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Underground > Books, Criticism & Writing >

Books and image

10:31 / 27.09.03

How much do you care about what you're seen reading? Do you take that into account when picking a book for a plane or train trip?

(I don't think we've talked about this before, though it seems a pretty obvious topic so apologies if we have)

I have a friend who can't believe I'd read Harry Potter on the tube. And I suppose I'd hesitate to read Jeffrey Archer in public, but then I'd hesitate to read JA anyway. On a different angle, I get really embarrassed reading a book on the tube if it gets 'sexy' - I always feel like people are reading over my shoulder. And watching to see if I start shifting in my seat. Ahem.

That's one reason I'm reading Catherine M in French! Partly, yes, I wanted to practise reading French but the thought of reading about orgies and blow jobs and comparisons of cocks on the London Underground - err, no.

22:26 / 27.09.03

I really don't care about what I'm seen reading. I'd sit in the middle of the campus, and read a Harlequin bodice ripper if I could find one that didn't disgust me after the first five pages. I'd even read the really raunchy parts out loud, in a breathy woman's voice. I'd find it highly amusing to see what kind of reaction I got. Of course, I'm the guy who thought it'd be amusing to walk into McDonald's while wearing a Burger King crown.

If people want to think I'm childish because I read Harry Potter, a nerd because I'm reading some hard science book, or some great big weirdo because I'm reading a romance novel that's their perogative.

09:21 / 28.09.03

Read what you want where you want is how I read it. But sometimes it's nice to put on a little show. I read Kafka on the bus or something.

I am always curious to see what other people are reading and I try not to scoff at their choices. That people still have the attention span to read books gives me great delight.

15:01 / 28.09.03

I was once called a swot for reading while smoking a cigarette outside the cultural studies department, until they saw it was a Katherine Applegate teen romance... I think I can honestly say 'no', having read in public comics, erotica, children's books, women's weekly magazines, and cultural theory texts (less often).

There are two exceptions, I think. The first is that I'm unlikely to read hardcore philosophy/cultural theory when I'm temping (I do secretarial work in solicitors' offices), but that's because I get embarrassed when I have to try and explain what I'm studying to people who have no background at all in academia/philosophy/cultural analysis.

The second is Harry Potter, which I absolutely hate reading in public (I will do so only if I am very obviously taking notes). But that's because I dislike being identified with it as a brand: I think mainstream HP fans** take pleasure in spotting each other reading it in public, and I don't want to look like I'm identifying myself as part of that community.

**by which I mean the people that don't write fanfic.

Oh - and weirdly enough, in my current not-reading-any-books-by-white-people drive, I'm often finding myself embarrassed when, f'rinstance, I'm at the bus stop with two or three black people, I'm the only white person there, and I'm reading a book obviously marketed at black British people. I don't know why... I thought it was something to do with not wanting to look appropriative, or whatever, but actually i think it's because I do care about books and image. Most of the other stuff that I read in public isn't wildly contradictory to my appearance - or if it is, like if I'm punked-up with pink triangle badges all over me and reading Take a Break, then I'm taking a certain amount of pleasure in the contradiction. But I do wonder what motives people ascribe to me when they see me reading Millie Murray novels.

Probably none, I'm sure, and I'm insanely oversignifying the whole thing. But there you go.

Whisky Priestess

22:13 / 28.09.03

I read what I want, where I want, when I want, but I do indulge in smuggery when it's something vaguely intellectual/virtuous. I also quite like reading hard sci-fi in public, again because of the disparity between person marketed to (teen geekboys) and person reading (corporate-suited 20-something female).

I don't I've ever read anything I'm ashamed of reading - even de Sade's Justine is now so old as to be almost respectable.

01:11 / 29.09.03

If I'm embarassed to be seen reading something, I probably won't be reading it at all. I can't say which comes first. Do I choose books that make me look good, or is whatever I want to read good enough to be seen with? I think it's a little of both. After all, I totally ignore the romance section at the bookstore.

I'm always thrilled when I'm enjoying a book and someone chats me up about it. Likewise, I feel uncomfortable when someone chats me up excitedly about a book I'm finding limp.

Sometimes I see people reading books I read long ago, and I think I'd be embarassed to read them now, knowing their contents. On the other hand, I recently revisited my extensive Dragonlance collection from my preteen days. It wasn't really worth it.

The only exception is trashy magazines. I only read them in public (I'm not about to buy any!), but I try to look nonchalant and ironic about it.

Whisky Priestess: I was under the impression that hard sci-fi was marketed to middle-aged geekboys.

06:36 / 29.09.03

I don't have any problems reading whatever I want in public. A few years ago I was the object of some light-hearted mockery at work because I was reading comics in my lunch break. I just pointed out that I was enjoying what I was reading so I didn't really care what my workmates thought.

07:59 / 29.09.03

One of the things I like about reading is that it stays away from image. Music needs to take advice from it.

09:01 / 29.09.03

I agree, read what you want when you want and all that, though I must admit to recently deciding against taking Daniel Pinchbeck’s “Breaking Open The Head” (about his consciousness-raising experiments with various plants and chemicals) on a weekend to Amsterdam just in case I had any nonsense at customs on the way back.

Oh, and the copy of Anne Frank’s Diary I’d been obviously reading in Covent Garden made me feel hmm about going and talking to the attractive girl nearby when I realised she and her friend were german, stupid as that may sound.

I don’t mind about people seeing what I’m reading. In fact, I like it when I see someone on the tube or whatever reading a book I’ve read or might be interested in, in amongst the people reading Metro and other papers I find it vaguely reassuring that there’s someone I might get on with. Oh dear that sounds sad.

09:21 / 29.09.03

One of the things I like about reading is that it stays away from image.

Ohh, I don't think that's true. Reading in public in itself displays a certain kind of image, and I certainly think people judge you on what they see you reading. That's why there is a odd kind of pleasure in reading something that's obviously not to 'type' such as Whiskey Priestess reading hard sci-fi. If you read in public in an 'unusual' space (I don't count trains, buses or the tube because these are 'acceptable' reading spaces) you can almost guarantee that someone will comment. I can walk down the street reading without bumping into anyone - it's an art I've perfected over the years, and I have often had people say things like 'get a life,' 'fucking bookworm,' 'get back to reality' and so on. And it's not because I'm in someone's way!

What you are reading or have read says as much about you as your clothes or music choices I think. On my bookshelf in my front room there are books that I am happy for people to see I own, but I also own books I wouldn't want to be judged on, (for example trashy beach saga's) which I put in my bedroom. I don't actively 'care' what people think about what I am reading, in that it wouldn't ever stop me from reading something, but I'd be far happier to be reading 'The Secret History' in public, than anything bonkbuster-y. For me there wouldn't be a problem if I could hand out a little list to everyone who sees me reading; one which said I may be reading this trashy book, but I have also recently read the following other books: (Little list of books.) Then people couldn't judge me on what I am currently reading, because the list would be diverse enough to show them I read all sorts...

Currently, I alternate between styles. I read one trashy book (chick lit, or bad sci-fi perhaps) then one 'sensible' book. This makes me feel better about my sometimes (in the literary sense) deviant reading habits, and ensures that I have a balanced reading diet. And as I generally read two or three books a week, I think this is a healthy plan.

11:00 / 29.09.03

But most people that read cyberpunk are computer programmers in their 30's and 40's. What we read has nothing to do with our image: it has to do with what we're interested in.

Do I have a Phil Hine/Steve Aylett/Hakim Bey image? Didn't think so.

11:02 / 29.09.03

I have been thinking quite hard about this and I don't think I care what people see me reading, but that would be because I don't read things which I find embarrassing (e.g. erotica). I am perfectly happy to read romance novels, school stories, children's fantasy etc. in public... but then I don't read things which I think are rubbishy, like most chick-litty things, so I would be, really...

I do like to look at other people's reading material though, because it interests me to think about the possible connections between appearance and reading material, and why they might be reading such-and-such a book on this particular day. The number of people reading religious texts and manuals on the Tube never ceases to amaze me.

I am, also, one of those awful types who walk into a house and go straight for the bookshelves. Some of my acquaintances quite obviously manage their bookshelves - I am thinking in particular of the chap who had Hobson-Jobson next to the Kama Sutra next to Alan Clark's diaries next to At-Swim-Two-Boys. I think I'd rather have my books in a tremendous jumble, and let people make of them what they will.

Having said that, I would be excessively annoyed if someone assumed things about me based on the fact that I happen to read the things I read.

lord nuneaton savage

11:02 / 29.09.03

I had to stop reading a Suehiro Maruo (post burroughsian, transgressive, japanese comic artist) graphic novel on the train the other day when my girlfriend pointed out, quite rightly, that if one of the mums saw what I was reading I'd probably end up on the sex offenders list. Sensible lass her indoors.

11:31 / 29.09.03

The worst thing about reading anything (which isn't currently popular) in public is that you are going to be asked the question "Do you read that for pleasure?" - the best answer to which is obviously "yes", rather than the occasionally more honest "umn, yeah, well basically I bought it and now I want to read it because I don't like having things I haven't read on my bookshelves". (Which I said once, and was rewarded with the kind of pitying look which is only usually visited upon dying animals.)

Apart from that, I don't really think about what I'm reading in public -although on trains I do tend to check what other people are reading rather than getting on with my own book...

at the scarwash

19:27 / 29.09.03

I don't really think about what it is that I'm reading in public, depending upon where I am. I suppose I feel slightly defensive sometimes sitting in a bar reading something with a rocketship on the cover (I was recently revisiting Heinline's juvy sf), but I'm overbearingly willing to defend/prosletyze what I'm reading, so I don't really worry about it. But I definitely do check out what others are reading in public, so maybe I should start paying more attention to my habits of literary accessorisation.

06:01 / 30.09.03

God, I cringe when I think of my late teen years when I used to walk around wearing a leather coat with copies of On The Road/Catcher In The Rye/The World According to Garp/The Sun Also Rises on permanent rotation sticking out of the pocket.

These days I don't even think about what I'm seen reading, but having said that I don't use public transport much. Reading while driving is so much more private, if a little unsafe.

Goodness Gracious Meme

12:02 / 30.09.03

Sax- ouch. Find/Replace:

when I used to walk around wearing a leather coat... on permanent rotation sticking out of the pocket>>>>
sitting in the pub, ostentiously 'reading'

On The Road/Catcher In The Rye/The World According to Garp/The Sun Also Rises>>>>
Valerie Solanis,Sylvia Plath, Stevie Smith, Virigina Woolf.

Thought about this, and I don't think i'm conscious of other people when i'm reading... probably for similar reasons to Kat.

"Some of my acquaintances quite obviously manage their bookshelves"

OMG, do people outside Hello/Wallpaper-land actually do this?

The Return Of Rothkoid

13:09 / 30.09.03

Well, I do - but that's only so I can have room for my fezzes and my grandfather's bowls trophy.

I do get concerned about what people see me reading, but only if it's one of the fuckawful Del Ray editions of Lovecraft's works with ye olde bloode dripping beastie on the cover. It just irks me to be associated with the sort of fatbeard persona that that links one with, I think. Other than that, I'm reasonably easygoing, though I do feel odd sometimes reading stuff with fairly explicit sex inside it (case in point: Praise, which I completed about a week ago) for much the same reasons as Ariadne proposed.

22:20 / 01.10.03

I'm possibly slightly weird in that, although my boredom threshold's not that bad, I can't seem to tolerate even short journeys without something to read. Since I have to travel by Underground every day and frequently forget to bring a paperback, I find myself displaying a range of newspapers and magazines about my person.

While not quite as wankily obvious as the 'On The Road'/'The Bell Jar' juvenile pseud-stuff, I do feel slightly self-conscious when I'm reduced to reading 'Heat' magazine while suited and booted up for work - I suppose because it makes me feel ridiculously lightweight (and faintly dirty, which isn't altogether unpleasant). I'm also conscious, when reading 'Boyz', 'Attitude' or 'Skin Two', of people looking over my shoulder. Trying to read a broadsheet newspaper on the Tube is a pain if seats are crowded.

Book-wise, anything goes. 'Strangers on a Train' is my recently-completed livre du train but I'll happily read anything from psychiatric textbooks to chick-lit. I've also perfected that 'reading in the street without bumping into stuff' thang.

23:13 / 01.10.03

I care sometimes. I don't mean to, but I do. A lot of it has to do with situation and association - as with Sax and bip I had my ostentatious pseud phase and I don't want people to think I'm still behaving in such a gauche manner. Recently, I was asked what I was reading by an attractive waitress in a trendy bar - I flushed quite badly because I was reading Human, All Too Human. I mean, Nietszche? How more obviously pseudy, trying-too-hard-to-impress can you get? I wanted to explain that I wasn't actually doing it an incompetent attempt to look cool but she was already backing away with a mildly wary look on her face. And then on Tuesday night I was in a studenty pub filling up with huge numbers of excited Freshers who were making me feel somewhat old and out of place when I realised I was reading Mr Nice - Howard Marks' autobiography. Again I experienced a vague feeling of embarrassment - it seemed like such an obvious choice for the kind of book that screams; 'Look at me! See what a cool, druggie student-type I am!'

This, I'm sure, is pure paranoia. I have read, and will continue to read prolifically in public. One of my favourite methods of relaxation is to sit in a pub with a book - I have spent hundreds of hours doing so and generally really don't care what I'm seen to be reading. I've taken all kinds of abuse, mockery or plain bafflement and I've given enough in return (when I didn't feel there was a risk of having my face rearranged as a result of doing so). But sometimes, if I'm feeling shy, or uncomfortable, or lacking in confidence, it will suddenly matter very much. Pretty sad, but there it is.

10:32 / 08.10.03

I think I have wasted more money because of pretty girls behind the counter in a bookstore than I have because of pretty girls behind the counter in a bar. Same general theory behind why they're good for business, but I sort of resent it - I'll walk in looking to buy some godawful Ace Doubleday paperback - something like David Eddings - to take on a flight. But there's some Punk Rock Nymphette behind the counter, and so suddenly I'm like, 'Ooo. Kafka and Joyce.'

Like I need another copy of Ulysses I'm not going to read.

11:21 / 08.10.03

That happens to me in record shops all the time. I go in to buy something really obvious, and then when I see the cool dude behind the counter I get all ashamed about my middle-of-the-road choice and feel the need to add something obscure, just to look a little bit less, well, uninteresting. Bookshops and record shops for me have a lot in common - in both instances before I go in the shop I know exactly what I want to buy, and what am looking for, and then when I get there I sudddenly get overwhelmed by the amount of choice and stand in the middle of the space thinking, "What do I like? What the hell am I here for?"

They tend to make me feel like I know very little about literature or music, and I find it deeply depressing that my choices always seem to me to be so obvious and dull.

And, BTW, It's not sad at all to occasionally care what judgements other people are making about you, Cass.

A

13:56 / 08.10.03

Generally, I couldn't give an arse what and where I'm seen reading, but, the other day, I caught a train to my sister's place and, not wanting to take a bag with me, I stuck the book that I was reading at the time in my jacket pocket. However, the top one-third of the book stuck out the top of the pocket, and I happened to be reading Henrey Miller's Tropic of Cancer at the time. This made me feel like a total poser who had this hip novel deliberately on show to be cool.

01:45 / 31.10.03

It's like the "smoking hash in public" issue -

Those who know, don't care - those who care, don't know.

19:19 / 02.11.03

the other day i got a robert crumb book out of the library and was reading it on my way home on the rapid. I got kind of self counscious about it after a bit.

20:13 / 02.11.03

I notice more the combination of books that I take with me than any single book. When I go out to study I need my textbooks but I also need something to take a break with, and I derive much immature pleasure from having a book on complex analysis (which is calculus with imaginary numbers) sitting on top of Teen Feng Shui (which is exactly what it sounds like).

21:24 / 02.11.03

I don't care what people see me reading in general, but i used to be extremely judgemental about other people on trains and things based on what THEY were reading... People reading the latest popular book automatically went down in my estimation. I have since become less judgemental since i've been reading similar books...

12:36 / 03.11.03

Weird, same here Sleaze. I'm terrible for scoping out what people are reading on trains and having a good old nose but couldn't give a stuff what people see I'm reading.
I suspect it's a legacy of reading trashy fantasy like Eddings, I still read big thick fantasy novels on occasion and one looks much like another if you haven't read them.
Although I've just bought Life of Pi and will be reading it on the train home, I think I held off on reading this until the fuss died down about it, so I wouldn't be seen to be reading it because it was 'cool'.

13:16 / 03.11.03

People reading the latest popular book automatically went down in my estimation.

By the same token, anyone reading something second hand would be marked as cooler even before I checked what it was they were reading.

On trains, I also feel offended whenever people object to my reading (totally inobtrusively) over their shoulder -if it's interesting, I get kind of engrossed, and when they signal their displeasure (shuffling awkwardly, turning the book away, moving seats, kicking me in the shins) I get sulky like I would if I was in the right...

19:01 / 03.11.03

I totally care.

I only read my comics in my Sanctitude of Self-Regard. Or a secluded place if it's not immediately available, and I really want to read 'em.

I was actually reading my new Shade trade on the train today, but I gave up, started feeling self-conscious, and read Quicksilver instead. To show them. Oh, yes.

It's not that I'm particularly personally embarrassed about it, it's just a pain in the ass explaining to non-(true) believers that this may actually be a worthwhile use of my time, and not stupid juvenilia.

Disco is My Class War

03:17 / 04.11.03

I'm like Ganesh in that I can't go anywhere without having something to read. Anything will do: novels, philosophy, porn, newspapers, comics, just as long as I can read. I don't think I care particularly about the content of what I'm reading. There have been moments on crowded peak hour trains/trams when I realised the cover of a porn novel was pretty explicit and that I felt obliged to sort of shield the cover in my lap. (Weirdly, and pervily, there's always a frisson of pleasure involved in reading sexually explicit material on public transport -- not that I deliberately do it to get off.)

The only thing I do get really embarrassed by is that when I'm reading something amusing, I have a tendency to laugh out loud without realising I'm doing it. This has startled a few punters, but it always seems to startle me more. If I don't have a book handy I will usually write in my notebook. Which definitely attracts suspicion/curiosity, and probably makes me look like a complete wanker, but some of my best writing happens on public transport.

Yotsuba & Benjamin!

16:49 / 04.11.03

I don't make conscious choices before jetting off to work every day, but I certainly do think about it all the time. For example, today I was in Wendy's reading the glistening new Stephen King book (The Dark Tower V: Wolves Of The Calla) and never has there been a novel that looked more, just PULPY. Fifth in a series? Bernie Wrightson cover? Wolves? Calla? What the fuck? And you should see the title logo. I mean, it's gorgeous, but, well, check it out.

And I liked that I happened to look pretty swank with my touseled hair, chiseled 27 year old jaw, and the slender figure I cut whilst eating Chicken Nuggets, with this massive tome of Publicly-Perceived-Shlock in my hands. Everyone else I've ever seen reading King (modern King, that is. Everyone reads the classics) in public is a middle aged man in the Polo shirt his wife bought him ten years ago and has worn ever since.

I think about it a lot, sadly. I wouldn't dare read JLA/Avengers until I get home, but that dope looking Batman 620? You bet your ass. But when it comes to comics, there's a certain evangelism involved. For example, when I got the first New X-Men HC, I read it as publically as possible, because, you know, everyone on earth ought to be reading it. There were several over-the-shoulders on that one. Hoorah.

And I am an out-loud chuckler, so, you know, such is my cross to bear.

18:43 / 06.11.03

When I was still a mall-worker I used to sit on the bench outside my store and read comics on my breaks. I remember this one girl coming up and looking quite disgusted that I read comics. I informed her that I'd once owned a comic store and that the comic I was reading in particular would probably give her nightmares. She didn't sit down, or ever come back I don't think. I wonder why.....

Zoom.

11:06 / 12.11.03

I'd definitely agree with the fact that you get funny looks reading certain books. I've started Atomised and always catch people looking at the cover and me in a strange way! It doesn't stop me pulling it out of my bag though.

So Ariadne, how's the Catherine M book? Worth a look?

11:41 / 12.11.03

I have been in a similar situation to Deva with the "not-reading-any-books-by-white-people drive".. standing at the bus-stop (in England), realizing that everyone else there is Chinese (they must have all been doing some kind of language course, since they were clutching English dictionaries!) and then being a bit embarrassed that I'm reading a book by a Chinese author. I'm not sure why that bothered me though - I probably wouldn't even notice if I saw someone in another country reading a book by an English author (although translations of titles are sometimes strange, so maybe I'd notice that).