One in three has bought a book just to look intelligent

Books are the new snobbery, according to a survey today. Social competitiveness about which titles we read has become one of the new mass forces of the era and only middle-aged people are relatively free of it.
Driven partly by pressure from incessant literary prize shortlists, more than one in three consumers in London and the south-east admit having bought a book “solely to look intelligent”, the YouGov survey says.

The Guardian Has More.

October 25, 2005 by Uncategorized 3

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3 Responses

  1. djfiander says:
    October 25, 2005 at 7:14 pm

    Because it’s critical to impress the shop clerks

    Unless they carry them around under their arms for a week or so afterwards. I am reminded of the New Yorker strip of two young girls (ie, about 6) talking about a boy in the distance. One is saying to the other, “He claims to have read the latest Sendak, but I know he hasn’t!”

    Reply
  2. John says:
    October 25, 2005 at 11:18 pm

    It’s not the clerks, it’s the press….
    Why just look how many tomes President Bush supposedly reads. Next thing you know they’ll have him wearing glasses to show how smart he is. Oh wait, they did that too. Seriously, what is his vision to need those?

    Reply
  3. Anonymous Patron says:
    October 26, 2005 at 4:07 am

    Man…
    I’ve been missing out. Where can I show off all that I read? I missed the snobbery part.

    — Ender, Duke_of_URL

    Reply

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