A research by Landmark, in India, has proven what we have always suspected. Apparently 24.2 per cent of men and 15.7 per cent of women “fake read” in public just to create an impression.
The study says that while most men pose with economics and finance-related books, women go for classic English literature. And the preferred places to fake read? Airports and coffee shops, of course. When we ask authors, they say that fake reading is nothing new. Anirudh Bhattacharyya, author of The Candidate, says, “Stephen Hawking’s A Brief History of Time should top any list of fake-read bestsellers and Thomas Piketty’s Capital in the 21st Century will be there too. My best guess is that people want to appear informed, hence the name dropping,” he says.
Adding a pinch of satire, author Arnab Ray adds, “I mean how else are you going to tell your colleague how Neel Mukherjee’s voice is distinctive from Jhumpa Lahiri’s?” But he agrees that many so-called good books are often a pain to read from cover to cover.
“Many ‘great’ books are also a pain to read and are only considered great because the papers tell you so and hence you must claim to have read (and loved) them unless you are willing to put up with a raised eyebrow.”
There is another side of the debate wherein people feel that you do not “have” to read a whole book. Screenwriter and author of Almost Single, Advaita Kala feels that it is completely fine if people only read certain excerpts, because it helps them familiarise themselves with a writer’s work.
“Reading a book is not supposed to be like a pop quiz. And even if just a certain paragraph from an entire book appeals to a reader and he or she shares it online, more people are likely to pick up the book, or at least read about the author,” she says.
Then there are also people who want to be perceived as readers of a particular genre, though they take secret pleasure out of others. Lipi Mehta, a writer and the editor of the book Urban Shots: Yuva says that she has often observed men to have taken secret pleasure in reading Fifty Shades of Grey.
“Similarly, there are many women who enjoy gore, violence, etc. in books and equally enjoy thrillers, mysteries, non-fiction, etc. Stereotypes repeatedly slot them in two different categories,” adds Lipi.
Advaita adds, “I think it is high time that we shrug the tyranny of the classics. Being a reader is no more a privileged activity or a status symbol. And as long as we are at it, it is all that matters.”
