Public Displays of Reading
Sounds scandalous, doesn’t it? Put the word “Public” at the front of any phrase or action and suddenly it’s questionable. Follow it immediately with the word “Displays” and, well, you might as well be arrested for indecency.
I am relatively certain, however, that this particular public display is on the up and up. After all, what’s more civilized than sitting at a cafe table, coffee or tea in hand and a physical book in front of you? Aside from reading a real, live, crinkly newspaper I’m going to wager the answer is nothing.
Reading is such a solitary act. Even when done in a classroom or in a living room filled with family or friends, the Reader enters into a world entirely their own. Even if they share a seat with someone reading the exact same book, at the exact same chapter, the experience is private. Only you can see the mental image in your head. Only you picture the characters the way you do, regardless of the author’s descriptions. When we read, we curl up inside ourselves, put away the world at large and wrap ourselves up in the imaginative.
When I first considered venturing forth from my cozy hamlet from whence I usually embark on literary adventures, my gut reaction was to balk. Recoil. Consider that perhaps I’d not had enough chocolate that day and that’s why my brain was being positively irrational. But, no, the idea stuck and I began to see the merit of getting out of my comfort zone to do something that is, quite frankly, the most comfortable of all zones imaginable.
The solitary scholar is a usual sight. Sitting at a cafe, bookshop or library table, he or she surrounds themselves with books, papers, computer and hot drink in order to pursue the higher purpose of term paper, Great American Novel or thematic dissertation. The writer, the business person, even the counselor meeting with a client in an open setting isn’t all that odd. So why is the lone reader so quirky?
And maybe it’s not. Maybe it’s just me. I’ve always felt drawn to those people. The lone wolves who willingly take themselves from the comfort of their own homes to go out into public (where there’s PEOPLE) but not to interact, oh no. They go to sip a crafted beverage and read.
Alone.
To me, that’s the most Metropolitan thing you can do. It just seems so … posh. It also sounds slightly terrifying.
Here’s why:
I’m an introvert. I like my Hobbit Hole. I enjoy the immediate access to coffee, tea, cocoa and any number of books I have or have not yet read. I like not being judged for what I’m reading. I like not having people look at me. I like not having to get in my vehicle and drive on roads inhabited by people who have no idea what a turn signal-gas pedal-brake-or one way street sign is.
But (and this is a very big but - hehe) I know that if I don’t force myself to leave the house, I won’t. I’ll sit at my desk or on my couch or at my dining room table and get lost in the words that I conjure. And while that’s good for business, it’s not that good for my humanity.
And so I got myself together last Wednesday, stuffed a buffalo plaid backpack with license and B&N Membership card, a bottle of water and, of course, a copy of my current read : Pride & Prejudice.
I figured I’d start with something remotely admirable. You know, in case someone out there cares that I exit and feel the urge to judge my choice of London Fog and reading material.
It was lovely. The cafe in our local B&N was quiet (something is most certainly is NOT on the weekends when we usually go). There was a student or two. A couple of computer weary workers. I think there may have been an elderly gent with a paper but that may have just been wishful thinking. With London Fog and toasted bagel in hand, I pulled out my glasses, spread some cream cheese on said bagel and opened up to page one of Jane Austen’s incomparable classic.
There was a bit of stop/start to the proceeding. I’m always a bit more self-conscious when when I eat in public. A bit more careful how I take a bite or distribute my crumbs. And, of course, I people watch. Writer’s habit. And I was painfully aware of the “music” they played. * shudder * .
And that got me thinking : does the music you listen to while you read influence how you read? If I have anything going at home, it’s always classical or Jazz or some soft BG piano. This, sadly, was none of those things and I found myself almost giggling at the ridiculousness of the music as it coupled with the ridiculousness of Mrs. Bennett and her silly youngest daughters. Now, some people say that was very sexist of Ms Austen to make the youngest Bennett girls so flighty. Those critics were never young girls because, let’s face it, most of us were flighty and silly. Some of us still are. And that is as it should be. Notice I didn’t say stupid. Silly is something else entirely and I applaud anyone who is still young enough to be so.
Heaven knows I am all the time…
This didn’t work for the entirety of the chapters I read but whenever I got to one of Mrs. Bennett’s silly soliloquies, I couldn’t help but smile. Some dramatic violin or peaceful cello would have gone unheard had I been reading those scenes at home. But with the silly pop being piped through the bookstore, it suited the chapters at hand.
When my hour was up, I found a place to stop and marked my book. I tossed my napkins and paper bag, packed up my book and glasses, and proceeded to the check out counter where I purchased a small, green moleskin notebook. It’s in this I plan to jot down my observations while reading. It’ll give me something to ease the overflow of my ever roving mind and, not that I care, make me look like a true scholar, sipping coffee, reading Austen, and taking notes.
What they won’t know, of course, is that I’m writing about them and their incourageable glares.
Do you frequent a bookshop or cafe near your house? Do you enjoy reading in public or with other people around? Would you rather (like me) stay at home, under a blanket, where you can choose your own music AND you know where all the good chocolate is stashed? What are you currently reading? This is my first time reading P&P and I’m loving it? I can’t wait to tell you all about it :)