I can’t stand… book culture. One time someone got me a canvas bag that was like “Books + Tea = Perfect Day” and I drove to goodwill with that shit so fast
Most books suck. Most books are goddamn awful or utterly extraneous. Don’t get me wrong, I think we’re deeply lucky to live in a world where most books can vanish without us losing anything culturally or intellectually, rather than a world where books are so scarce that a single person might own like twelve in a lifetime. But still. Books are easy to aestheticize as Magical Portals of Adventure and Whimsy if you only read maybe two genres
AH! Words for that whole… situation.
I work at a public library and book culture there is nauseating. Not really among the other employees (though we’ve had a few come through over the years), but the patrons?
Oh god the patrons. Most of the people who check out books are just regular people who like reading. I even have patrons who L O V E to read, and who spend a majority of their free time reading or discussing books, they’re part of multiple book clubs, they always bring a big bag and leave with it full. They aren’t the Book Culture People.
Book Culture People loudly announce that they’re so surprised that there are children who know what books are!
They act affronted when I mention our ebook service, and scoff at the idea that anyone could enjoy reading from a screen instead of off the page!
They are personally offended that publishers hire actors to read the books for audio versions, because they feel that “audio books cheapen the experience of reading” and “audio books are cheating”!
They have to proclaim their fetish for ‘real’ books, whether through tacky tote bags, weird quote filled pinterest boards and social media posts, or awkwardly shoehorning unimpressive humblebrags about all the classics that they’re reading into unrelated conversations with tired library assistants.
They’re terrible, and I resent them because I fear being grouped with them by the nature of my field.
I was literally just talking about a friend whose classmate in her library science program was bragging because she didn’t use any digital resources for her final paper because she “respected books too much.” It’s such a bizarre attitude for anyone, much less an aspiring librarian, to have
I’ve also been approached by people while I read in public who are like “Oh my GOSH it’s so GOOD to see other people who READ nowadays!! Honestly I just have NO hope for our generation” and it’s like, first of all if you’re a reader you should know the last thing anyone wants is to be interrupted by a stranger for unnecessary conversation, and second please shut up holy crap
Oh god, I’ve heard that one before.
Hating accessible books and shunning technology is basically the antithesis of modern librarianship.
I don’t get the ebook hate, ebooks are literally just books. You cite ebooks the same way, and depending on the format, you don’t even say they’re ebooks.
It’s a performative, self important approach to something that I genuinely enjoy, and I think it bothers me more than, say, fandom antics, just because it’s so much more common. People get offended when I tell them I don’t read a lot in my down time, that I genuinely prefer audio books, that I’ll skip their recommendations because I don’t share their tastes.
It’s so… boring.
“People don’t reeeeead nowadays, everyone spends all their time looking at their phoooooones”
My dude
The thing that they are looking at
Is words made of text
What’s really annoying to me about those types of people is a book and a cup of tea DOES sound like a perfect day but when they slap it on an aesthetic canvas bag in one of Those Fonts it becomes a weird performative thing instead of an honest sentiment.
Like, one of my favorite memories is the first time I re-read my favorite novel and picked up on a lot of new things I didn’t catch the first time. I was on a cruise with my parents and completely enamored with the whole “everything is paid for already so you can eat/drink as much as you want” thing and I spent the one full day at sea reading, drinking jasmine tea, and eating little strawberry shortcakes from the galley. It inspired a tradition of re-reading my favorite book every summer to see how my thoughts/perspectives had shifted (and because the plot is just really fun).
That book means a lot to me, and I take immense pleasure in reading it and other books while drinking tea because oftentimes they pair nicely together. But elitism? No. No no no no no.
People ruin things when they take something pleasing and lock it away behind arbitrary rules.
