Is it Really that Cool to be Dumb?

... asks Raman at the Malay Mail site, quoting yet another study which uncovers the fact that folks lie about their reading to impress the opposite sex :

Now a new survey of 1,543 people in Britain for the National Year of Reading campaign (according to a report in the BBC online) suggests that "nearly half of all men and one-third of women have lied about what they have read to try to impress friends or potential partners..." ... The report adds that men are twice as likely as women to lie about what books they have read to try to impress on a first date, and that for both men and women, exaggerating the extent of your literary appetite is second only to false boasts about previous conquests in bed.

And adds :

Well, well, well. So, it looks like reading (or pretending to read) is actually sexy after all.

What do you reckon to what Raman says about how :

... anti-intellectualism has almost become one of the main pillars of our culture.

(Oh dear, weren't we all forbidden to use the prefix anti- anymore because it is too negatif?) *

I do like Raman's weekly column. I was pulling his leg that at last he has found a place where he can be legitimately grouchy and get paid for it!

(*Honestly! That's not a joke! It was in the papers a day or two back but can't find the link. I suppose we will now have to have a Pro-Corruption Agency. Would make more sense, actually!)

Postscript :

Jennifer Schuessler on the Paper Cuts blog admits to lying about books she has read - to avoid having to say anything intelligent about them.