Noah – Two points:

1) Yes, Closing of the American Mind is a famous bought-but-not read book. But I would have to say it comes in at least third in this category. Second would be The End of History by Francis Fukuyama, and first would A Brief History of Time by Steven Hawking. Honorable mentions: Paul Kennedy’s Rise and Fall of the Great Powers and anything written by Bill Bradley. I would guess that the bought-to-read ration for A Brief History of Time was on the order of 10 to 1.

2) Second, the problem with Closing of the American Mind is that it’s really two books, one (i.e. the first half) is a joy to read and the other a PhD thesis coarsely translated from the German. Here’s what I wrote about it years ago in a G-File on a suggested reading list of conservative books:

There’s a big argument out there about when the last truly funny line of Stripes occurs. Some say it’s the moment Bill Murray says, “were gonna party Italian-style” on the parade grounds. Some people say it comes when John Candy insists, for the last time, that he gets the top bunk. Others say the moment the comedy died was when the soldier tells John Larroquette that Murray and Ramis took the EM-50 to get washed. There are some who are offended by the suggestion that Stripes wasn’t hilarious all the way through to the “a party for me!?” line.
This debate largely mirrors the debate over (10) Closing of the American Mind. I don’t know if it’s when Bloom starts talking about the Nietzscheanization of the Left or perhaps when he delves too deep into Kantianism. All I can tell you is that at some point, I found it so difficult to read I started saying, “Look! Clouds!” out the bus window about halfway through. That said, the first half is so brilliant and wonderful, like the first half of Stripes, the book is still worth it.

Update, From a reader:

Ha! Thank you, Jonah. I’m so glad to know even YOU found the second
half daunting. I fell in love with the book’s first half, told all my
friends to read it (even wrote about it in my column), then couldn’t
bring myself to finish the book. Glad to know it wasn’t just me…

And, a good point from another reader:

I would bet that the most purchased-but-not-read book would be the bible. It is in nearly every home in America (sometimes multiple copies and versions), but how many people do you now that have read it cover to cover, including Deuteronomy?

Me: I usually get hung up in the “begats.”Now that I think about it, I bet there are lots of better examples: Mein Kampf, Mao’s Little Read Book, The Greening of America, etc.