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

[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