The use of books as a way of signalling, or the idea that ‘I’ve read more books than you’ is a way to get one over on someone else, has always disturbed me.
I really think having or even reading lots of books ought to be morally neutral. Books are great, but I know people who are highly intelligent, knowledgeable and well-educated who prefer other ways of learning and other forms of storytelling.
I say that as someone who reads an unusually large number of books, and I don’t love to make my reading history public. I don’t want people to know what I’m reading or when. It’s special and private!
That doesn’t mean people who *do* have a lot of books are all status-jockeying. I’d love to have a physical library I could refer back to.
Oh my GOD ignore me I’m a plonker. I completely forgot that I put up a literal picture of my books on insta today.
Whitman said: ‘Very well, then- I contradict myself. I am large. I contain multitudes.’
But my friends say: ‘stop pratting about on Twitter, Laurie, and lie down.’
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