Praising Shows You Don't Watch: Difference between revisions

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* [[The Bible]]. Some people who espouse it as the direct word of God haven't read more than a few verses of it (as opposed to Biblical scholars, who tend to analyze and discuss it academically). On the flip side, most people who hate it haven't read it either. Some traditions do cover a large portion of the text over the course of a few years, though.

* In Islam, it is very important to learn about the Koran. It's not limited to just reading it either. Memorization of Al-Fatiha is important, as it is needed for prayer. Indeed, there are many people all around the world who have memorized the Koran by heart. Unfortunately, like with [[The Bible]], there are many who praise the Koran yet rarely ever read it.

* William Shirer characterized ''Mein Kampf'' as the bestselling book in Germany between 1934-1944 that was never read by most Germans who bought it.

* William Shirer characterized ''[[Mein Kampf]]'' as the bestselling book in Germany between 1934-1944 that was never read by most Germans who bought it.

* ''[[War and Peace]]''

* ''[[Pride and Prejudice]]''

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* ''[[Lord of the Rings]]'' gets this, too. Mostly for people who haven't exactly read it, but praise it more for what they accomplished.

* ''[[Nineteen Eighty-Four]]''. Many phrases from the book, like "[[Big Brother Is Watching|Big Brother]]", "thoughtcrime" and "[[Room 101]]", have entered pop culture, people can often quite convincingly claim they've read the book by simply quoting these phrases.

** That's debatable, as most people can only repeat the concept of Big Brother and think of it as an extreme form of totalitarianism that sees everything and controls everything. Anyone who has actually read ~~1984~~ knows that the vast majority of the population (the proles) doesn't need to be closely watched and it's only the Party itself that must be controlled. The repression in 1984 then is less caused by strong governmental control as most people imply when they try to make analogies about 1984, and instead it's an internalized repression that people enter almost willingly. The big concept in ~~1984~~ is not Big Brother; it's ~~toughtcrime~~.

** That's debatable, as most people can only repeat the concept of Big Brother and think of it as an extreme form of totalitarianism that sees everything and controls everything. Anyone who has actually read ''Nineteen Eighty-Four'' knows that the vast majority of the population (the proles) doesn't need to be closely watched and it's only the Party itself that must be controlled. The repression in 1984 then is less caused by strong governmental control as most people imply when they try to make analogies about 1984, and instead it's an internalized repression that people enter almost willingly. The big concept in ''Nineteen Eighty-Four'' is not Big Brother; it's thoughtcrime.

* Mark Twain would be displeased to learn that ''[[The Adventures of Tom Sawyer]]'' now meets his definition of "classic." When most people discuss the book, they refer to one ~~scene—Tom~~ tricking his friends into whitewashing a fence for him. This occurs in Chapter 2. Either that is an incredibly awesome scene, or it's got 'most quoted' status in school textbooks, or most people stop reading around page twenty. You can tell that someone has actually read the whole thing when they refer to other memorable scenes, like getting lost in the caves, and Tom and Huck attending their own funeral.

* Mark Twain would be displeased to learn that ''[[The Adventures of Tom Sawyer]]'' now meets his definition of "classic." When most people discuss the book, they refer to one scene — Tom tricking his friends into whitewashing a fence for him. This occurs in Chapter 2. Either that is an incredibly awesome scene, or it's got 'most quoted' status in school textbooks, or most people stop reading around page twenty. You can tell that someone has actually read the whole thing when they refer to other memorable scenes, like getting lost in the caves, and Tom and Huck attending their own funeral.

* Much like the ''Tom Sawyer'' example above, you can tell whether or not anyone has actually read ''[[Don Quixote]]'' by whether they remember anything about it other than the windmill scene.

* [[Richard Feynman]] mentioned in his autobiography a case when one publisher sent a schoolbook to the California State Curriculum Commission, but it wasn't ready for print, so it had ''empty pages''. Six out of the ten members of the commission ''still'' rated the book ~~favorably—literally~~ judging it by the cover! Ironically, it was one of the highest rated books, and according to Feynman's autobiographical account, none of the other members understood why he hadn't rated the textbook.

* [[Richard Feynman]] mentioned in his autobiography a case when one publisher sent a schoolbook to the California State Curriculum Commission, but it wasn't ready for print, so it had ''empty pages''. Six out of the ten members of the commission ''still'' rated the book favorably — literally judging it by the cover! Ironically, it was one of the highest rated books, and according to Feynman's autobiographical account, none of the other members understood why he hadn't rated the textbook.

* Many works of mythology, such as [[The Epic of Gilgamesh]], [[King Arthur]] and various other texts of [[Classical Mythology]] and other myths. Although many are well-respected as inspirations for modern fantasy and great storylines by themselves, few people have ~~probably~~ actually read them.

* Many works of mythology, such as ''[[The Epic of Gilgamesh]]'', [[King Arthur]] and various other texts of [[Classical Mythology]] and other myths. Although many are well-respected as inspirations for modern fantasy and great storylines by themselves, probably few people have actually read them.

* Part of the [[Framing Device]] for why ''[[The Princess Bride (novel)|The Princess Bride]]'' (the book, not the movie) is an 'abridged version' is because the author (who is, in the [[Framing Device]], claiming to merely be an editor) recommended this book highly to his son, despite the fact he'd never read it, having only heard the (much shorter) version his father read to him as a child.

* While ''[[Twilight (novel)|Twilight]]'' did have some... [[Everything's Better with Sparkles|questionable]]... aspects of vampires, amongst the cries of how they ruined vampires like Dracula in ''[[Twilight (novel)|Twilight]]'' is allegedly that they are moving during the day - which pretty much shows how familiar people actually ''are'' with ''[[Dracula]]''.

* ''A Brief History of Time}'' and ''Godel Escher and Bach'' are both well-known for this, the former having been described as "the most unread book ever written". These tend to be the sort of books that people leave on their bookshelves or coffee tables to look sophisticated, but because the books are quite challenging to read, only a handful of people who own them have ever finished them.

* ''[[A Brief History of Time]]'' and ''Godel Escher and Bach'' are both well-known for this, the former having been described as "the most unread book ever written". These tend to be the sort of books that people leave on their bookshelves or coffee tables to look sophisticated, but because the books are quite challenging to read, only a handful of people who own them have ever finished them.

** And thus this page is a [[Self-Demonstrating Article]] - that second book is called ''[[Gödel, Escher, Bach]]'' (no "and"). Almost nobody knows the title of the book they praise!

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