Best sellers by Bill Clinton, J. K. Rowling and David Beckham are among the books Britons find hardest to finish reading, according to a survey published last week.

Although the average reader spends more than US$7,760 on books in their lifetime, 55 percent admit they buy them for decoration* and have no intention* of reading them.

Topping the list of unfinishable fiction* is “Vernon God Little” by DBC Pierre, which 35 percent said they could not plough through*, followed by Rowling’s “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire” at two (32 percent).

“Ulysses” by James Joyce was at three (28 percent) and Salman Rushdie’s “The Satanic Verses” — which prompted Iranian spiritual leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini to issue a death sentence* against him in 1989 — is at six (21 percent).

The non-fiction list is led by the memoirs* of former British Cabinet Minister David Blunkett (35 percent), followed by former United States President Clinton’s 1,024-page autobiography* “My Life” (30 percent).

Real Madrid star Beckham’s “My Side,” the fastest-selling autobiography of all time in Britain, comes in third (27 percent).

The survey also found that only 24 percent of people find time to read every day, with 48 percent saying that they were too tired to do so.

Researchers commissioned by television news service Teletext interviewed 4,000 people.