That one guy at the library book club who called me out on my pretentious picks

So I go to this monthly book club at the library downtown, and last month we were supposed to bring a book we thought was underrated. I brought some dense literary novel from the 1900s, thinking I was being super smart. This older guy named Tom just looked at me and said 'Have you actually read that thing cover to cover?' I got defensive at first but he was right, I had skipped half of it. He then pulled out a beat up copy of a romance novel from his bag and talked for 10 minutes about why it mattered to him. Made me realize I was more worried about looking smart than actually enjoying stories. Has anyone else had a moment where someone in your group just saw through your book snob act?

2 comments

2 Comments

linda50014d ago

And what's funny is Tom probably knew that book inside and out because he actually loved it, not because it made him look good. I had a similar thing happen with a coworker who always brought up obscure films at lunch. One day someone just asked her 'but what did you watch last night that made you happy?' and she couldn't even answer. We get so caught up in the performance of being a reader or a viewer that we forget the whole point is to feel something, you know? Now I keep a list of books that made me cry or laugh out loud, not ones that impressed my professors.

lindamartin13d ago

That coworker thing really hits home, @linda500. My sister is a huge book collector with shelves full of literary classics she's never touched, but she's got a worn-out copy of "The Little Prince" she's reread like 20 times. Funny how we sometimes forget to separate what makes us look smart from what actually makes us feel something. Crying or laughing out loud is the real test, I've found.