Performative reading?

[dolorosa_12]

Thirty Day Book Meme Day 12: I pretend to have read it

I don't have any books that fall into this category! What would be the point? I don't view reading as some kind of competition, where you must read the most, or the most widely, or the most 'classics', and what other reason would someone have for pretending to have read a book. I'm not reading to impress people, it's not a public performance.

That said, given my love of all things vampire, people are often surprised that I haven't read the nineteenth-century classics such as Dracula, Carmilla, and so on. At this point, they've been adapted, subverted, and turned into pastiche so many times that I basically feel as if I have read them. Some day I will probably get around to it.


13. Makes me laugh.
14. An old favorite.
15. Favorite fictional father.
16. Can't believe more people haven't read.
17. Future classic.
18. Bought on a recommendation.
19. Still can't stop talking about it.
20. Favorite cover.
21. Summer read.
22. Out of print.
23. Made to read at school.
24. Hooked me into reading.
25. Never finished it.
26. Should have sold more copies.
27. Want to be one of the characters.
28. Bought at my fave independent bookshop.
29. The one I have reread most often.
30. Would save if my house burned down.

I spent most of last night feeling profoundly despairing at the current state of affairs in Britain. Theresa May's 'legally binding assurances' are nothing of the sort, but they might be just enough for the hard Brexiteers to change their tune and vote for her deal. I didn't realise how much I had been counting on (and assuming) an extension to Article 50, and how upset it still makes me to sit here hopelessly, watching the days count down until rights are taken away from me without my consent.

Comments

[auroracloud]

I totally don't get that kind of reading either! I read because I love reading, not because I "should" read. I admit to sometimes feeling slightly pressured to read something (mostly, I still don't) but I don't see any sense of pretending I've read something if I didn't! If I haven't, I'll just say so.

I actually really loved both Dracula and Carmilla, and on the other hand haven't been much happy with Dracula adaptations I've seen - films, at least.

[dolorosa_12]

Yes, unless I'm reading for work (I used to be a book reviewer) or study, all my reading is for pleasure. That's my spare time, so why the hell would I spend it reading something I don't enjoy.

I reallly should give both Dracula and Carmilla a read at some point.

[corvidology]

I never fib about reading something I haven't but I'm amazed at the number of people who do because they feel it's one of those books that an educated person should have read.

[dolorosa_12]

Yes, I find that really sad. Reading should be something you enjoy, not a competitive sport, and part of the point of the literary canon is that it's always changing, so the idea of there being a finite, static collection of books that educated people should have read is really silly.

[incognitajones]

I have occasionally implied that I read the library book club title when I hadn't. But in my defense I always did tons of research!

[dolorosa_12]

Ha! I guess with book clubs you also run the risk of being stuck with a book that doesn't interest you in the slightest.

[wheatear]

I didn't realise how much I had been counting on (and assuming) an extension to Article 50, and how upset it still makes me to sit here hopelessly, watching the days count down until rights are taken away from me without my consent.

Yeah, I feel you. We're not getting May's deal, we're (supposedly) not getting no deal... just what are we going to get? An extension seems like the only viable move now but who knows.

[dolorosa_12]

Well, at this point, who knows? We might be getting May's deal, given the Brexit ultras in her party are now sufficiently scared they won't get Brexit at all at this point, and Farage is trundling around continental Europe, begging far-right governments to block an Article 50 extension? At this point, we're boxed into a corner where the only options are revocation (oh, please, let it be so), or May trying again with her deal and scaring/bribing the extremists in her party and the DUP into compliance.

As a non-EU migrant who became a British citizen in May 2016, and received my passport on the morning after the referendum (literally, I woke up, heard the result, and heard the noise of my passport being posted through the door), I'm finding the prospect of having my free movement rights taken away essentially on the day I received them (the past three years having been a kind of borrowed time), after I paid thousands of pounds to the Home Office, sent them various visa/citizenship applications, some of them totally more than 100 pages, one which was held — along with my passport and visa — for six months, profoundly upsetting. I can't bear the idea that something I wanted so badly, which to my non-EU migrant eyes is the most incredible gift and unearned privilege, is being thrown away like garbage by people who were never going to use it in the first place.

[scripsi]

I don't get the point of pretending to have read something.

I read Dracula when quite young. I was hooked on vampires after seen a documentary about Stokers Dracula and the real Vlad Tepes, so Dracula was basically the first vampire book I ever consumed. :)

[dolorosa_12]

No, I really don't see the point either — reading shouldn't be a competitive sport, and if you're not doing it for either work or pleasure, what's the point of it? It's all right just to not like reading.