The Nation's Bad Education

[dotinthesky]

What is worse: to be caught reading The Da Vinci Code on public transport, or one of Dan Brown's other novels? Because to read The Da Vinci Code tells the world that you are a sheep, a lemming with no taste; but to read another Dan Brown novel means that you actually liked The Da Vinci Code.

Other books you should not be caught dead reading on public transport:

• Harry Potter novels (for anyone over 14). Yes, they are pleasurable to read, but reading one in public is like going to work in your Halloween costume. There's a time and place (i.e. your home) for these if you are an adult.
  
• The Dummy's Guide to...
  
• How to Make Friends and Influence People
  
• Chick lit novels (these usually have pink or baby blue covers, with cartoonesque drawings.)
  
• Jehovah Witness pamphlets
  
• Celebrity magazines and trashy tabloids (although it's OK to read The Weekly World News.)
  
• Autobiographies by ex-Big Brother contestants
  

Any other reading material I should add to this list?

Comments

[strange.livejournal.com]

I agree with you on all counts but the Harry Potter one. I love seeing adults reading those books on transit, because I simply love the idea that some adults out there still have enough of a sense of whimsy to thoroughly enjoy them and not be embarrassed about enjoying them in public. It sounds hokey, but we all spend so much time dealing with the stresses of being grown-up, why not let your inner child out to play once in a while, especially during a long boring commute.

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

It's a good point, and I agree that people shouldn't feel bad about letting their inner child out (which is why I think more people should read The World Weekly News in public.) But with Harry Potter, it has such an overwhelming marketing machine behind it - which comes along with videogames, films, toys, etc - that the image of carefree adult gets superimposed by something else in my mind.

unrelated sort of

[theairwebreathe.livejournal.com]

one of my exes was actually the director of one of the harry potter videogames. the company that made it is owned by mormons. there were a lot of mormon-centric company guidelines.

Re: unrelated sort of

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

What exactly are mormon-centric guidelines?! Did Harry have to collect wives in the game? :-P