Quote:
Originally Posted by BookHoarder
Do I put on a fake cover to disguise what I'm reading, forgo the cover completely to face the "What you readin" questions, or make the true cover and just ride it out till the books' end?
|
That's easy! Here you go:
Make that your default cover and you'll stop any conversation in its tracks.
I'll confess to a huge and shameful inconsistency on my part. I'm most likely to be asked what I'd reading when I'm having my hair done and it's a conversation I'd rather not have, especially, and this is the most shame-making aspect, because I want to forestall the conversation about my favorite books as my favorites tend not to be mainstream. But there's an unpleasant judginess to that, as why shouldn't the response to my naming the book I'm reading be, "Gee, I love Napoleonic history too!"
This is even worse because I'm incurably curious about what other people are reading, so covers
are helpful. It tells me what I need to know and if and only if it were something that appealed to me and the reader looked open to conversation, I might lob a pleasantry. But I get the intrusive aspect of that (see above). Alas. I remember one day last summer when I was charmed to see a kid of about 12 hanging out at the local pool entirely absorbed in a doorstopper. I was dying to know what he was reading, but peering over his shoulder didn't do the trick and when he looked up at me I excused myself and moved on. It was so refreshing at a time when it seems kids are rapidly evolving into having iPhone flippers instead of hands.