Courtesy of Times Online comes a list of “10 Books Not To Read Before You Die,” excerpted from Richard Wilson’s upcoming book, Can’t Be Arsed: 101 Things Not to Do Before You Die.

Wedged between Pride and Prejudice at #1 and Ulysses at #10 is Lord of the Rings. According to Wilson:

The best I can say about this book is that it was a very useful tool at school for helping to choose your friends. Carrying a copy of Tolkien’s monstrous tome was the equivalent of a leper’s bell: ‘Unclean! Unclean!’ I knew I would have nothing in common with anyone who had read it. Their taste in music, clothes, television, everything was predetermined by their devotion to Gandalf. Without a shadow of a doubt, in a few years, these people would be going to Peter Gabriel gigs and reading Dune.