Books that Draw Attention

[Lokasenna]

So, something curious happened to me today. As I was leaving the house, a package arrived from Amazon for me, and because I was in a hurry I just shoved it in my bag. Anyway, whilst I was in town after I'd finished my various chores around the place, I paused for a while in a café and, over a cup of tea, unwrapped and began a cursory flick-through of my eagerly awaited An Introduction to Shamanism by Thomas DuBois, a book which looks like it will be useful for my studies.

Anyway, as I was reading, some chap wandered over to ask me a) what was I reading and b) what was I reading it for? Only then did it really strike me that, yes, the obscurity of my subject is so far removed from the normal sphere of things that my choice of reading matter might seem a little bit batty. I don't normally read in public places, but it suddenly occurred to me that this was by no means the first time I'd attracted attention in such a manner - I once had to field a bevy of questions from interested/confused people when I once spent a three hour flight practicing for a forthcoming Old Norse exam by translating page-after-page of material onto an increasingly thick wodge of A4.

So those are the perils of public reading. What I am wondering is this: what book do you have in your private collection that you think would be most likely to cause comment if you were to read it in public? Or has anything similar happened to you? I'm interested.

[Charles Darnay]

I was once accused of "pretending to read" Ulysses, because, according to this guy, the only people who would read Ulysses in public are those that want to make themselves seem superior to everyone else.

[Mutatis-Mutandis]

Personally, I hate when people ask what I'm reading. It seems when I answer, they either have never heard of it, or are not really interested at all and were just being "polite" (interrupting someone who is reading being polite, apparently). Usually both.

[OrphanPip]

I have a book about female characters in Restoration comedy that is unfortunately named "Understanding Ladies."

[Desolation]

I was once accused of "pretending to read" Ulysses, because, according to this guy, the only people who would read Ulysses in public are those that want to make themselves seem superior to everyone else.
Don't you just hate that? When I was reading Ulysses, any time I felt inclined to read it in the park or by the river, I had to take off the dust-jacket and replace it with a different one to avoid that.

From what I understand, there used to be a prominent idea that reading great books in public would make you look smart (which is incredibly misguided to begin with), now that idea has become so prominent that some people believe that the only reason anyone would read these books is to look smart.

Of relevance:
http://www.goodreads.com/list/show/17871.Pompous_Books_to_Read_in_Public#10975

[Whifflingpin]

Long, long ago I was a student at a teacher training college, not, you might well imagine, one of the most sacred of the groves of Academe. I was walking down the road, reading a passage aloud to a fellow student when one of our lecturers (who had studied in his youth in the most exalted of such groves) leaped across the road to us and exclaimed joyfully that we had made his day, as he had not seen students reading in such a way in the streets since before the War (no matter which war, it was, as I say, long, long ago.)
I lifted the book to show him it was "The Philosophy of Heidegger." Oh, the look of beatific joy that came over his face then!

[Shevek]

I've never been approached about what I'm reading by a stranger, but I usually read library bound books in public. A hardcover edition of War and Peace might cause attention, simply because it is huge and clearly not a textbook. Demand the Impossible: A History of Anarchism could cause attention, I guess.

Somewhat related, I've been approached by strangers when talking about specific books with a friend in public. They always seem to have rigid opinions about the book they want to impart, then go on their way. I was talking about Robertson Davies once, and a girl told me "no, that's not what his books are about," stood up, and got off the train.

[Volya]

I never read in public.
I would probably get some odd looks if people see me reading The Moomins :)

[Clopin]

People who read their coffee house literature in a coffee house are a bit irksome though, really.

[qimissung]

People who read their coffee house literature in a coffee house are a bit irksome though, really.


As are people who share all their opinions, really.

I did have a good experience last year. I had my students read a book of their choosing for 10-15 minutes at the beginning of class. I shared what I was reading with them and encouraged them to do the same. One girl did ask to read a book I was reading and she read it over the weekend. She told me later it was "OK" but it still felt like a win. I know that's not really "public" in the sense that you meant it, but it was a kind of public. I felt like prendrelmick's professor. :D

[Clopin]

As are people who share all their opinions, really.


Back off Loretta. What is this even supposed to mean?

[JuniperWoolf]

I have a ton of books on metaphysics and the occult which would get some odd reactions if I were to read them in public, assuming anyone would have even the beginnings of any notion as to what hell The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn or The Holy Books of Thelema even meant. Actually, probably the book in my possession which would get the most odd reactions would be one which was a present from our grade twelve English teacher to all of the girls in our year, which is called 105 Ways to Celebrate Menstruation.

[papayahed]

A friend of mine texted me once that she saw some lady on the subway deeply engrossed in a book called "****". My friend never approached the woman or anything, she just shared since it seemed so random.

A couple years ago I was reading Molloy in an airport bar and the bartender commented that it just seemed wrong to read Beckett in an airport bar.

[stlukesguild]

When I was quite young and naive I imagined that lugging about my copy of War and Peace or The Brothers Karamazov would impress the girls. That never worked out for some reason.:shocked:

On the other hand (True Story) I met my wife-to-be in a book store where she was perusing a copy of Dante's Comedia. How could one not be immediately intrigued? It turns out, she informed me later, that sh was just trying to get my attention and so she just grabbed any book off the shelf near me at random.:p

[Pierre Menard]

On the other hand (True Story) I met my wife-to-be in a book store where she was perusing a copy of Dante's Comedia. How could one not be immediately intrigued? It turns out, she informed me later, that sh was just trying to get my attention and so she just grabbed any book off the shelf near me at random.:p


That's a little adorable.

[mona amon]

Nice story, Stlukes! :D

The only reaction I ever got was one day when I was leaving the library with a magazine which had a painting of Dali's on the cover - the one with the tigers and nude and bayonet and pomegranate. I was used to seeing this pic since early childhood as dad is an artist and had a lot of art books, and I never gave it a second thought. But there's this man at the counter who checks the books to see they're all stamped, and I saw his eyes almost popping out of his head when he saw it. :D

[Lokasenna]

Great stories everyone! Though I think the award for best title goes to Juniper for 105 Ways to Celebrate Menstruation...

I've never been accused of 'pretending' to read highbrow literature before, though some people have been interested enough to spark up a conversation based on what I was reading. I once had a reasonably enjoyable conversation with some random woman who, on observing that I was reading Le Morte d'Arthur, decided it was appropriate to begin a discussion on the politics of the Tudor dynasty - despite there not being much overlap, obviously.

Maybe that's just something Ulysses suffers from? It probably has more of a reputation for being a poser's book than most, though for some reason I always think of Salman Rushdie as the poser's author of choice...

[Clopin]

Great stories everyone! Though I think the award for best title goes to Juniper for 105 Ways to Celebrate Menstruation...

I've never been accused of 'pretending' to read highbrow literature before, though some people have been interested enough to spark up a conversation based on what I was reading. I once had a reasonably enjoyable conversation with some random woman who, on observing that I was reading Le Morte d'Arthur, decided it was appropriate to begin a discussion on the politics of the Tudor dynasty - despite there not being much overlap, obviously.

Maybe that's just something Ulysses suffers from? It probably has more of a reputation for being a poser's book than most, though for some reason I always think of Salman Rushdie as the poser's author of choice...

No you know what, I've actually thought about this a lot and it is very characteristic of the uneducated and idiotic to completely write something off, and with a lot of hostility towards people who don't feel the same way. I was guilty of this myself when I was say, fourteen years old and couldn't fathom why anyone would ever voluntarily read Shakespeare. Now a lot of people do have that opinion, but only a few pricks will say something like "yeh EVERYBODY who likes Shakespeare in this day and age is just pretending to" with absolute certainty.


When I was quite young and naive I imagined that lugging about my copy of War and Peace or The Brothers Karamazov would impress the girls. That never worked out for some reason.:shocked:


This actually works pretty well with Kurt Vonnegut novels.

[Gilliatt Gurgle]

Roughly two years ago, I was on a flight reading Karel Čapek's Rossums Universal Robots.
The image of a robot from the 1920's play, was on the screen that eventually broke the resistence of my neighbor.
After the interruption, brief description, I was left alone for the rest of the flight.
In fact he changed his posture to lean on the opposite arm rest.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rossum%27s_Universal_Robots

[Emil Miller]

I don't know why but I have always been rather secretive about what I am reading in public but that doesn't stop me trying to discover what others in the same situation are reading. Travelling on underground trains sometimes doesn't lend itself to reading when one is standing surrounded by others and on one occasion, I was standing behind a young man who had a shoulder bag with a copy of a novel in it within easy reach of my hand whilst holding an unopened book in my other hand. It would have been the easiest thing in the world for me to remove his book and replace it, unnoticed, with my own. The thought of him scratching his head when he later retrieved it sorely tempted me as I had already read my own book a couple of times but I did the decent thing and put the thought out of my head.

[Scheherazade]

No you know what, I've actually thought about this a lot and it is very characteristic of the uneducated and idiotic to completely write something off, and with a lot of hostility towards people who don't feel the same way. I was guilty of this myself when I was say, fourteen years old and couldn't fathom why anyone would ever voluntarily read Shakespeare. I am so glad that is not the case now!

I find that people are more intrigued about my ereader and tend to ask questions (make, convenience, cost, reliability) when I read it in public.

Once the proprietor of the cafe I frequent regularly introduced a guy because he "always reads too". He was not reading Joyce or Vonnegut, though, but holding a James Patterson.

[Helga]

When I was a teenager people often commented on my reading but that wasn't because the books were odd they just found it odd that I was reading them, it was mainly Shakespeare and Wilde.

The most recent comment I got was about 'Hero of our times' (in icelandic though) by Lermontov but the guy that asked me about it is the most annoying 'artsy' wannabe idiot I know. He found the title interesting.

People often wonder and ask when I am reading poetry, apparently nobody 'reads' poetry.

I find it interesting that it didn't work reading war and peace to interest the ladies, I am always interested when I see someone reading some interesting work, unfortunately guys don't think so when I am reading... wonder why.

My bookmark has raised some attention though. I have a old hundred króna bill and I used clear tape to keep it safe. It's been about 20 years since it was in use so people find it odd that I have one.

[Emil Miller]

I met my wife-to-be in a book store where she was perusing a copy of Dante's Comedia. How could one not be immediately intrigued? It turns out, she informed me later, that sh was just trying to get my attention and so she just grabbed any book off the shelf near me at random.:p

Have you ever thought what would have happened if the book had been The Da Vinci Code?

[Mutatis-Mutandis]

How does one celebrate menstruation, anyways? I've only heard women complain about it.



Once the proprietor of the cafe I frequent regularly introduced a guy because he "always reads too". He was not reading Joyce or Vonnegut, though, but holding a James Patterson.

Where do you get a James Patterson? I want one!

[TurquoiseSunset]

I don't know why but I have always been rather secretive about what I am reading in public but that doesn't stop me trying to discover what others in the same situation are reading.

^ This is me. I don't know why I'm so secretive about what I'm reading Even when I'm reading something perfectly 'kosher' like 'The Importance Of Being Earnest', I still don't want people to see what I'm reading. At the same time I am incredibly curious about what others are reading.


I find that people are more intrigued about my ereader and tend to ask questions (make, convenience, cost, reliability) when I read it in public.

I get that a lot too. It's a bit annoying actually. But I always try to be helpful.

[tonywalt]

I do read at the beach sometimes and if it's a big book like War and Peace or say Infinite Jest I will get questions from American tourists. It's usually a benign but back handed comment disguised as a jab.

People are very interested in Technology, so my kindle gets alot of queries - all about the 'tech gadgetness' of the E reader and little interest in how it can access literatature with greater efficiency - sadly.

[qimissung]

What kind of things do they say, exactly, Tony? And gah! I hate backhanded comments. So passive aggressive. Of course I never do that myself. :D