Have you ever read a book, newspaper or magazine and then while you were reading, someone asks you what you are reading? Doesn't it annoy you? Well, it annoys me! And for so many reasons too.
One such reason is the fact that many people are paranoid about the fact that you seem to be reading about them. I know a whole group of people like this. Most of this group comprises of the friends of mine that take the same train as me to and fro school. Everytime I pull out a book anywhere near them, their "paper detectors" go off. They always want to know what I am reading about. It seems as if they think I am reading their personal diary or journal. An example of which was when I was reading my History textbook to study for a test. One of my friends, a Korean by the name of Jusep, called me a "weirdo" for even daring to pick up such "subversive" material. Two other friends, Robert and Liam, also feel greatly unhappy when they notice that the book I am currently reading doesn't contain details about their rich and fullfilling lives. Of course, I completely understand why they are so disappointed. No book has ever printed the highly intellecutal conversations that this group has every afternoon, with highly critical topics such as Thomas the Tank Engine, bad smells and comic book heroes.
This leads me onto another point. Many people want to check out what you are reading so that they can make completely unsubstantiated conclusions about you. I found that this point particularly shines out when I have to study Philosophy for school. I've had a wide array of comments thrown at me because of this. The best of these was something along the lines of "I can't understand it, so why should you read it?". When I read novels, Moritz, a German friend of mine, claims that I am a "bad reader" because I read blurbs to find out what the book is about, and that I read introductions of classic books (Frankenstein for example). I find this very puzzling. He claims that the only books worth reading are those that have been shortlised for prizes, and those that have been written by so-called "acclaimed" authors. But an important question arises? Does a book that has been labelled as outstanding by either a snobby panel of book "experts" or a disturbed book critic make it outstanding for me? Obviously not, because I have different tastes compared to other book readers. Well, people like Moritz are bound to make errors of judgement if they become slaves of literature. I mean, he reads books all through the night into the early morning. Come on, HE'S A FREAK!!!
People who ask you what you are reading quite often distract your attention from what you are reading. I know of one person called Ben, who's become somewhat of ..........
