# Ridiculed for Reading?



## kitsune_boy389 (Sep 3, 2006)

Have you ever been ridiculed just because you were reading.  I was told I was gay (not that there's anything wrong with being gay-I'm not) just because I was reading and talking about books.  I mean sure, you can expect nerd and geek but gay?
What are your thoughts.


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## dwndrgn (Sep 3, 2006)

Whoever called you gay was jealous that you know how to use your brain for other than a spot to prop up your skull.

But yes, I have had people mention that it was odd of me to read and enjoy books enough to discuss them with others.  So I ignore them.  Reminds me of a routine by Bill Hicks.

I embrace my inner and outer geek.


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## carrie221 (Sep 3, 2006)

When I was younger I was teased for being a bookworm by classmates when I was in elementry and middle school.


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## j d worthington (Sep 3, 2006)

Gay, eh? I've not heard someone who liked to read called that since I was in school myself -- only then they didn't use the word gay... they were much more derogatory, trust me. Yes, I've had it done; growing up, quite extensively, to the point of being physically assaulted because of it, believe it or not. (I'm sure that it didn't help that I had -- and have -- no interest whatsoever in sports, as well.) So this sort of thing is still happening? Ah, well, the mugwumps are always among us ... and, some would argue (such as I have, on my bitterer days) they are in the vast majority. Frankly, to hell with 'em. The sooner such are out of the gene pool, the better, in my opinion, as people with that sort of attitude are the very ones who get the world in the state it is too often in. We could use more intelligence, imagination, and mental flexibility; not to mention a little more _sane_ (as opposed to p.c.-style) tolerance of each other's wonky differences. (Hmmm. That may sound odd in light of my above statement, but let it stand.)


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## kitsune_boy389 (Sep 3, 2006)

Thanks. I've always been told they're jealous. I'm glad though that I have my sort of imagination. It lets me write and enjoy writing.


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## Jason_Taverner (Sep 3, 2006)

I've had the piss taken out of me but I have an advantage of being big and having wild friends. I am a geek and proud but only people who know me know,I don't have the classic look, but I will soon be proudly sporting my very first set of glasses. I can't wait


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## GOLLUM (Sep 3, 2006)

Ridiculous Neathandrels!

This kind of ridicule is normally reserved to those who have their own major insecurities and fears of interacting with someone who actually has an imagination and a brain they're willing to use.

Fortunately I was brought up in an atmosphere that was surrounded by books and encouraged reading. This included many of my classmates back in High School, some of whom have gone on to have fairly meteoric careers.

"Erudite" is particualry cool......


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## Jason_Taverner (Sep 3, 2006)

and remmeber they are more than likely into the same things as you but they just don't have the guts to do them in public


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## carrie221 (Sep 3, 2006)

Well not that I recommend this but I know of one bookworm that the teasing stopped after (s)he slammed someone into a bunch of lockers and punched them as hard as she could. They stopped it, also her/his bestfriend had a reputation for being insane so... even without these wild actions it does eventually end.


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## kitsune_boy389 (Sep 3, 2006)

carrie221 said:
			
		

> Well not that I recommend this but I know of one bookworm that the teasing stopped after (s)he slammed someone into a bunch of lockers and punched them as hard as she could. They stopped it, also her/his bestfriend had a reputation for being insane so... even without these wild actions it does eventually end.


Actually I think you may have something going on there.  That may just work.  LOL!


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## Teresa Edgerton (Sep 3, 2006)

Perhaps I grew up during a gentler era (plus being a female probably helped -- at least no one associates females who read with a particular sexual orientation).  People commented on the way I always had my face in a book, but it wasn't derogatory, just ... surprised, as though it would never have occurred to them to spend that much time reading.


Of course it didn't exactly make me date bait, either.


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## Milk (Sep 3, 2006)

Generally where I work the most common comment I would hear when I used to read books at lunch time was " there is only one book I read... the bible"

It's down right subversive to read anything else, well around the people I  work with anyhow.  I work in construction.

   I was once reading a book during lunch and a bottlecap was flung at my face and pinged off my forehead.  I grabbed the only guy laughing by the throat and threw him off the bench he was sitting on, onto the concrete floor.  I was about to steeltoe boot his face inside out, but two other guys pulled me off of him.   Basically, I lost it, and Im not sure where my anger would have taken me had not other people stepped in to calm me down. I later found out that I had targetted the wrong person anyhow.  

The rest of that job, everyone would say things like "look out for him he is crazy" then laugh about it.  I was, and still am, terribly ashamed.    Mostly at my lack of control.  I had gone completely berzerk and if my co-workers had not reacted in time, I might have harmed the other person really bad.  Needless to say, I no longer read during lunch hour at work, its just not worth the violence.


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## steve12553 (Sep 3, 2006)

I was never ridiculed for reading because there were always so many other things. None of which was any more reasonable. Course by my age, my skin is so tough it would take a Kryptonite bullet to get through. I learned the concept of "consider the source".


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## nixie (Sep 3, 2006)

Never actually ridiculed for reading, but I've had some strange comments.


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## SilentBob (Sep 3, 2006)

Relax, in a few years, with that kind of an attitude, the only job that guy'll get would require the mastery of the sentence: "Do you want fries with that?"


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## littlemissattitude (Sep 3, 2006)

Oh, yes.  The odd thing is, I didn't so much get it from the other kids when I was in school, but from adults.  If I had a nickel for every time I heard, "You don't really _like_ to read, do you?", or some variation of such, from the grown-ups I ran into I'd be able to start my own publishing company.

Fortunately, I was raised to be my own person and to, as steve said, "consider the source".  So, it never deterred me in the least from keeping my nose in a book most of the time.


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## dustinzgirl (Sep 3, 2006)

Well---since my first name is rita, and I always had my nose in a book, everyone chanted "Read-A-Book"

Which isn't so bad except when the whole class is doing it.

Kids are mean. Ignore them.


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## Tau Zero (Sep 3, 2006)

I've never heard of such an absurdity and never exeperienced anything like it.  Making fun of a person who reads ranks up there with baiting big dogs and punching the handicapped.


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## sanityassassin (Sep 3, 2006)

I've had it before when I was younger didn't help that I wear glasses but it didn't happen too often but remember that most people who call others gay are in fact trying to hide there own homosexual feelings


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## Brian G Turner (Sep 3, 2006)

This is so Bill Hicks territory here - just watched RElentless again last night - here's a relevant section:




> I was in Nashville, Tennesee last year. After the show, I went to a waffle house. I’m not proud of it, I was hungry. And I’m eating, I’m alone and I’m reading a book, right? Waitress walks over to me:
> ‘Hey, what you readin’ for?’
> 
> Is that like the weirdest ******* question you’ve ever heard? Not what am I reading, but what am I reading … for.
> ...


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## steve12553 (Sep 3, 2006)

Tau Zero said:
			
		

> I've never heard of such an absurdity and never exeperienced anything like it. Making fun of a person who reads ranks up there with baiting big dogs and punching the handicapped.


 
Exactly. If you feel the need to exercise your testosterone, do as I do: stop in a dirty bar near a steel mill, drink a couple of beers, and smoke a cigar. Don't go to a coffee shop or waffle house and pick on or at someone you perceive as weaker than youself. That a sure sign of insecurity.


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## Jason_Taverner (Sep 3, 2006)

I said:
			
		

> This is so Bill Hicks territory here - just watched RElentless again last night - here's a relevant section:


 
now that was funny


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## Frozeninja (Sep 3, 2006)

Nice Brian 

I've never really been ridiculed for reading, most of the comments I get are more surprised than derogatory. I think i've been called a geek once or twice, but I already know i'm a geek, so I don't really care about that.


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## littlemissattitude (Sep 3, 2006)

That was very funny, Brian...thanks for that.

Thinking about it, in the past few years, I haven't gotten ridicule for reading so much as I've gotten warnings about believing everything I read.  I read a lot about current events and politics, and I always carry what I'm reading with me.

A number of times, I've had complete strangers approach me and say, "Now, you don't believe that book, do you?"  This has usually been when I'm reading something that, by its title, is fairly liberal politically, and I've had conservatives (we've got a lot of those around here) try to argue me out of believing what I'm reading or even tell me that I shouldn't be reading "that propaganda".  Like what they're trying to tell me isn't propaganda, but Revealed Truth.  What's really funny is when what they are telling me is quite obviously just recycled Rush Limbaugh or Bill O'Reilly or Sean Hannity or somebody.  And, most of it comes from men, who seem to think that because I'm a woman, I can't make valid political or social judgements, but need to be told what to think and will believe anything I'm told.

Jeez.


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## mosaix (Sep 3, 2006)

Good one Brian.

I while back I was listening to Tim Henman (UK tennis player that I _used_ to like) being interviewed on radio. He was asked what he did in the locker room between games, did he read perhaps? His respsonse (I kid you not):

"No one ever learnt anything from a book."

Amazing isn't it? You see personalities on TV, sporting and otherwise and you think that because they are famous they must be reasonably intelligent. Then someone asks them a question not related to their field of interest and they turn out to be quite dumb.

Needless to say I don't cheer on old Timbo any more.


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## kitsune_boy389 (Sep 3, 2006)

SilentBob said:
			
		

> Relax, in a few years, with that kind of an attitude, the only job that guy'll get would require the mastery of the sentence: "Do you want fries with that?"


lol


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## Jason_Taverner (Sep 3, 2006)

mosaix he was crap anyway


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## The DeadMan (Sep 3, 2006)

carrie221 said:
			
		

> Well not that I recommend this but I know of one bookworm that the teasing stopped after (s)he slammed someone into a bunch of lockers and punched them as hard as she could. They stopped it, also her/his bestfriend had a reputation for being insane so... even without these wild actions it does eventually end.


*I was made fun when I was younger for reading, but I underwent a growth spurt in my late teens and I tried the above mentioned slamming a few people around. While a very crude thing to do, it was very effective! *


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## jackokent (Sep 3, 2006)

I am actually shocked

I cannot imagine anyone being ridiculed for simply reading.  I have been ridiculed for many things that I thought were silly and unfair... but reading?  The stories on these threads are absolutely astounding.


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## j d worthington (Sep 3, 2006)

Jackokent -- let me tell you a little story; not something involving me personally, but something I observed, which pretty much sums up the way reading is seen (by and large, there are exceptions) in this part of the USA:

This happened back when I was a lad (literally, I was about 12 or 13). I'd stepped into a B. Dalton store in a mall, waiting for my mother to finish her shopping elsewhere; and, while I'm standing there browsing, this young college-age sort comes into the store, literally dragging his girlfriend by the wrist, her fighting and applying the brakes the while. She's not quite hollering at the top of her voice, but is obviously very upset, when she asks "Well, _WHY_ do you want to go in a  _BOOKSTORE_, anyway?" He semi-patiently replied that he wouldn't, except he needed this book for his class; and she responds with: "Well, I _*DON'T*_ want to be here! I get this _*DISEASE*_ when I'm around books!!!" and stomps out of the store.

As for my own experiences, I kid you not, I got ganged up on more times than I can count (funny that, as scrawny a little punk as I was, they thought they had to have at least 6 or 7 of 'em to confront me on the issue) and had the living daylights beaten out of me ... for reading rather than participating in the sports, loafing around, what-have-you. I've had books snatched from me and torn up; I've had 'em kicked into the girls' locker rooms or restrooms; and other things even less pleasant. Believe me, this is no rarity. It's not quite as bad down here as it used to be, but it still causes kids who like to read no end of trouble....

Living in a college town, I don't get much of this as an adult; but I still get an awful lot of "How much do you READ?" said with this combination of awe (believe it or not) and contempt, as if I were practicing some esoteric kind of occult art. And LMA's comments are very much _apropos_ here ... I've seen plenty of that and, yes, it tends to be the conservative men who do it more than anyone else. (About the idea that women can't make up their minds about such things ... that's still very prevalent in this part of the country as well. The older I get, the more I'm of a mind that a woman occasionally using that rolling-pin for something other than making a pie crust is perfectly justified.)

Pardon the rant. I've just experienced an awful lot of this in my life, and all I can say is: Count yourself very lucky that you did not. It ain't fun.


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## the smiling weirwood (Sep 3, 2006)

Hmmm....I am often told that I read too much, but I have only ever been ridiculed and/or physically threatened once.  The poor kid had bad timing because two weeks previously I had begun taking judo for self-edification and though still a beginner and not athletic at all I totally kicked his @**. That incident put a stop to that kind of behavior but I did get lots of odd looks in the hallway afterwards.


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## They (Sep 4, 2006)

I live in Tennessee. All people talk about is FOOTBALL and FOOTBALL. I can't read without being ridiculed!


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## The DeadMan (Sep 4, 2006)

They said:
			
		

> I live in Tennessee. All people talk about is FOOTBALL and FOOTBALL. I can't read without being ridiculed!


*I live in Tennessee also, and all of the people don't talk about football. Some of them talk about Nascar!  *


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## littlemissattitude (Sep 4, 2006)

j. d. worthington said:
			
		

> Living in a college town, I don't get much of this as an adult; but I still get an awful lot of "How much do you READ?" said with this combination of awe (believe it or not) and contempt, as if I were practicing some esoteric kind of occult art.


Actually, even being on a college campus doesn't always guarantee that people are reading.  Just as a couple of examples:

One day I was in the reference room in my community college library.  This was the designated quiet study area on campus, and was almost always full.  Well, this particular day, as I was leaving to go to class, I passed two young men in the entryway, just as one was saying to the other, in a certain amount of awe and disbelief, "There's actually _people_ in here."

In the same library, on another day, I was in the periodicals room, sitting doing some work and over heard a young couple talking.  The girl had a stack of textbooks on the table in front of her.  Her young man started picking the books up, one by one, and said, "Do you actually _read_ these?"

In my work as a tutor, I had many students come to me because they had gotten bad marks on exams early in the semester.  Often, they would look at me in complete incredulity when I would ask them if they had read their textbook assignments.  One particularly sticks in my mind.  It was a woman in her late twenties or early thirties, taking a political science class.  I asked her if she had read her textbook.  She gave me a funny look, and said, "No."  Then she explained that the teacher was always talking about things in class that she had never heard of, then named off a few topics that had been in the news.  I asked her if she ever read a newspaper.  "No."  Watch the news on tv?  "No."  I explained to her that all of the things she had named were things that were currently in the news.  Her answer?  "Well, why would I want to know about all that?"

*sigh*

And, edited to add: Maybe the fact that a lot of people around here originally came from your part of the country, j. d., has something to do with the similarity of the male attitudes?  Or just that Fresno is kind of the buckle of the California Bible belt?


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## j d worthington (Sep 4, 2006)

Salient points, LMA. I think, though, that -- until recently -- Austin being a liberal sort of town since the late 1960s, people did tend to read more; and the majority of professors I've met at UT were very good at encouraging (and stimulating! ) intellectual curiosity; all of which tends to lead to more reading. (This seems to be on the downturn, since at least the mid-to-late 90s, though.) And, yes, it could be that our crop of dunderheads ... er, citizens, coming your way may explain some of that. Um, no offense, but ... hon, _you can have 'em!!!_


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## littlemissattitude (Sep 4, 2006)

j. d. worthington said:
			
		

> Um, no offense, but ... hon, _you can have 'em!!!_



No offense taken.  I only take refuge in the fact that even if I am stuck in Fresno..._at least it isn't Orange County_ (southern California, very conservative area, for those of you not familiar with the state).


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## j d worthington (Sep 4, 2006)

Or Dade County, Florida ... speaking of orange (juice).


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## carrie221 (Sep 4, 2006)

You can always come up to Indiana... (Talk about the Bible Belt  )

Hey we do have the headquarters for the KKK in this state showing just how liberal we are


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## littlemissattitude (Sep 4, 2006)

carrie221 said:
			
		

> Hey we do have the headquarters for the KKK in this state showing just how liberal we are



Oh, we've got the KKK as well, right next door in Clovis.  And the John Birch Society, with their anti-UN billboards.  And some militia types up in the hills - I think some of them even got written about in a book not so long ago.  You name the right-wing extremist type, you'll find them around here.  I don't know why so many of them settle in this area...maybe they think nobody'll find them out here in the wilds of the center part of the state.


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## j d worthington (Sep 4, 2006)

Kindly don't mention the KKK.... where I grew up, they were within less than a 15-minute walk from my house; and they were a distinct presence in the town, believe me; well over half the police force belonged to that kindly little organization.....


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## Diablo Rojo (Sep 4, 2006)

After seeing me reading in the break room, I actually had a guy at work brag that he had never read a book in his life.  At 30 years old, he was damn proud of it too.  It is embarrassing what Georgia puts out its school system as graduated.


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## GOLLUM (Sep 4, 2006)

Those last 2 posts were quite frightening.

Glad I live where I do *SHUDDER*


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## the smiling weirwood (Sep 4, 2006)

My family has never been involved with the Klan, but we used to live down the road from a Grandwizard. It was a nice, quiet neighborhood too, you'd never suspect anything.


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## Carolyn Hill (Sep 4, 2006)

No one has ever made fun of me (at least, not that I know of) for reading.

But as long as we're telling stories, here's my most recent Strange Encounter with the Unread:

At the end of class on Thursday, I explained the assignment for next time.  First, read a section of the book.  Second, do an exercise based on that section of the book.  

One of my students asked, "Do we have to read the book?"

The student wasn't making a joke.


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## GOLLUM (Sep 4, 2006)

I suspect in some ways this (KK & co.) would be one of the more frightening aspects to this whole thing. Insidious and subtle or am I being too kind?


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## the smiling weirwood (Sep 4, 2006)

Oh yes, quite frightening. You don't know the half of it. anyway, back to the topic. I love that phrase! The Unread! Haha!


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## j d worthington (Sep 4, 2006)

Brief digression (he says): Yes, Gollum, you are. They are neither insidious nor subtle. Not unless you count a mallet upside the head as either.

Now, I agree: back on topic: Anyone else encounter ridicule because they actually know that those little squiggle on the paper can carry (gasp!) thought?

Oh, and Carolyn: Spot on.


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## the smiling weirwood (Sep 4, 2006)

Well, they're not as rowdy as they used to be. Now they just spread hatred and fear by instilling racism, prejudice, and ignorance to future generations. Hopefully one day the cycle will be broken.


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## carrie221 (Sep 4, 2006)

Okay last year when I was in Law School (not high school or anything; an actual professional school); my law school would have school events where they would actually feed us. One such event there was a raffle for a free dinner or something. Me and a few friends went a little early to grab a table and so that we could be first in line for some food and so we could steal some extra bottled water and soda . (Free food goes really fast ) Two of us were reading a book and another person was reading a magizine. A girl who was also a first year law student looked at us like we were insane and asked us why we were bothering to read something that we didn't have to. Together we all went "Because we like to read." Then she called us nerds and walked away looking disgusted.


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## littlemissattitude (Sep 4, 2006)

Brown Rat said:
			
		

> One of my students asked, "Do we have to read the book?"
> 
> The student wasn't making a joke.



Yes.  It frightens me sometimes, how clueless some college students can be.

I once took an art appreciation class, the instructor of which was retiring at the end of that semester.  As sort of a retirement gift to the class, instead of giving his usual general review of the exam the class period before, at the last class meeting before the final he announced...quite clearly, by the way...that he would be reading the entire exam to us, questions _and_ answers.

Well, at the end of the review, as we were leaving the forum room (I'm talking a couple hundred students here), I don't know how many people I heard saying, "So, what's going to be on the exam?"

Also, as far as the extremist group that shall not be named, and others...the thing that is really frightening is that they aren't all non-readers.  There are some of them who have read extensively...they just happen to only see what they want to see in their reading, and tend to read things that back up their point of view.

I had to read a book, _Soldiers of God: White Supremacists and Their Holy War for America_, by Howard L. Bushart, John R. Craig, and Myra Barnes, Ph.D., for an anthropology class once.  There were the stereotypical extremists there, of course, but there were also those who were quite literate and just used that literacy to frightening ends.


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## the smiling weirwood (Sep 4, 2006)

Fanatics are never pleasant.


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## Nesacat (Sep 4, 2006)

Meowrr Brown Rat ... the last person who asked me that question was actually an English teacher and she had a totally apalled look on her face.

I've never been actually ridiculed for reading though I have received strange looks over the years and been told several times that it's a 'waste of money' to buy and read books you don't 'need' to read.

I guess they have a different definition of 'need'. Besides, Hamlet got me bonus points in the Criminal Law exams at law school.


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## Scriven (Sep 4, 2006)

I haven't been ridiculed for reading in general, but I have for reading fantasy. People seem to be under the impression that it's all about dragons and unicorns - a genre for kids only, and not 'proper' literature. That irks me immensely. =(


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## Nesacat (Sep 4, 2006)

Have come across that attitude very often as well Scriven. 

Fantasy books are supposed to be one of those things of childhood that you put away. However, that attitude is changing, albeit very slowly. I'm glad to see SFF being given a separate section in stores now for starters.


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## Scriven (Sep 4, 2006)

Yes. It's nice to see the genre gaining some respectability (which, imo, it deserves). =)


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## Curt Chiarelli (Sep 4, 2006)

Ah yes, the KnuckleDraggers Local 666. Irrepressable demons of homogenized sterility and straightjacketed conformity. What's wrong? Can you successfully link a subject to a predicate? Despise the mindless brutality of contact sports? High IQ ruining your social prospects? Why do we have a cure for you! A fist in the old solar plexus, a knee in the groin, lonely Saturday nights and beer-bonging until your neo-cortex has melted in your brain pan will set you aright . . . . 

I've had the great misfortune of having my childhood and early adulthood plaqued by these types, one of whom happened to be my own father. I can completely relate to J.D.'s experiences and all that I can add to his and other's observations is that these guys more than likely are projecting onto you _their_ own repressed homoerotic tendencies. It just goes to prove what an empty, hateful, miserable lot these people are. Couldn't happen to a more deserving bunch!


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## Curt Chiarelli (Sep 4, 2006)

GOLLUM said:
			
		

> Those last 2 posts were quite frightening.
> 
> Glad I live where I do *SHUDDER*



I'll second that!


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## Saltheart (Sep 5, 2006)

A great friend of mine named Mark came from Austria and came to our private school, and he was sort of a genius: he used to read college-level physics and chemistry in the 7th grade!

Anyway, at that time I wasn't like a book freak; I was more of a computer nerd if you will, but I played sports as well. But Mark preferred building his repository of knowledge over sweating and being needlessly aggressive, so when he sat out of sports people kept calling him gay. Now I too at that time had a fullhand experience of being the target of insults, so I stook up for him.

Very soon we became best friends, and he made me the bibliophile I am by teaching me the joys of learning. But people started accusing me of being gay for being the friend of a "gay" guy, and when the year was over he had to leave and go back to Austria.

But because of the hobbies he gave me, I very soon became a topper in my class; but I also knew things out of class, and was nicknamed "Professor" by my favorite English teacher. Everyone started asking me for help, and I became the best writer in school and became nominated for international writing contests. When they ask me how I know so much, I just say, "I read and think about what I read," and they look at me and say, "What do you read?" and I answer, "Everything!" and they just don't understand. But they don't call me gay anymore.

And as for Mark, he is a prodigy in Austria and he's a topper in all the Science courses. He'll probably be the next Einstein because he knows so much. He sometimes visits, but people still call him "gay" around here. But you know what? He has the brightest future of us all ahead of him; whereas the athlethes in our school barely comprehend the IB Courses without extra help.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Moral of the story: "Gay" people are more successful than drooling jocks. Also homosexual is a less ambiguous word, because "gay" also means happy. So yes, readers are "gay" because they are happy and more successful. Fools.


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## Nesacat (Sep 5, 2006)

I am lucky to have parents who very much encouraged my bookish tendencies and I still lay the blame for my addiction to words on my mother's shoulders. They may not have always understood the desire to bury myself in books but they supported it through all the years of finding more and more space to fit book shelves in the house.

However, it would appear that men do face ridicule if they are bookish. I've been asking around the last couple of days and it's true. those of read are deemed to be homosexual for some reason, especially if said reading is purely for pleasure. The men who didn't read got very upset and defensive about it and I was treated to an entire tirade which included words like pansy and queer and faggot and a whole slew of others in several languages. Aside from the blatant abuse of some very lovely words, I was pretty startled. I'd not expected such a violent reaction at all, nor did I know so much anger and hatred almost simmered under the surface of executives and bankers and corporate people.

It was, I thought, a reaction totally uncalled for. Why does this thought of reading as a habit cause such a violent reaction.


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## the smiling weirwood (Sep 5, 2006)

Because people are dumb.


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## Joel007 (Sep 5, 2006)

the smiling weirwood said:
			
		

> Because people are dumb.


 
succinct... i like it


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## Nesacat (Sep 5, 2006)

Meowrr Weirwood ... you're definitely my favourite tree.


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## littlemissattitude (Sep 5, 2006)

I think part of it has to do, in at least some cases, with people who like to think they know everything.  I've run up against a certain segment of the population in which the included individuals have built up the attitude that they know everything about everything.  They don't, but they think they do.  These are the folks who are constitutionally unable to utter the phrase, "I don't know."  Individuals who hold this attitude are intimidated by people who read because they suspect that the readers probably actually know more about more things than those non-readers do.  But that just _can't be_, and so the non-readers will use any tactic at all to assure themselves that they really do know more than the readers and, more pointedly, to make sure that those around them believe that.  This will often include name-calling in an effort to discredit the readers.  And, unfortunately, in many cultures, including a significant portion of American culture, it is still seen as the highest insult of all for a man to be called "gay" - the more insulting the term, the more effective the discrediting is seen to be.  Which, I suspect, is where the reaction you encountered came from, Nesacat.


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## Alia (Sep 5, 2006)

kitsune_boy389 said:
			
		

> Have you ever been ridiculed just because you were reading.  I was told I was gay (not that there's anything wrong with being gay-I'm not) just because I was reading and talking about books.  I mean sure, you can expect nerd and geek but gay?
> What are your thoughts.


Let's see...

I was told once that I was a nerd because I read... _damn sexiest nerd he'll ever lay eyes on. *rolls eyes*_

I've been told that I need to start living in the real world and stop reading fantasy!!! _For goodness sakes, why the heck would anyone want to live in reality, it's not very nice at times. _

I've been told that I spend too much money on books... _That's why I sell on ebay, to make all my book money, so it doesn't come from my budget. _

I've been told that I spend way too much time reading and not enough time with my kids... _*ahem* My baby (2 years old) sits on my stomach as I stretch across the couch and read... he reads with me, Dr. Seuss! _

I've been told that I need to read more nonfictional books on how to do things... _Isn't that living in reality??? It's what I'm trying avoid doing! *giggles* With a passion, no doubt!!!_

I've been told that reading destroyed my marriage. _I think not! People destroy marriages and reading is my hobby just like he watched Football religiously. _

I was told once that I need to stop reading because I was using words no one understood, my vocabulary was too big. :| 

*sighs* I could go on... The funny thing is, I don't read as much as many of you on this site. I have a bunch of whinners around me!


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## Nesacat (Sep 5, 2006)

LittleMiss ... I suspect that you might be right indeed. I was really taken aback by the reaction since I had not even said what kind of books. All I said was 'reading'. Oh ... it's okay to read the newspapers apparently. 

Alia ... some things then unfortunately seem to cross borders. I was told reading destroyed my marriage too, by my ex and his family no less. They said I was 'wierd and there's something very wrong with someone who reads so much and uses language and words the way I do'. I thought it was funny how being fanatically attached to golf and dissapearing for days on end was acceptable though.


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## jackokent (Sep 5, 2006)

Brown Rat said:
			
		

> No one has ever made fun of me (at least, not that I know of) for reading.
> 
> But as long as we're telling stories, here's my most recent Strange Encounter with the Unread:
> 
> ...


 
I can identify with this student.  I live for reading but managed to get through a degree and a masters without reading very much of the course work or books.  This typical student avoidance of reading set texts is probably a different issue.

I am still completely shocked that people are ridiculed or worse for reading.  No one I have ever met has been given hassle for this.  JD your experience fills me with horror.  All I can hope is that the world is learning and growing up.


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## Alia (Sep 5, 2006)

> They said I was 'wierd and there's something very wrong with someone who reads so much and uses language and words the way I do'. I thought it was funny how being fanatically attached to golf and dissapearing for days on end was acceptable though.


I dont' get it!!! I really don't!!! They're hobbies people, at least ours educate us!!! *blows raspberry at exes* 
Yeah... that felt better!!


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## carrie221 (Sep 5, 2006)

jackokent said:
			
		

> I can identify with this student. I live for reading but managed to get through a degree and a masters without reading very much of the course work or books. This typical student avoidance of reading set texts is probably a different issue.


 
I have to admit I was one of those also in undergrad, I was a history major I think I could name all the books I actually read for my major on one hand. The only books I think I ever read were for science classes in undergrad and that was bc I couldn't understand the subjects. In all my political science and criminal justice classes I do not remember even reading one book.


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## Ozymandias (Sep 5, 2006)

There is absolutely nothing wrong with reading. You should wear your bookishness as a badge of honor. Isn't it strange that the country (America at least) enters a sort of national paralysis every time a major sporting event comes on, but no one can be bothered to read a book? When did people stop reading books? When Television became a ubiquitous presence in every household in America. That's why I limit my viewing to an hour a day, and even then I only watch either the History channel, PBS, or Turner Classic Movies (in which case I'll watch an entire two hour movie). If I ever have children, I wont even own a television. And if I have my way they'll be reading Shakespeare at age five.


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## jackokent (Sep 5, 2006)

carrie221 said:
			
		

> I In all my political science and criminal justice classes I do not remember even reading one book.


 
Criminal justice sounds fascinating. A lot of mine were on company law - they were like pulling teeth. I defy anyone to enjoy them. 

On a different note. I don't like the way everyone seems to be catagorising sporty types and readers as though they were oposite poles. I love football and I love reading. There is no contradiction here.


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## edott (Sep 5, 2006)

kitsune_boy389 said:
			
		

> Have you ever been ridiculed just because you were reading. I was told I was gay (not that there's anything wrong with being gay-I'm not) just because I was reading and talking about books. I mean sure, you can expect nerd and geek but gay?
> What are your thoughts.


 
Recently i ask a freind about this very thing cause i heard about it happeing to other people but it never happened to me or any of my friends and we were sci-fi and fantasy ners, yes we learned tolkiens elvish. she explained that people were afraid of us cause we were big, I am not sure about this as i am only 6 feet tall, and that we were scene with lots of weapons from being in the sca and before even being old enough to actualy fight in the SCA, baton rouge you had to be eighteen we made our own padded weapons and beat the snot out of each other. we had a few football players in our group, so looking back on it i think we were the tough geeks. not sure if that is a contradiction, but i still like to read and lift weights.


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## the smiling weirwood (Sep 5, 2006)

Baton Rouge! I live in Mississippi! I'm right over the border! About 45 minutes north of Hammond, if you know where that is.


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## Anayo (Sep 6, 2006)

I've never been "made fun of" for reading, but I have been asked "Oh, do you like to read?" When they say that I always respond, "It depends on the book."


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## Tau Zero (Sep 6, 2006)

the smiling weirwood said:
			
		

> Because people are dumb.


 
And the irony is that they'd be so much smarter if they read!


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## Tau Zero (Sep 6, 2006)

As i mentioned in an earlier post, i've never experienced or even heard of these kinds of stories.  (They fill me with horror and woe.)  

But i began wondering why this is so prevalent (at least in the US).  I can only assume that it's location, location, location.  Growing up in New York City put me in an evironment where people read a lot.  It took me an hour (each way) on the subway to get to High School.  Sure, a lot of people sleep or stare at nothing on public transportation, but a lot of people read.  My parents said it was the best part of commuting; uninterrupted reading time.  Plus, NYC is super liberal and a "Mecca" of the Arts.  A disproportionate number of brilliant people reside in NYC.  I guess these factors made reading so common an occurance, no one ever thought to say something derogatory about it.  

What do you know, a nice thing about the much maligned NYC.


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## the smiling weirwood (Sep 6, 2006)

sounds nice...


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## Nesacat (Sep 6, 2006)

jackokent said:
			
		

> Criminal justice sounds fascinating. A lot of mine were on company law - they were like pulling teeth. I defy anyone to enjoy them.


My cross was Property Law. I swear I'd pick the book up and immediately start yawning and want to sleep. 

Alia .... definite call for blowing strawberries


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## Dianora (Sep 6, 2006)

People basically think I'm weird because I have the 'time' to read... well, I work all day and I have a two year old, I am a busy person, but I FIND the time to read... I don't just laze around all the time. I don't know... people sometimes think reading=laziness, and that bugs me.


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## chrispenycate (Sep 6, 2006)

I wonder if I was ridiculed for reading? At times, I was so introspective (read "antisocial little git") that I almost certainly wouldn't have _noticed_ mockery. Come to think of it, that hasn't changed much over the decades…


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## carrie221 (Sep 6, 2006)

Nesacat said:
			
		

> My cross was Property Law. I swear I'd pick the book up and immediately start yawning and want to sleep.
> 
> Alia .... definite call for blowing strawberries


 
Property Law one of the top reasons that I am no longer in law school if ever there was a more boring book or class I do not want to find it... I adored torts that was interesting... crim law in law school would have been with a different professor... criminal procedures was good also


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## Paige Turner (Sep 6, 2006)

Well, of course you don't _tell_ people you're reading. If anyone asks, tell them you have to do community service as part of a plea bargain. If they press you for details, say, "I'm not allowed to discuss it until he's out of intensive care."


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## Alia (Sep 6, 2006)

Paige Turner said:
			
		

> Well, of course you don't _tell_ people you're reading. If anyone asks, tell them you have to do community service as part of a plea bargain. If they press you for details, say, "I'm not allowed to discuss it until he's out of intensive care."


I love it Paige! That'll keep my kids out of trouble.


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## Tau Zero (Sep 7, 2006)

Paige Turner said:
			
		

> Well, of course you don't _tell_ people you're reading. If anyone asks, tell them you have to do community service as part of a plea bargain. If they press you for details, say, "I'm not allowed to discuss it until he's out of intensive care."


 
Paige, you're a riot!  I mean, you really crack me up!  Don't EVER stop.


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## littlemissattitude (Sep 7, 2006)

Nesacat said:
			
		

> My cross was Property Law. I swear I'd pick the book up and immediately start yawning and want to sleep.



Not law school, but for my paralegal course we had to take law classes.  My most hated classes were Corporations and Family Law.  Family Law was the worst, and not only because the instructor was a real.....crap, can't use that kind of language here.  In one case we read, a divoricing couple was fighting over who got custody of the _couch_.  At least some of what I learned in Corporations is coming in handy in my current job.


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## Nesacat (Sep 7, 2006)

Paige Turner said:
			
		

> Well, of course you don't _tell_ people you're reading. If anyone asks, tell them you have to do community service as part of a plea bargain. If they press you for details, say, "I'm not allowed to discuss it until he's out of intensive care."



Way to go Paige ... this is definitely a keeper and a to-be-used-regularly phrase. Meowrr. Thanks. 

LittleMiss ... yes. Makes no sense sometimes. I worked on case once where the couple fought tooth and nail for a painting they'd bought from a road side stall and was probably a dime a dozen. No fight over the kids though.

Carrie ... my baby was Criminal Law and we had an awesome professor. A little manic and addicted to whisky but totally captivating. Torts was a lot of fun. I'll never look at ginger beer the same way again. Like Contract too. Taught us all a few tricks as far as getting licenses for televisions and things went. 

And people say reading is not a useful hoby. tsk, tsk.


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## BGB (Sep 9, 2006)

A couple of years ago, in a depressed and broke state (100.00 left) I took my book out to dinner.  I settled in a cosy corner with candelight, a jug of iced, white house wine, and a large crayfish with chunks of lemon and chilli butter.  I finished my book, ate every morsel - then I bought a rose for myself and went home, feeling content and warm.


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## Cloud (Sep 10, 2006)

this thread is amazing to me.  The range of negative experiences for something as satisfyng and edifying as reading a book.  

Most of the time, I'm like Chris--too absorbed to notice, but even if I did, I'd be like F off, numbnut or other, similar rude phrase.

The only time I really noticed it was with my first boyfriend, who just couldn't understand why I read all the time.  But he was Mexican, and historically they are a people who don't read much--telenovelas was about his speed.


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## Diablo Rojo (Sep 10, 2006)

I have several hobbies and pastimes; sportbikes, reading SF and Fantasy, beer and rock and roll. Someone is always there to criticize every one of them. If you let life’s skeptics determine what you do, you will live a boring life.


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## the smiling weirwood (Sep 10, 2006)

I could really care less what the hollow people think.


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## Nesacat (Sep 15, 2006)

It's a little hard not to when they're talking right at you. I went to a booksale round the corner from where I work during my lunch break.

It was a pretty good sale and I got myself quite a lovely haul of young adult fiction, children's books and some adult fiction inclusing SFF. I was standing at the counter waiting to pay and there was a lady in the queue right behind me with an armload of school workbooks.

Maybe it was the Chicken Little t-shirt and jeans but she must have mistaken me for a high school kid. I smiled and she gave me a lecture on wasting my parents' 'hard-earned money on rubbish', explaining as how I was going to end up being 'a loser without a decent job that paid good money because I was filling my head with nonsense'.

She thought I should return all the books and buy workbooks or other academic and/or self-help, motivational books that 'built character'. I'm basically still feeling rather stunned and sorry for her children as well.


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## j d worthington (Sep 15, 2006)

Oh, yes, I've received such lectures throughout my life, as well.... Lord, what a dull place the world would be if all people ever read were such tomes. Ach! 

"Auto-digital homunculus / You queue for the paper, you queue for the bus; / You're a good bally machine / You're a how-are-you device / Sit back, light up, / Never put a fight up / Sit there fuming 'til your face goes green. / Air-conditioned and desensitized, / You're very nearly human, you're so well-disguised. / Robot, robot / You are a robot, robot / You're warm when it's cool, you're cold when it's hot / Robot, robot / You're life is recorded on a microdot / Robot, robot / You'd hold the whole world in your metal paws / If it wasn't for the Three Laws of Robotics..."

Sorry... somehow it just seemed appropriate......


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## carrie221 (Sep 15, 2006)

Nesacat said:
			
		

> It's a little hard not to when they're talking right at you. I went to a booksale round the corner from where I work during my lunch break.
> 
> It was a pretty good sale and I got myself quite a lovely haul of young adult fiction, children's books and some adult fiction inclusing SFF. I was standing at the counter waiting to pay and there was a lady in the queue right behind me with an armload of school workbooks.
> 
> ...


 
See I would want to say to that woman... nahhh I think I will keep with these books so that I will have an actual brain that works unlike you who can't think for yourself if you are not told exactly what to do


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## littlemissattitude (Sep 16, 2006)

Heh.  Heh.  Sorry you had to deal with that, Nesacat.  I'm afraid I would have probably told her that my character is just fine, thank you, and I attribute a lot of that to all of the "rubbish" I've read in my life.  And, incidentally, that doing workbooks all the time never helped develop anyone's imagination, and anyway, why would I want to read a bunch of whiny self-help books.

Sorry.  I guess my "attitude" is showing today.  And you all wondered how I got my screen name.


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## Nesacat (Sep 16, 2006)

I spent the whole night thinking of a whole bunch of things I would have liked to have said. Only at that time I was too stunned. Definitely didn't expect to get told off at a queue in a book sale of all places.

Anyways, my parents certainly didn't think I'd wasted all their hard earned money and they told me last night that they'd always tried to support the book habit even when cash-strapped.   And of course my mom is now reading the Bunnicula set of books I picked up recently at a sale.   So I guess that's where I got the bad habits from.

Workbooks, motivational and self-help books are all the rage here. You can't turn around without running into a new one and there's people giving lectures and talks and workshops all the time. I swear if I jumped on the bandwagon I'd be totally confused and not know whether I was coming or going seeing all the contradictory things being said.

Thanks for the cheer. It did get me down. Not so much that she told me off but that this seems to be increasingly prevalent.


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## Prefx (Sep 16, 2006)

Wow, my heart goes out to everyone here who had to (and has to) endure so much just for indulging in what most of us would probably agree as one of the best form of entertainment. I get strange looks by people at my school when I tell them my favorite hobbies are reading and writing (I suppose there is a stereotype that avid readers wear glasses and don't like dating), and a few people will go further and say that I'm waisting my time, but I've never been _attacked_. That's just terrible.


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## Thadlerian (Sep 16, 2006)

Nesacat said:
			
		

> Why does this thought of reading as a habit cause such a violent reaction.


I think it's for the same reason as other problems related to bullying: Distinction. I don't think it's the reading itself that causes the problem, nor is it jealousy on their behalf.

I think the essence of it is that _you_ as a reader, differ from _them_, as non-readers, and that it's a visible difference. They percieve you as a threat to their socially dominant conformity. They need their social environment to be stable and unchanging. Your reading holds a threat of _change_ to their dominance; what if their friends start reading as well? Change is what people fears most of all, and quite a few are willing to go to extremes to avoid it. They need to get rid of you, and they profoundly believe they're doing a good thing.

I believe this is the very heart of bullying: To provoke a violent response from the victim towards the bullies. They're unable to see their own bullying as the initial aggression: If the victim counterattacks, that is seen as completely unprovoked aggression, and they see themselves socially justified to use violent means against the victim, implying ganging up on him/her.

This might also be related to the thread starter's report of being called "gay". Perhaps this was not directed at him as a deliberate insult, but rather something the name-caller said to reassure himself that kitsune_boy389's behaviour was no threat to the name-caller's conformative (is that a real word?) masculinity


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## fancying_fantasy (Sep 16, 2006)

I have had the typical response from people about reading habits, geek, nerd, etc. It used to bother me when I was younger, because I wasn't a strong reader, but I enjoyed it. So lacking the encouragement from my peers, that most kids seek, I didn't read that much when I was younger. I really regret it now, because I missed out on the chance to read so many good books at a young age, granted I can read them now, but you know time schedules as you get older just get busier and busier. I'm past the hole being bothered by peoples remarks on my reading habits. My sister and I think its cool to be weird and geeks, better than sacrificing our true selves to be part of the normal species of humans out there. GEEKS ROCK!!! It does sadden me that there is not more interest in books and reading among the younger crowds these days. Everyone is so wrapped up in video games and movies that no one has 'time' to read nor do they think it is pertinent. I love reading and I wish I could open a bookstore, so I collect doubles of books whenever I go to garage sales, goodwill, etc. for good prices. Then today I tried having a book garage sale at my house and some people showed up, but not what I was hoping for.  People don't like books anymore I guess, well not everyone I mean. Sometimes when I'm out on my book searches for resale and I might have 3 or 4 copies of a particular book I grab another just because I feel like I have to protect it by giving it a good home where it will be appreciated. What can I say I'm silly like that. So even though your made fun of out there for reading and people are losing interest in books, don't forget you have us at the forum. Plus if people lose interest in books, more for us. (joking I don't want people to lose interest)


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## An8el (Sep 16, 2006)

Well, I'm very tall, and I wore glasses. So society typecasted me into being a librarian at an early age. I didn't become a librarian, I painted signs, but I always read books anywhere I went. So I was out there with the construction guys at lunchtime when I wasn't on the ladder, at lunch with a book. Since they routinely gave me flack for reading, I developed some one-liners. In fact, I used to collect them for awhile.

"Why do you read that junk all the time?" 
"Because my brain is a race horse that needs more exercise."
"Because someday I might become blind and I want to have something to remember." 
"Because face to face interactions are so mundane, pointless and unimaginative."

"Are you an introvert?" 
"Yes, I'm someone who actually eats words in addition to lunch."

"Why would you want to read a book that you don't have to?" 

"Because I can read it faster and skip over any parts I want to." 
"Because I have an attention span longer than a tick."
"Because I'm reading the books with the forbidden ideas."
"Because like an a**hole, anyone can have an opinion and write a book about it. It's the best way to find out of what someone is really saying. As opposed to what someone else who did read the book tells you it meant."

(After two days at home with my nose in a book that I couldn't put down) 
"Are you going to do anything else today, but read?"
"I'm saving the world from my vehicle by not going anywhere."

(Eating alone at a restaraunt, running into someone who knew me from elsewhere) "Did you break up with your boyfriend?"
"You assummed that because this book I'm reading is called, "Don't Shoot the Dog?"

...some nicer ones: 

While reading a catalogue at a bar, an inventor came over to find out what I was reading. When he found out it was a catalogue of little plastic parts, he said, "What are you putting together?" Turns out he was making the right assumption there, and he helped me design a toy that I was working on.

That nice smile from the librarian as you bring back the book you checked out two days later, and are getting the next and ordering all of the following books in the series. The librarian says, "Oh, you're someone who gets going and wants them all at once. I do that too."


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## j d worthington (Sep 22, 2006)

Just started on Carlos Ruiz Zafon's *The Shadow of the Wind* today, and came across the following passage, which seems germane to this discussion:

"As I walked in the dark through the tunnels and tunnels of books, I could not help being overcome by a sense of sadness. I couldn't help thinking that if I, by pure chance, had found a whole universe in a single unknown book, buried in that endless necropolis, tens of thousands more would remain unexplored, forgotten forever. I felt myself surrounded by millions of abandoned pages, by worlds and souls without an owner sinking in an ocean of darkness, while the world that throbbed outside the library seemed to be losing its memory, day after day, unknowingly, feeling all the wiser the more it forgot."


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## Curt Chiarelli (Sep 22, 2006)

J.D.:

Thanks for posting that bit of profundity! This quote is getting printed and pinned up on my bulletin board.


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## An8el (Sep 22, 2006)

Yeah, J.D. was a sweet one...


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## j d worthington (Sep 22, 2006)

Thank you.... it just sort of leaped off the page at me; glad you like it.


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## littlemissattitude (Sep 22, 2006)

That is interesting, j. d.  I like that a lot.  Triggers some interesting thoughts.


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## carrie221 (Sep 22, 2006)

That is very cool!


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## steve12553 (Sep 22, 2006)

If that quote strikes a chord with you, then you've seen the light. You been able to transport youself into another world and follow the lead of an author who takes you to places that noone has ever been. You are able to suspend the real world and let your mind relax and the stress go away. At least for a while. You are also capable of understanding new ideas and questioning the status quo. You are dangerous to the narrow minded and must be stopped. You threaten their world where they are right and nothing ever changes. Be cautious until the time is right and then strike boldly.


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## Pyar (Sep 22, 2006)

It seems that everyone here is from the South or California lol. Anyway I am from NY and I think that I wasn't ridiculed as much as other people but I still was made fun of for reading, especially when I was younger. It may be the fact that I am Indian in origin, and when people think of indians they think of nerdy Indian people with accents. Trust me people there are a lot of Indians out there that are not smart lol. It is ironic though, I am the stereotype of an Indian, I am really good at math and science and horrible at english(i dont mean the language, english is my main language).

I think that society, which is dominated by non readers, has formed a negative stereotype towards reading. Children, who are the most unknowing and innocent, don't understand that reading is not a bad thing and their ignorant parents just pass their biased and negative opinion of readers onto their children. When I was little I would always be carrying around a book, and I would recieve endless comments. The most common one would go like this:

Person: "Why are you reading that book?"
Me: "Because I like reading"
Person: "Why would you ever want to read for_ *fun*?"_

Another one would go like this:

Person: "What class are you reading that for?"
Me: "It's not for a class, I am reading it for fun."
Person: "Why would you do that? It's just a waste of time." WOW...

I am in High School and I rarely ever see people reading a book for fun. Most people know by now that if someone sees you reading they will think you are an anti-social nerd who is somehow inferior to them and deserves ridicule. The endless ignorance of people amazes me....

Kids should be encouraged to read and proud that they do read.


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## steve12553 (Sep 23, 2006)

Pyar said:
			
		

> It seems that everyone here is from the South or California lol.


I don't know why this was here. The rest of the reply fit into the thread but where does this come from? The last page of this thread is almost completely populated by people outside the south and California. There are four posts from Northwest Indiana (Outside Chicago), one from Malaysia and one from Norway. This is not a regional cultural phenomena, this is a side of human nature that has to be dealt with on a regular basis. Anti-intellectual predjudice and the under-educated bully have been around for a long time and are not likely to leave anytime soon.


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## Tau Zero (Sep 23, 2006)

I thought this was appropriate:


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## carrie221 (Sep 23, 2006)

That is very good and it is appropiate


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## Pyar (Sep 24, 2006)

steve12553 said:
			
		

> I don't know why this was here. The rest of the reply fit into the thread but where does this come from? The last page of this thread is almost completely populated by people outside the south and California. There are four posts from Northwest Indiana (Outside Chicago), one from Malaysia and one from Norway. This is not a regional cultural phenomena, this is a side of human nature that has to be dealt with on a regular basis. Anti-intellectual predjudice and the under-educated bully have been around for a long time and are not likely to leave anytime soon.


 
lol that was a comment, i just found it unusual, in no way connected to the topic.  I agree with you that this isn't a regional problem but more of a problem with human nature.


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## Teir (Sep 24, 2006)

I don't think Ive ever had any problem in terms of people's opinions of my reading. I have no problem telling people..especially my friends..that I love spending nights curled up with a book instead of running around clubs and such. And I must say that I do not recall any occasion- at least as far as I am concerned - of any ridiculing at school going on because some of us liked to spend time reading . Its actually sad the amount of people in my age group who don't read outside uni work and such and their knowledge of my book-worm tendencies (lol) usually results in them being intimidated, confused as to why I would want to read so much lol, interested in what I read, or they simply don't really care = to each his own and all that.

Reading gave me a huge advantage in school - especially in English, in which I am now pursuing a major at uni. It has always been something to impress with. It saddens me that other people have not been so lucky in their experiences and company.


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## Redhawk (Sep 28, 2006)

Beyond my understanding...but I suppose it takes all types.

Give me a book (ok give me a room full of books) over a TV, drugs, or being an ass becaue I think I can get away with it...Books....Boooooks!

This has to be at least 3 of the strangest concepts I've ever heard of...though...I doubt not a one of the stories shared here.


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## Sketti (Oct 1, 2006)

well I'm not American and I've never lived in the U.S but when I was in junior high I did get mocking looks from my classmates when I had my nose in a book. I was lucky in that the English teacher was everyone's fave and all the girls had a crush on him and he always showed a LOT of admiration for my reading habits. There were minor occasions where they would pull the book away from me but that was most of it. 
There was some incredulity from the librarian funnily enough. She got along really well with the other girls (we were mostly girls then) but was puzzled by the fact that I did not read kindergarden magazines like my classmates (I kid you not!) 
But again, I got mainly admiration from the grown-ups. 

Funny thing, at one point I had kinda started a trend in the school. Everyone was reading more and particularly the same books I was reading (this was before I started reading mainly SFF). I still won the library award at the end of the year every year though  I don't know if it was because it made them curious how into it I was or because they wanted some of the positive attention I was getting. I know for a fact that for quite a while the point was to try to surpass me in the English teacher's esteem. For one thing, he asked us on the first day of class back in 2000 what we had read that summer and one of the girls (the most "popular" in the school and reasonably smart [let's be fair]) mentionned this very obscure psychology book that was miles better than everything mentionned before her and I went "Uh huh! It's a good book!" and she gave me the death glare  I enjoyed it tremendously >__< 

I do get a lot of comments from my family (considering my mom is a bookworm herself it's rather annoying) because my literature of choice is SFF. I spend so much time defending it to people! It just annoys me so much when they say that they don't read about "spaceships and little green men" ... Then of course they won't believe me when I say that "1984" is SF among others. They can't imagine that SFF is well written and is more than magic or spaceships. They are all such superficial readers, it disgusts me. 

I'm so glad that my classmates now in University are much better than what you people have told about college students  They are all readers and quite a few are very much into speculative fiction/SFF. "Funnily" enough, we're also the ones at the top in every class  I wonder why....


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## the smiling weirwood (Oct 1, 2006)

Like I said before, the hollow people understand nothing. Books filled me.


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## dustinzgirl (Oct 1, 2006)

I remember my cousin always asking what are you reading why are you reading blah blah blah. Then making fun of the way I talked, because I would use big adult words like solar system and asteroid and could not only name the stars in our sky, but give her thier mythology, like Orion and so forth. I'm not saying I was smarter than her, but it came to a point where she would make fun of me all the time saying I was trying to be a grown up and I thought I was smart and on and on. When you are in 4-5th grade, you just want to be accepted. She was the popular girl in school, and I wasn't, so eventually it was not just her, but all of her friends and so on. Very frustrating. Oh well, I can look back now and think----I made (when I was working) three times as much as she did. I graduated. She worked in fast food. Go figure.


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## Sketti (Oct 1, 2006)

Don't you just love Karma?  

And yet, so many of those idiots manage to make more money than they deserve... It's sad. Then again, popularity is decided by the majority and I have a very poor opinion of the I.Q of the current majority. 

The end of the world will be when there are so few smart people that nothing gets done right. It'll be chaos, nothing new will be invented, people will slowly forget how things are done because they don't bother to learn how to read anymore and thus user's manuals will be right there but unused, mortality will be high what will all the moronic idiots making games more dangerous and little by little Humanity will be back at the Homo Erectus stage... yup. That's what will happen. I wish I were immortal  It tickles the sleeping anthropologist in me


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## The Ace (Oct 3, 2006)

I found some of these comments interesting.  If you ask me, JD Worthington is asking for it, AN INTELLIGENT PERSON IN TEXAS ? Then we have a (relatively) sane Californian, goaded to madness by a bunch of Neanderthals (sorry, I read so much I can actually spell it), what kind of a sick society do they live in ? Other than a few funny looks when I read TP on a bus or in a waiting-room, I've never really encountered this kind of moronic behaviour.  No, not even in Dundee.


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## j d worthington (Oct 3, 2006)

The Ace said:
			
		

> If you ask me, JD Worthington is asking for it, AN INTELLIGENT PERSON IN TEXAS ?


 
You know, I don't know whether to laugh or cry at the accuracy of this particular comment.... Sad, for a state that, at its beginning, had a fair percentage of the oddball, eccentric, and well-read who just refused to be pigeonholed, among the pioneers.....


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## Aeris (Oct 8, 2006)

I am always shocked at how many people don't read.  A girl that was in my English class through High School and Junior High bragged about not finishing any novels she had started.  I am still in contact with her, and am constantly baffled by her lack of interest in books.  She claims that she hasn't "found her genre" yet, but she's read a book from almost all of them.  I thought that since she likes the Lord of the Rings movies, she might like the fantasy genre of books...I was wrong.  I gave her the most interesting, basic fantasy book I owned (Mairelon the Magician by Patricia C. Wrede, great book) and she didn't get past the first few chapters.  Sigh.  Oh well.  She teases me for reading books, and I tease her for not reading books, so it just goes in a vicious cycle.  Some battles you just can't win.


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## Hawkshaw_245 (Oct 9, 2006)

Having grown up in redneck country, in Eastern Virginia, I took a lot of crap off people, just for being literate. Extra brain cells made me a misfit.


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## Loner (Oct 10, 2006)

As long as no-one can actually _stop_ me from reading I am happy. I don't care what they say because I know what they are missing out on. If only they _*knew*_!

Reading saved my sanity when I was young and frequently still does!


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## Nesacat (Oct 10, 2006)

Hear. Hear Loner. They definitely saved my sanity growing up since I spent most of the years right up to my teens in and out of hospitals sometimes staying for months at a stretch. The books kept me company the whole time and they still do no matter what else is happening out there. The books and their contents have always been a constant. I wish sometimes that there was some way to explain this and make everyone else 'see'.


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## Saltheart (Oct 10, 2006)

Dunno if this is on topic or not, but this article is quite funny: uncyclopedia.org/wiki/HowTo:Lower_Your_IQ



> The higher the number, the more they will try to kill you. Therefore, you should attempt to lower it as much as humanely possible.


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## DarkIntentions (Oct 10, 2006)

LMAO. I love that article.

NO I AM NOT RIDICULED people love me for my large brain that expands all the time..

no..

they wait outside the library at four every thursday to get me.


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## j d worthington (Oct 11, 2006)

Nesacat said:
			
		

> Hear. Hear Loner. They definitely saved my sanity growing up since I spent most of the years right up to my teens in and out of hospitals sometimes staying for months at a stretch. The books kept me company the whole time and they still do no matter what else is happening out there. The books and their contents have always been a constant. I wish sometimes that there was some way to explain this and make everyone else 'see'.


 
Indeed. Growing up I was a very sickly child myself ... not too much time in hospitals, but an awful lot bedridden. Books opened up worlds upon worlds to me, and gave my mind a playground vaster than anything the outside world could offer. And, yes, reading has often helped me keep my sanity as an adult, as well ... especially when things got truly bleak.

And, like you and others, I wish I could open up those around me to what they're missing as, even if it didn't become a passion for them, there are so many ways books can enrich the experience of the things they _do_ love....


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## Parrot0123 (Oct 15, 2006)

kitsune_boy389 said:
			
		

> Have you ever been ridiculed just because you were reading.  I was told I was gay (not that there's anything wrong with being gay-I'm not) just because I was reading and talking about books.  I mean sure, you can expect nerd and geek but gay?
> What are your thoughts.



When I was in public school I'd read anything I could get my hands on, I didn't care that much about the genre.  I remember that I became a fan of the Sweet Valley Twins books.

I'm not gay, and nobody ever called me gay - but my classmates did think I was weird for reading books for girls.  As far as I was concerned they were just regular books whose main characters happened to be girls.

I suppose now that homosexual topics are much more in the forefront of public discussion, if a public school boy was seen reading Sweet Valley Twins he would probably be automatically labelled as gay.


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## jenna (Oct 16, 2006)

I don't remember being ridiculed for reading, but I could be wrong. There was so much ridicule it's kind of all blurred together in my memory! I think the kids at school were more likely to be teasing me for being fat than for reading.

I have had many many comments from people since leaving school, along the same lines as other people have already mentioned. Also pretty much anyone who comes to my house and sees my bookshelf says something like "God, how many books do you need?" (The answer of course being "Every book ever printed.")

And I've lost count of the amount of people who've said to me "I've never read a book in my life," like that's something to be proud of. That attitude is beyond absurd to me!


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## manephelien (Oct 16, 2006)

Luckily I've never been ridiculed for reading, although when I was in high school someone did wonder why I wanted to read children's books. At the time I was sitting with Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land in my lap! The person who said that didn't have the English to read Little Red Riding Hood, never mind a novel written for adults...


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## Curt Chiarelli (Oct 16, 2006)

jenna said:
			
		

> I don't remember being ridiculed for reading, but I could be wrong. There was so much ridicule it's kind of all blurred together in my memory! I think the kids at school were more likely to be teasing me for being fat than for reading.
> 
> I have had many many comments from people since leaving school, along the same lines as other people have already mentioned. Also pretty much anyone who comes to my house and sees my bookshelf says something like "God, how many books do you need?" (The answer of course being "Every book ever printed.")
> 
> And I've lost count of the amount of people who've said to me "I've never read a book in my life," like that's something to be proud of. That attitude is beyond absurd to me!


Yes, I'm all too well acquianted with that whole "ignorance-as-a-badge-of-honour" attitude! Pathetic!

Growing up, books were my friends. They were a magic carpet ride from the dourness, racism and cretinism that I was surrounded by throughout much of my developmental years in Chicago.

A true story germane to this issue: in 7th grade our class in junior high school underwent a battery of assessment tests and it was discovered that I had a college senior's reading level (ironic when you consider that I was receiving a C in reading on my report cards). Against my wishes, the news was proudly announced before the whole class by my 7th grade English teacher, Miss Dixon. I cannot begin to tell you what that felt like, having fusilades of daggers streaming from so many contemptuous eyes, having the class bully whisper in my ear that "I'm going to f**king kill you after school, you homo", icicles of fear, loathing and nausea running down the length of my intestinal tract like a dysentary, being the focus of so much hatred. What should have been a warm moment of approbation - if I had lived in a civilized society - quickly descended into a living hell of brutal hazings that lasted for weeks afterward.

What has always astonished me is that at this particular junction of time and place in the annals of recorded history there has *never* been as much open access to knowledge as there is right now in America. That so little of it is ever accessed or enjoyed by her citizens is a tragedy of epic proportions and a cancer on the body politic.

That the vast majority chooses to embrace all forms of errant superstition (a statistical anomaly amongst other economically developed, industrailized nations, America is a fervantly religious country where many of her citizens believe in astrology) yet treats her artists and intellectuals like pariahs says many dark, revealing things about our national character and our future viability as a nation. 

It's a very dangerous thing when so much of the world's power has been concentrated in the hands of so many determinedly, wantonly ignorant people.


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## Nesacat (Oct 16, 2006)

It is strange the things that seem to be universal. In an age where access to information is greater than ever and bookstores as well as libraries are mushrooming; less people are actually reading here. Although more people are buying books and have large libraries in their homes. Books have become, here at least, the latest decorating fad almost. Some physical show of intellectualism perhaps, although the owner has never looked within those wonderful, matching leather covers.

And yes, it seems to be almost a matter of pride to be able to afford these books and yet not read them. They say they have not read any of the books with pride in the same sentence in which they tell you the precise monetary value of the books. There is always a great temptation in these cases to sneak in at night and rescue the books, giving them away to people who will read them and care for them irrelevant of their monetary value.


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## Saltheart (Oct 17, 2006)

The easier and cheaper information is to obtain, the less it is appreciated. At least, that's what I think is going on in the information age. Since knowledge requires less effort, less people are willing to chase it.


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## littlemissattitude (Oct 17, 2006)

manephelien said:
			
		

> Luckily I've never been ridiculed for reading, although when I was in high school someone did wonder why I wanted to read children's books. At the time I was sitting with Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land in my lap! The person who said that didn't have the English to read Little Red Riding Hood, never mind a novel written for adults...



Well, whoever thought that _Stranger in a Strange Land_ is a children's book has certainly never read it.  Like to see the look on their face if they ever did.

And, Nesacat, I love your idea of "saving the books".  That's wonderful.


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## manephelien (Oct 17, 2006)

LMA, you're so right. That said, I think parents here are more liberal than in the US when it comes to letting their kids choose what they read. I was 13 or 14 when I first read Jean M. Auel's The Valley of Horses, and it's _very_ explicit. Compared to that, Stranger _is _a children's book!


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## The Ace (Oct 17, 2006)

Thadlerian said:
			
		

> I believe this is the very heart of bullying: To provoke a violent response from the victim towards the bullies. They're unable to see their own bullying as the initial aggression: If the victim counterattacks, that is seen as completely unprovoked aggression, and they see themselves socially justified to use violent means against the victim, implying ganging up on him/her.
> 
> Interesting point, Americans are always wondering why nobody else likes them, and it begs the question, "What is the difference between a self-appointed policeman using overwhelming strength to control the actions of others (Nicaragua, Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Chile etc,etc, etc) and a bully ?"


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## An8el (Oct 17, 2006)

Yeah - we Americans would do better to put a Canadian flag emblem on our luggage so the rest of the world knows we're not going to bully them like our country does when we travel. I hate being an American; probably pretty soon a bunch of us who like to think are going to be refugees when our government starts up the already-in-place internment camps for any of their own citizens they desire to jail. Or they'll probably just blow up the San Francisco Bay area, claim the "terrorists did it" and get rid of the lot of us who bitch about them in one fell swoop. Ooops - sorry for bitching on this thread, back to the topic.

I just unpacked my ancient 500 SciFi and Fantasy paperback collection and put them in alphabetical order. Takes me three years to get through them. It was just long enough to mostly forget the ones I read three years before. Mostly people now ask me about scifi and what authors to read; I sort of look like a librarian, actually. Tall, female, glasses, etc.

It's going to happen more often when I move to Hawaii, I'm sure, because the literacy rate there is really low there. My response, as people have bitched about reading to me, is I assume that it's my job to tell them what is interesting about reading. So I give them a book report that makes them squirm.


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## Nesacat (Oct 18, 2006)

littlemissattitude said:
			
		

> And, Nesacat, I love your idea of "saving the books".  That's wonderful.



Thanks LittleMiss. Libraries like this always remind me of that fire chief in Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451. He had shelves stacked with books in his home and he never read any of them. He understood that the greatest tragedy for a book was to be kept away on a shelf but never, ever read. Perhaps even destroying it would then be kinder than keeping it there and looking at it everyday and knowing that it would never be read by you the owner or anyone else, ever.


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## littlemissattitude (Oct 18, 2006)

manephelien said:
			
		

> LMA, you're so right. That said, I think parents here are more liberal than in the US when it comes to letting their kids choose what they read. I was 13 or 14 when I first read Jean M. Auel's The Valley of Horses, and it's _very_ explicit. Compared to that, Stranger _is _a children's book!



I had friends with parents who censored their reading, but my parents never stopped me from reading anything...got to give them credit for that, considering that I started reading books out of the adult section of the library when I was 7 years old.  I think I had just started junior high school (around 12 years old) when I read _Rosemary's Baby_ and _The Graduate_ and _M*A*S*H_.  All of which were not actually written for children.


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## jenna (Oct 27, 2006)

Well, funny enough it actually happened to me today! I've just started at a new job three weeks ago (and finishing at it tomorrow!) and today at lunch I was sitting outside the lunch room reading, instead of being inside being bored to death by the _bwak bwak bwak bwak_ of the girls I work with talking about their boyfriends etc. Then someone came in and aksed where I was (I could hear everything really plainly) and one of the girls said "Oh, she's outside... READING!" and then they all laughed, and another one said, "I know, can you believe it?"
I was LMAO. Heaven knows why I prefer to be in the world of George R.R Martin rather than inside with them. I mean, just when you thought you'd heard EVERY story about their boyfriends and what happened when they went clubbing on the weekend, they manage to come out with more...


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## SpaceShip (Oct 27, 2006)

As a youngster in post-WW2, I can't even remember seeing a book shop, let alone be able to afford to buy a book if there was a shop.  We had a poorly stocked library and it was wonder of wonders if a suitable book happened to be in stock.  Being deprived of this luxury - we all loved reading when we could.


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## severian83 (Nov 24, 2006)

I don't recall actually being ridiculed for reading, but I know people who have been. I do get some unusual looks from people, simply for reading a book, whether on a break at work, sitting in Starbucks, or wherever. It's sad to live in a world where it's perfectly acceptable to get roaring drunk each and every weekend to the point where you can't stand up, but sitting with a book in your hand is like a social disease.
Honestly though, I often get regarded with some kind of bizarre admiration for my ability to read. It's as if people don't know how to talk to someone who reads because they enjoy it.
I just love the responses I get when people ask where I've been at lunchtime. "Been to the bookshop," I say. _"Why?!" _they reply, aghast. Comedy.


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## The Upright Man (Nov 26, 2006)

I have recently been insulted, ridiculed and almost come to blows over me reading in school rather than the conventional sitting there bored half listening to peolple natter on about who scored what goal and how

they way that they have tried is a sorta private joke for them but to no affect to me, every time i read the say i am reading the Dictionary again. i find this funny as in my school as an punishment in detention, the gredges of society have to copy out from the dictionary. and seeing as most of the dumbasses that insult e 4 "reading" a Dictionary, i find it funny that i read for the fun of it and they have the dictionary 4 punishment.

some peolpe will never learn that in the world of Technology, people can resort to books written 20/30/40 years ago for fun rather than waste their live watchiong a overpaid footballer trip over their feet and get compo 4 it

im glad that *I AM A NERD*


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## jackokent (Nov 26, 2006)

I can't understand how anyone could ridicule another for reading and I am so glad it's never happenned to me as I always have my nose in a book.....However, I also love to watch football. 

I am always a little surprised when people use a love of sport as a sort of anti love of reading analgy.  Some people do both.  I support my local (well ex local) team and always have.  Reading and football are not mutually exclusive pastimes.


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## j d worthington (Nov 26, 2006)

jackokent said:


> I can't understand how anyone could ridicule another for reading and I am so glad it's never happenned to me as I always have my nose in a book.....However, I also love to watch football.
> 
> I am always a little surprised when people use a love of sport as a sort of anti love of reading analgy. Some people do both. I support my local (well ex local) team and always have. Reading and football are not mutually exclusive pastimes.


 
Well, Jacko, this is going back a bit (at least some 70 years), but ... I think a very good example of what you're saying there would be Robert E. Howard. Though when very young he was "nerdy" (slightly built, frail, etc.), he quickly pumped himself up into a pretty formidable specimen. He loved boxing (both watching and actively participating) or any other sport that required both guts and physical stamina, and yet was a prolific writer and reader (when he was in school, he was known to have broken into the school during the summer in order to take out books to read, having run through everything the local library had to offer).

Granted, REH didn't have a long run, but it was intense, and as far as an example of someone who completely shattered that dichotomy... there's your man.


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## nightsavior (Nov 26, 2006)

I had jock friends that would play football..then read fantasy books afterwards. I cannot believe reading has become shunned. Also how can one make any negative assumptions about a person engrossed in a good book? Sure you didn't run into witch hunt inqusitors that discourage reading anything except religious scrolls? lol.


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## jackokent (Nov 26, 2006)

It just seems crazy to me that a perfectly normal past time such as reading (whatever genre) is associated with being a) anti sports and b) nerdy.

I've heard a lot of people on this website calling themselves nerds.  I am not sure what a nerd is to be honest but I certainly don't want to be called one.

It feels to me that by giving ourselves these negative connotations for being readers (like some sort of reverse snobbery) we're merely colluding with the whole ridicule thing.

People who love books are not particularly nerdy and they can do all sorts of sporty things.  People who do all sorts of sporty things are not necessarily jocks.

I would have thought Chronicles was the first place to challenge denegrating labels / steriotypes.


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## j d worthington (Nov 26, 2006)

One definition of nerd is "a person who lacks social skills or is boringly studious". Merriam Webster defines it as: "an unstylish, unattractive, or socially inept person; especially one slavishly devoted to intellectual or academic pursuits". Actually, the etymology is, if correct, rather neat, as it may come from a creature in *If I Ran the Zoo* (1950) by Dr. Seuss.

The reason I used the term was, quite simply, because it was a shorthand way of saying he was undersized, slightly built, fragile in health, he was quite awkward with social skills, and for someone in his place and time he was excessively devoted to intellectual pursuits ... Howard was known to stand out for the latter qualities all his life, though he certainly beefed up physically....


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## The Upright Man (Nov 26, 2006)

jackokent said:


> I am always a little surprised when people use a love of sport as a sort of anti love of reading analgy.


 
I am not because Sport, partcically Football is the stereotypical male thing to do, and people frown upon others that do not follow suit.

I play basketball, yet am still called a nerd for reading.  Explains yourself out of that box Jockokent!!!


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## steve12553 (Nov 26, 2006)

j. d. worthington said:


> One definition of nerd is "a person who lacks social skills or is boringly studious". Merriam Webster defines it as: "an unstylish, unattractive, or socially inept person; especially one slavishly devoted to intellectual or academic pursuits". Actually, the etymology is, if correct, rather neat, as it may come from a creature in *If I Ran the Zoo* (1950) by Dr. Seuss.


 
I've been unable to find the word "nerd" in my reference dictionaries wrhich date back to about 1970. I first heard the word on the AMerican TV show "Happy Days" and I assumed they coined it until I saw your Doctor Seuss reference. I read a certain amount of Dr. Seuss as a child but I don't remember that one specifically. Other words that seemed to develope similar meanings at that time were part of the vernacular before but with somewhat different meanings. "Geek" shows up as a synonym but if you look that up you will find "a side show performer who eats snkes and bys the heads off chickens" (Kinda like Ozzy Osborn without the music). The Happy Days program and the glorification of the dropout, punk, character may have done more damage to the intellectual, well read, persona than anything in the last fifty years. Glorification of the anti-reader, "anti-smart" kid by an established medium was definitely a set back. At least when this type character appeared in film before he paid for his aura of "cool" either with a car crash or a heroic bullet. Here he was just "cool" in spite of being an unemployable, ignorant character who opposed people who did something with their lives.


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## jackokent (Nov 26, 2006)

The Upright Man said:


> I am not because Sport, partcically Football is the stereotypical male thing to do, and people frown upon others that do not follow suit.
> 
> I play basketball, yet am still called a nerd for reading. Explains yourself out of that box Jockokent!!!


 
Anyone who frowns on anything people choose to enjoy is being small minded.  I am certainly not defending anyone who frowns on others for not following them.

What I was saying is that people seem to imply that reading and sport is an "either or" thing and I simply don't agree.  

Also just because a small minded bunch of people call you a nerd there is no need for you to call yourself one.  There seemed to be an "I'm a nerd and I'm proud of it" feeling on this site and I was just suggesting that some of us didn't see themselves as nerds just because they like books.  Let's leave those definitions to the idiots who enjoy name calling.  We're hopefully above all that.


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## Talysia (Nov 26, 2006)

It's never bothered me that people might ridicule me for reading - and they probably have - but I'm glad to call myself a bookworm. It's strange to say it, but some books provide better company than some humans. Reading broadens the mind, so people who ridicule it are unlikely to change their own narrow minds. That's the way I look at it, at least.


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## The Upright Man (Nov 26, 2006)

my fav quote ever is, "A Book can take you everywhere, and Vice Versa"

now how many football games, or actually anything else can you say does the say


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## Sahnny (Nov 26, 2006)

I've been ridiculed for reading, and I found it bloody hilarious.

Out of some 1,500 people at school, I could only name 10 that read regularly and for pleasure.

It's so sad.


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## nightsavior (Nov 26, 2006)

Once when I was going through my table top rpg phase I got bashed by a cheer-leader calling me a geek and loser for carrying around a copy of advanced dungeons and dragons 2nd edition. For whatever reason this got wind to her father and he brought her directly to my house so she could apologize. Poor girl was in tears and I think she genuinely felt bad for hurting my feelings.

Often times kids and teenagers can be cruel but that doesn't mean they can't grow up into better people or learn from their mistakes.


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## jackokent (Nov 26, 2006)

The Upright Man said:


> my fav quote ever is, "A Book can take you everywhere, and Vice Versa"
> 
> now how many football games, or actually anything else can you say does the say


 
This is exactly my problem.  Why should we have to compare football and reading.  They are two different, enjoyable pasttimes.  If you ridicule football, which many people, me included, see as a wonderfully rewarding pasttime, then how can you moan when someone ridicules something you like.

I personnally love them both and don't like to hear either denegrated.


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## j d worthington (Nov 26, 2006)

I think that's the point: Each have their place, really, and as Jackokent says, it's only the small-minded who automatically assume either to be worthless. Sports have next-to-no-appeal for me... they frankly tend to bore me to death ... but that does not mean they are worthless. I don't like crossword puzzles, either, or acrostics, etc. I find them tedious. But plenty of people enjoy them, and those stretch their vocabulary and present them with challenges mentally, just as sports often present people with challenges physically.

Which is why I brought in Bob Howard -- he's a good example of someone who was passionately devoted to both sides. Well-educated he may not have been, but highly intelligent he most certainly was, and (especially considering the scarcity of books in his locale at his time) prodigiously well-read ... and very tough and burly and given to physical activity and all the typical sportsmanlike and even pugnacious male-oriented things of his day.

As for the reference, I was quoting, in this case, the Merriam-Webster On-line dictionary on the term (my own dictionaries for the moment being buried at the bottom of a huge pile of books that would take some time to dig through). My point in mentioning it, by the way, is that -- for me, at any rate -- it actually gives it something of a positive connotation (a strong fondness for Dr. Seuss' books coming into play here) ... but then, I've long known I'm a nerd!


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## K. Riehl (Nov 26, 2006)

I was hassled for reading as early as age 10. After talking to my parents(Librarian and Scientist) I developed the Nerd and Jock combination.
I found a football player who needed help with English and Math and he would run interference with idiots and morons. It was an effective strategy.


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## The Ace (Nov 30, 2006)

The Upright Man said:


> my fav quote ever is, "A Book can take you everywhere, and Vice Versa"
> 
> now how many football games, or actually anything else can you say does the say


  Well, the Dutch game in '78 springs to mind, 3-2 after that wonder goal by Gemmil. but this kind of euphoria is fleeting and I still remember (especially about 4am) the Peru and Iran games from the same campaign.

  If you're reading a bad book, you can just stop.


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## mightymem (Nov 30, 2006)

I always found books to be a great escape from certain problems I found I had at school, but I never been rediculed for actually reading. I was teased for looking like a nerd. At my formal place of work, I had older men that never use to read, they did they use to tell me I read to much and thats its no good for me. One even use to say that the reason I had weird dreams was because I read weird books. I found it sad and mildly amusing, though they never ridiculed me just commented.


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## Loner (Nov 30, 2006)

nightsavior said:


> Once when I was going through my table top rpg phase I got bashed by a cheer-leader calling me a geek and loser for carrying around a copy of advanced dungeons and dragons 2nd edition. For whatever reason this got wind to her father and he brought her directly to my house so she could apologize. Poor girl was in tears and I think she genuinely felt bad for hurting my feelings.



GOOD LORD! I think it's much more embarrassing to be that girl's parent than to be seen carrying DnD manuals! Good of her father to try to teach her better values though.

Also I am a nerd and proud. There's nothing wrong with labelling yourself if you're comfortable with it.


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## littlemissattitude (Nov 30, 2006)

Always been a nerd, probably always will be one.  I had a bout of madness in about the 11th grade and tried to break out of it, but I realized that I'm happy being a nerd and gave up trying to be trendy after about a week or two.


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## Loner (Nov 30, 2006)

I loved reading and books so much I studied librarianship and also worked in a book store! 
No ridicule ever slowed _me_ down!


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## Faceless Woman (Nov 30, 2006)

I once knew a pair who thought it was funny to sing 'congratulations for reading a book' every time they saw me.


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## Coolhand (Nov 30, 2006)

I used to be mocked by some for reading, especially for reading SF/F, when I was at school. I still sometimes see those people from time to time. They often ask me if I would like fries with that. Sometimes they're in the dole office I walk past. 
I'm usually petty enough to gloat.


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## Marky Lazer (Nov 30, 2006)

You read SF/F? *points and laughs*

I'm not really ever ridiculed for reading, though people think I'm weird because no one ever heard of the authors I read.


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## Osprey (Dec 4, 2006)

I am one of those few people during school years that didn't fit to one group. Therefore I never got teased. I played football (Rugby League) so I was a jock. I went to parties so I was 'cool'. But I topped the IT class so I was a nerd. I guess I am lucky in that respect.


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## Loner (Dec 5, 2006)

Were you much of a reader though?


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## Telperaca (Dec 5, 2006)

kitsune_boy389 said:


> Have you ever been ridiculed just because you were reading.  I was told I was gay (not that there's anything wrong with being gay-I'm not) just because I was reading and talking about books.  I mean sure, you can expect nerd and geek but gay?
> What are your thoughts.



Yes, many times, mainly by a few of my cousins! But then again, they're hypocrites - with a very bad taste, most of the time.


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