent said they had read 1984, 31 per cent War and Peace, 25 per cent Ulysses and 24 per cent the Bible.
Despite his exalted position heading a literacy campaign group, even Mr Douglas admitted having embellished his reading history.
He said he neglected to read all the Old Testament, despite having been required to do so for his theology degree.
"I did OK, I got a two-one," he added shyly.
When asked who they really enjoyed reading, 61 per cent of respondents said JK Rowling, 32 per cent John Grisham and 22 per cent Sophie Kinsella.
Britons harbour a host of other guilty reading secrets according to the survey of 1,342 people, which was commissioned by the organisers of World Book Day.
Almost two-thirds of readers (62 per cent) turn over the corners of their books instead of using a bookmark, while almost half (48 per cent) have bought a book for someone else but read it first.
Only one in five (20 per cent) said they threw books away, whether they had actually read them or not.
Books we pretend we have read:1. 1984, by George Orwell42%
2. War and Peace, by Leo Tolstoy31%
3. Ulysses, by James Joyce25%
4. The Bible24%
5. Madame Bovary, by Gustave Flaubert16%
6. A Brief History of Time, by Stephen Hawking15%
7. Midnight's Children, by Salman Rushdie14%
8. In Remembrance of Things Past, by Marcel Proust 9%
9. Dreams from My Father, by Barack Obama6%
10. The Selfish Gene, by Richard Dawkins6%
Authors we actually like reading:1. J K Rowling61%
2. John Grisham32%
3. Sophie Kinsella22%
4. Jilly Cooper20%
5. Mills & Boon18%
6. Dick Francis17%
7. Robert Harris16%
8. Jeffrey Archer15%
9. Frederick Forsyth13%
10. James Herbert12%
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