The Book Nerd’s Guide to Reading in Public
Welcome to the Book Nerd’s Guide to Life! Every other week, we convene in this safe place to discuss the unique challenges of life for people whose noses are always wedged in books. For past guides, click here.
“What are you reading?”
–Every stranger whose sightline includes the quite legible cover of your book
What you read says an infinite number of things about you. Most importantly, when out and about, what you’re reading says, “Please come up and chat with me about this book. No, really, I’d love to hear your thoughts on genre titles, regardless of how applicable they are to this Ursula K. Le Guin in my hand. It’s all fine.” Unfortunately, you never think about that particular message until you’re wedged into a corner table at a coffee shop while some (likely) well-intentioned person barrages you with detailed reasons why they’ve never thought much of YA (but have also never actually read it).
In the same way headphones instantly arouse the conversational instincts of your coworkers, friends, and family, so too do open books compel others to strike up little chats, some welcome, others not—you were, after all, in the middle of a chapter.
This is a tough position to be in, as the situation pits your two fundamental book nerd pleasures head to head: talking about books and actually reading them. Naturally, you long to have thoughtful discussions about books. You are in four book clubs. Your Goodreads page is akin to a Renaissance salon. You leave notes in your library books—a la S.—just hoping to impart what you thought and learned to the next patron. At the same time, all you want to do is to read the darned book.
There’s not one right answer to what to do when your public reading prompts public commentary, no single solution as to how to wriggle out of the clutches of intrusive human interaction. It’s all entirely situational.
Should you engage the invader?
- Did he or she begin the conversation on the topic of the actual book you’re reading or the actual author who wrote it? …YES
- Has a character possibly just died at the end of a chapter and this person is impeding your progress to the next? …NO
- In asking the question, did the intruder accidentally spoil a plot point for you? …NO (Full disclosure: I did this once to a friend with the movie Gattaca. I routinely whip myself with a book light in penance.)
- Did the prelude to the conversation begin with an “I’m sorry for disturbing you, but”? …SURE, THEY ARE ONE OF US
- Did he or she express judgment over your dog-eared pages, which is just rude because you can live your life however you want? …NO
- Did this person take off with your bookmark and you didn’t notice it until you were finally alone again? …CALL THE POLICE
It’s hard when your instinct for politeness and your innate lust for the consumption of words war with each other. But that is the reader’s lot in life, to be burdened by the outside world when pleasantly at home in the interior of one’s mind. I suppose that’s why we so often don’t want to leave our homes. But I encourage you to continue going to your local hangouts to read. Just don’t wear headphones—they’ll come at you like spider monkeys.