Bookworms are Officially Hot?!

A recent news item on The Guardian has people coming out of the woodwork and stating which books being read by people in public will make them look at that person twice... and maybe chat him or her up.

As it turns out though, this can't be just any book. Specific turn-offs were listed as part of the comments. It seems that Dan Brown is a huge no-no. Add to his pile erotic books and romance novels. Whilst some went as far as saying that anything in the current top ten bestseller's list is too tacky. Meanwhile, the item stated that the best spot to be caught with your nose in a book is inside the commuter train.

Huh. Just imagine that here in the Philippines.

I'm not saying Dan Brown is good or that I like his stuff, but here The Da Vinci Code is already considered intelligent reading. The fact that they're reading a non-textbook material is enough to label them as literary. Plus the fact that we're largely a Roman Catholic country where the Bishops have discouraged people from even touching the topic with a ten-foot pole makes it interesting to Filipinos. And romance novels? Ha! Girls devour them here. 8 out of 10, I see a girl with a book, it's bound to be chick-lit or those Judith McNaught and Nora Brown stuff. And who said you could read inside the MRT, or worse, the LRT? Where do you think we'd find the elbow room to even turn a page? We'd have to hold the book two inches from our nose and risk being bumped all the time. Or better yet---- how do you read standing up, stacked like sardines in a can with the biggest accumulation of BO ever recorded? You could barely let your chest rise and fall to allow proper breathing!

I do get how it feels though. I do perk up around people carrying or reading books in public (the bus, malls, restaurants). I am guilty of trying to crane my neck whichever way just to catch a glimpse of the title and the author. I warm up to people who read stuff I like, let's say Neil Gaiman or Jonathan Safran Zoer. Seeing people read Harry Potter makes me feel as if I was part of a magical society connected by the same love for that Potter boy. Let's not even start talking about people I see reading Lord of the Rings because I can't help but grin at them with happiness and kinship even if they end up thinking I'm some kind of weirdo. I also feel a distant awe at guys engrossed with a Dostoyevesky or Hemmingway. I think people who read Murakami or Ishiguro are cool. I smile when I see people reading comic books with silent mirth in their eyes. On the other hand, I think people reading Shakespeare in public are pretenders or are required by their High School teachers. People reading War and Peace are just show-offs. I'm sorry, but that's how I feel. :)

Another observation is that Pinoys love to read Self-Help and Instructional books. I.e. Purpose Driven Life, How To Meet Friends and Influence People, The LEadership Quotient, LEading with Soul, Business Blah-blah, Drucker Like this, Blink. Hmmm.... Obviously, I'm not a fan. I understand that non-fiction books help people gain knowledge from people who claims to know more. But I can't help but think those people are boring. I mean, they're probably great spiritual beacons or business tycoons or advanced thinkers... I respect them. But I just can't join them. The only non-fiction I like to read are by Robert Fulghum and Sarah Ban Breathnach.

In conclusion, bookworms being the new Hotness in this country isn't happeing just yet. Books still can be considered a luxury to most. But I can always wish, right? That if ever I meet someone, he's still not stuck in his Star Trek / Star Wars spin-offs and won't be pretending to like the classics or my kind of fantasy books and is erudite and intelligent and not as snobbish about books as I am. Hehe. I mean, that's really praying.