I have an... acquaintance, we'll say, about whom I could write pages of minor rants, but particularly due to this issue. She loves to read and can read ridiculously quickly: I have seen her finish a couple novels in a day in her spare time. I'd say this was skimming, but she's an English major who's written excellent essays on these books, so I don't know. Anyway, because she loves to read and she is an English major, one of my friends and I thought she'd love Dostoevsky, and we bought her two of his novels translated by my favourite translators for her birthday. This was years ago, she has yet to read them, because, she told us, "It's just so pretentious and arrogant to read that stuff." I mean, I'd be surprised if she didn't like it, but I wouldn't really care that she has different tastes. But she refuses to even try to read them, and in the process tells us we're arrogant jerks for reading? Good lord. I kind of want to go to her house and re-possess Crime & Punishment. I've read it but I don't actually own my own copy, and hey, hers is in perfect condition.