After surveying 4,000 people, English sociologists compiled a curious ranking of 'unconquerable' books. Every reader probably has their own list of abandoned literature - books left unfinished halfway through or after reading ten pages. In the British ranking of unreadable masterpieces of fiction, 'Goblet of Fire' took an honorable second place. The fourth Potter yielded only to the creation of Booker Prize winner DBC Pierre, 'Vernon God Little'. It yielded, perhaps, quite deservedly - to read this thick volume from cover to cover, written in a conversational style using teenage slang, requires extraordinary patience and enviable stamina. 35% of respondents lacked the strength.
Only in third place is James Joyce's 'Ulysses' - 28% did not finish it. The strange thing here is that the great Irishman got only 'bronze' - a thoughtful and literature-reference-saturated description of one day in Bloom's life had long been considered the uncrowned champion in the 'ultra-difficult reading' category. But new times brought new heroes: the multi-letter 'Vernon God Little' and 'Goblet of Fire' easily pushed the classic down to the lower step of the podium.
As expected, the unreadable top ten also included Russian classics: Leo Tolstoy with 'War and Peace' and Dostoevsky with 'Crime and Punishment'. They are far from 'Ulysses', however - only eighth and tenth place. The classic Russian novel in Britain (and in many other countries) is considered very worthy reading, but this literature is undoubtedly quite difficult for the modern mass consumer of book products.
However, it's not only classics that are hard to finish. Most of the texts in the top ten belong to trendy modern literature. The sixth place of Salman Rushdie's 'The Satanic Verses' is most likely the result of the political uproar that arose at the end of the last century. Back then, Iranian Ayatollah Khomeini acted as a PR agent for this book, demanding the head of the writer who allegedly insulted Islam. The popularity of Rushdie and his creation soared to unprecedented heights. And those who bought 'The Verses' having been taken in by the scandalous fame apparently quickly discovered that there was nothing particularly provocative in his text. Paulo Coelho is also unlucky - his 'The Alchemist', lying on any stall, settled in seventh place on the list.
At the same time, a top ten of unreadable books in the non-fiction category was also compiled. Here, the stories of retired politicians about their rise to power are unrivaled. In first place are the memoirs of former UK Home Secretary David Blunkett, in second - Bill Clinton's recollections, in seventh - Margaret Thatcher's book 'The Downing Street Years'. And third place went to the young memoirist David Beckham: his stories about life in big football were abandoned halfway by 27% of respondents.
It is quite interesting that the Teletext survey appeared less than two weeks after the publication of another book top ten - a ranking of the most beloved books, works 'without which Britons cannot imagine their lives'. According to a survey timed to World Book Day, the most popular literary work in Albion was Jane Austen's novel 'Pride and Prejudice'. It received 20% of the votes from readers surveyed. But the not-always-finished saga by Joanne Rowling made it to an honorable fourth place with 12% of the vote. Harry Potter's adventures are dearly loved by the British people, despite all the difficulties of perception.