He: I noticed that you were reading a book in the lift this morning.

She: Yes. I read a lot.

He: Oh? What are you reading?

She: *shows him book cover (which incidentally is C J Cherryh’s Foreigner series)* It’s sci-fi / fantasy. It’s one of my husband’s books. I ran out of books to read at home.

He: That’s quite unusual. My impression is that only boys read sci-fi / fantasy.

Really?!

I must have missed that circular since I read some sci-fi /fantasy, in addition to all of the other random mix stuff that I read.

A little background: Said colleague has over the years made some speeches to the firm at large propounding on the virtues of self-help books and other books relating to management and other serious adult stuff like that (which I dismiss as BS because I think most adults don’t know what they are talking about more than half of the time).

And then the conversation progressed:

She: I also read a lot of classics and history…

He: Oh I like the classics. I find that history is very educational.

She: *thinking that my understanding of classics is probably way different from his understanding of classics but trying to make small talk anyway* I find that philosophy could be quite interesting.

He: I usually like stories that inspire, you know, like autobiographies *and I tried hard not to roll my eyes* …I think philosophy is too dry. You know how we already do so much dry reading at work. I like to be entertained with something light when I read after work *thus confirming my suspicion that my understanding of classics is different from his* …

And then we got to the ground floor and parted.

While I was walking away, I quickly formed the opinion that I don’t think said person and I will never ever get along on a deeper than superficial level.

I need to stop dismissing people summarily like that. But then I just can’t help it. It’s like an instinctive response to cringe when someone gushes “Tuesdays with Morrie is my faaavourite book!!” or when someone says openly “I am a Huge Fan of Dan Brown…”

I am a firm believer that what you read is very telling about who you are. I can’t quite say what it is exactly that I look out for regarding the choice of books. My husband and I read completely different things but some where along the line I decided that what he read was interesting and stimulating and although I personally don’t do a lot of philosophy and the more hardcore sci-fi fantasy that he does. He can relate to Shakespeare and John Fowles and discusses the merits of David Mitchell with me (although he is ambivalent about Murakami) on a level which he was only able to because he was an avid reader himself. And then we got to a point where we are able to trade books and say for certain what the other will read or won’t read.

Sure, I am friends with a whole lot of people who don’t read at all (e.g. The Buddha who only reads car magazines and law textbooks when I force him to haha), but even that’s way better than professing to read and then telling me that you only read bad drugstore / airport / checkout counter novels and think that that’s the best writing in the world you have ever come across in your whole entire life.

I find it even harder to forgive you if you were in the profession because I am sure that some of the cases we were made to read as law students are way better than said bad writing. Which then makes me wonder whether or not said people have in fact read a complete case in their entire lives…Oh the utterly contemptible and deplorable conclusions one’s mind could lead one to!

Oh well. What can I say? I am just a snob who cannot get along with most people.

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