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Reading can be cool or uncool.
Reading is often (stereotypically) engaged in most voraciously by those kids who don't don't do the other more sterotypically cool stuff. They are reading when their friends are playing sports or dating, and reading is a substitute for other social interactions, and something that even the most shy and socially inept can excel at.
When those kids are seen reading, reading is percieved as uncool.
But when a more well rounded, or otherwise socially accepted person is seen reading, it's perceived as cool. The James Dean-like (or for my generation, the Luke Perry-like) characters--the brooding, leather-jacketed anti-heroes-- are often portrayed at well-read with a poet's soul.
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