I missed this trend altogether. I didn't know there was social stigma attached to reading in public. --Am I the last to receive the news? That's what I get for burying my nose between the covers.
I learned I was a social pariah when I was catching up on some of the bits I clip from the NYTimes. This is what I found:
Debra Jaliman, a dermatologist in Manhattan, said that she believed technology like her iPad, which she uses to read everything from newspapers to novels, had helped banish social stigmas about reading alone in public.
“There may once have been a slight stigma about people reading alone, but I think that it no longer exists because of the advancement of our current technology,” she said. “We are in a high-tech era and the sleekness and portability of the iPad erases any negative notions or stigmas associated with reading alone.” [more]
It is a shame and a pity that taken more than half-a-century to learn this important lesson. Given my reading habits, even, gasp, in public, it's a wonder I have any friends at all.
“I think, historically, there has been a stigma attached to the bookworm, and that actually came from the not-untrue notion that, if you were reading, you weren’t socializing with other people,” Dr. Levinson said. “But the e-reader changes that also because e-readers are intrinsically connected to bigger systems.” For many, e-readers are today’s must-have accessory, eroding old notions of what being bookish might have meant. “Buying literature has become cool again,” he said.
Buying literature has become cool again? I bow to the gods of fashion.
