Huffington Post has just run a delightful and insightful piece on 31 “Stereotypes About Book Lovers” that “Are Absolutely True, And That’s A Good Thing.” (And we have some evidence to prove it.) But just read and enjoy. Well, no need to tell a book lover that …

Bookworm StereotypesSome, God forbid, take a position in the print versus digital debate. “1. You never leave home without a book,” for instance, can apply equally to on-paper or onscreen book nerds. I never leave home without a couple of hundred these days – in ebook form on my mobile phone. So I never step out the door without an entire library on my person. That takes care of Stereotype Number One alrighty …

“11. Author biographies and Wikipedia pages are your celebrity tabloids…” Guilty as charged.

“14. Finding a typo in a book is the equivalent of hearing nails screech across a blackboard.” Right. And too common an experience these days. And standards in print and in digital publishing alike seem to have fallen appallingly, even in these days of spell checkers and grammar parsing software. But in ebooks especially, the times I come across stuff that really grates are sadly too common to count.

“16. You have strong, unwavering opinions about e-readers versus physical books…” Correct. And HuffPost allows that bibliophiles can stand either side of the line.

“17. But regardless of your stance, you poured one out when Borders finally shut down…” and “18. And were on the welcoming committee when the new indie bookstore showed up in your neighborhood.” Yup. No matter how diehard and committed a pro-digital reader you are, I bet any Kindle lover still maintains a more than sentimental attachment to bookstores, and still venerates them. (The companies who fill their shelves, though, are a different matter…)

“27. “So, what do you for fun?” is an anxiety-inducing question. Apparently, most people don’t really think reading is all that fun.” Sadly, all too true. After all, in the UK you need educational charities to prove that reading for pleasure means you do better in school. And there, apparently, 35 percent of the population don’t read regularly and 42 percent of men never read for enjoyment. And the UK continues to slide down the comparison charts on educational levels and social disadvantage.

So embrace those stereotypes, people. Because they do really matter. You’re doing yourself and your society good when you do.

7 COMMENTS

  1. great report, thanks. One thing, Paul, the HP article does not give a byline, so who wrote the piece? Most HP pieces have byline or link to site where article appeared if it was a books site etc. So who wrote this piece? It’s great, esp #3 and #31

    bookworm in Taiwan
    DB

  2. In reference to my earlier comment about the word “ammeter” being misspelled: it appears the writer has since corrected it. I just wanted it known that at one point it was in fact not spelled correctly. 🙂

  3. Oh wow. I’d like to say I was being funny when I said that the misspelling of “ammeter” has been corrected, but, alas, I hit submit without seeing it! I would delete it entirely if I could figure out how.
    My apologies. This does aptly demonstrate however that we are all human!

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