Fri Nov 8, 9:53 AM ET

LONDON (Reuters) - Britons are spending more on books than their European counterparts but perhaps only because they are boring, surveys have suggested. [Or perhaps it's because they talk about the books they have read to the ignorant bloody Europeans who haven't read any and therefore find it boring!]

Market researchers Mintel found Britons spent an average of 184 euros (117 pounds) on books each year, while Germans forked out only 158 euros a year and the French parted with a meagre 111.

The survey did not take account of any price differentials, but Mintel found 60 percent of Britons had bought a book in the last year compared with 40 percent in Spain and Germany.

Much as Britons might like to see this as a mark of literate sophistication, a survey for Australian winemakers Lindeman's had another interpretation -- Britons are boring.

The survey painted a grim portrait of early nights, unimaginative take-away meals and sexual abstinence.

Australians would also be the first to point out the British have to occupy all the time they spend penned up indoors by the foul weather.

Britons also have to fill the many hours they spend trapped on the nation's creaking rail-system.

"There's all these delays. There's nothing to do but sit there and read," said commuter Guy Parckar who has ploughed through Cervantes' "Don Quixote" in the morning rat race. "I'm now reading the complete works of Shakespeare."

-- Anonymous, November 08, 2002