Department of Unread Books

One of the great things about books is that as soon as you finish one there's another one waiting to be read. A person who reads enough "good books" is said to be well-read, or, according to the Free Dictionary, "well informed or deeply versed through reading" and "having much knowledge or education."

Alas, for most of us the joy of reading is accompanied by a certain level of guilt about what we haven't gotten around to reading--great works we will presumably get around to when we find the time.

At the Ways with Words festival in Devon, England, reporters for the London Telegraph cornered famous authors and asked them to confess their guilty secret: which classic of literature had they not read? Their confessions are recorded for posterity at Great Unread Books: Which classic are you ashamed to admit you have never read?

If you, too, suffer feelings of inadequacy over the material everyone assumes you have read, but haven't, you may find comfort in the following discussions:

• What is Your Cultural Secret Shame from New York Magazine
• Remembrance of Things Unread from the New York Times
• Books You Should Have Read at School from Abebooks.com
• How to Talk about Books You Haven't Read by Pierre Bayard