I would bet that easily 950 out of 1000 high school and college graduates have not read A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court or The Mysterious Stranger.  I have, neither of them are great books.   I doubt Simps has, though I'm sure he saw Bing in the movie if not the musical of the one and that PBS made for TV movie of the other.   He never reads the book when there's a movie and even when there isn't.