Reader Jason McCrory sends along a bit from WordSpy.com, discussing the useful neologism “unread bestseller.” The term describes books that sell well, but few people actually get around to reading in its entirety. On WordSpy’s list of Top Ten unread bestsellers: The Closing of the American Mind by Allan Bloom, and A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking. I plead guilty to having both of them on my shelf, and to having gotten through only the first sixty or seventy pages. Another one I’d like to add: Jacques Barzun’s From Dawn to Decadence, his doorstop-sized history of the last 500 years of Western civilization. I’ve started this book several times, and really enjoy it. I can’t for the life of me figure out why I never manage to finish.