Rachel Parris Reveals The Top 10 Books People Can’t Finish
To tie in with World Book Day, the Dave Channel conducted a survey to find the best books that UK readers failed to finish. Rachel Parris reveals the list in this video:
The broadcaster teamed up with Professor Sam Haddow of the University of St Andrews to conduct the study, which surveyed 2,000 UK adults, to identify the list of literary blockbusters that are putting the nation to sleep.
As you will have heard in the video above, the top 10 are: War and peace, Hamlet, Moby-Dick, The Wuthering Heights, farm animal, dark house, Wretched, The hunchback of Notre-Dame de Paris, Gatsby the magnificent and Ulysses.
The channel says: “The length of many of these books is one of the main reasons Britons find it difficult to read them. For example, Leo Tolstoy’s 1,225-page epic novel War and peacehas an average playtime of 37 hours and 48 minutes.”
Interestingly, 67% of people who took part in the study said they would be more likely to complete the classics if only it made them laugh. So, Dave commissioned comedy writers to do new versions, as Parris reveals in this video:
Nikesh Shukla, Mollie Goodfellow, Steven Vinacour, Ivo Graham and Flo Perry were the writers tasked with bringing some levity to six of the titles. You can read their new releases below, which are accompanied by new illustrative covers designed by Bob Venables.
The Wuthering Heights
Mollie Goodfellow’s new version sees Heathcliff sent to counseling for anger management and toxic masculinity.
Read (PDF)
Moby-Dick
Steven Vinacour’s version of the classic loses 132 chapters (but none of the story) and ends with only one survivor clinging to a makeshift cheese board.
Read (PDF)
Animal Farm – Hexit Edition
farm animal
Steven Vinacour’s version features Boris the boar and Starmer the horse, oh and a barnyard campaign to get “Hexit Done.”
Read (PDF)
The Great Gatsby – Finfluncer
Gatsby the magnificent
Nikesh Shukla’s take sees Gatsby as a self-proclaimed ‘Fin influencer’ – posting nonsensical self-congratulatory and overly embellished posts on his social media.
Read (PDF)
Hamlet
Flo Perry’s revamp sees the King considering putting everything in place for an easier life abroad – the ‘To be or not to be’ scene rewritten with striking parallels to Harry and Meghan.
Read (PDF)
dark house
Ivo Graham embraces the chaos of this mind-blowing book by drawing parallels to dreaded conference calls and the iconic Handforth parish council meeting.
Read (PDF)
Cherie Cunningham, Dave Channel Manager, says: “At Dave, we are always looking for new ways to add a little humor to the mundane and everyday. For World Book Day this year, we wanted to not only celebrate these literary works of art, but add a comic twist in an effort to inspire new readers, or those of us who have tried and failed, to go back and give them another chance.”
Professor Sam Haddow adds: “It has been a pleasure to work with Dave’s writers to tackle the suffocation surrounding some of our most revered works of literature. I hope readers get as many laughs out of these revamped stories. like me – and, maybe, they’re inspired to go back to the originals with fresher, less jaded eyes…”