Humiliation and Orwell
In the great Humiliation stakes minx_minx with Animal Farm beats out, by one point, cassandre with 1984. Once again, there were quite a few books of the sort that people feel they ought to have read but hardly anyone has. Proust, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Dickens and Conrad always seem to be solid contenders in that department.
I'm both surprised and fascinated that Orwell is still so widely read. My follow up Orwell poll shows that almost everybody on the flist has read 1984 and Animal Farm and that maybe half have read at least something else by Orwell. Interestingly, other than 1984 and Animal Farm, the non-fiction appears significantly more popular than the fiction. In fact all the non-fiction titles outscore all the other fiction titles.
My hypothesis that the popularity of 1984 and Animal Farm is largely due to their place in the school curriculum didn't really stand up. Roughly 70% of 1984 readers and 60% of Animal Farm readers did so of their own volition.
I'm both surprised and fascinated that Orwell is still so widely read. My follow up Orwell poll shows that almost everybody on the flist has read 1984 and Animal Farm and that maybe half have read at least something else by Orwell. Interestingly, other than 1984 and Animal Farm, the non-fiction appears significantly more popular than the fiction. In fact all the non-fiction titles outscore all the other fiction titles.
My hypothesis that the popularity of 1984 and Animal Farm is largely due to their place in the school curriculum didn't really stand up. Roughly 70% of 1984 readers and 60% of Animal Farm readers did so of their own volition.