Leave them on read

Are readers in their show-off era? Or have books always been a useful prop to earn cred? Either way, it means that someone is reading. Let them

- Christalle Fernandes

Performative reading is not new. Books have been a status symbol since the first printed copy of the Bible rolled off Gutenberg’s press in the 1450s. Today's bookish show-offs - the ones taking selfies with their just-read pile, photographing their sticky-note annotations, posing with tea + window + novel - they’re only a modern update.

On Goodreads and StoryGraph, it’s hard not to feel a little jealous when someone mentions how many books they’ve read this month. (OMG, five? August isn’t even over yet!) Online, everyone else’s shelf looks so much smarter than yours (Funner too). And every serious reader is now expected to maintain multiple reading lists: A personal one, one for the book club, one for when you're tired of the other two. And if you didn’t post a Reel of your silent reading session, did you even go?