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10 Obnoxious Things Hard-Core Readers Say to People

Brenna Clarke Gray

Staff Writer

Part muppet and part college faculty member, Brenna Clarke Gray holds a PhD in Canadian Literature while simultaneously holding two cats named Chaucer and Swift. It's a juggling act. Raised in small-town Ontario, Brenna has since been transported by school to the Atlantic provinces and by work to the Vancouver area, where she now lives with her stylish cyclist/webgeek husband and the aforementioned cats. When not posing by day as a forserious academic, she can be found painting her nails and watching Degrassi (through the critical lens of awesomeness). She posts about graphic narratives at Graphixia, and occasionally she remembers to update her own blog, Not That Kind of Doctor. Blog: Not That Kind of Doctor Twitter: @brennacgray

Ok, Rachel’s list is super-cute, but let’s be real for a second: non-readers don’t have a monopoly on being obnoxious. Here are 10 super-cringy things I’ve overhead book people saying to non-book people, and I wish to goodness they would stop.

  1. Oh, you watch television. Oh. I read.
  2. Uh huh. I didn’t see that movie because I already read the book and obviously it’s going to be better.
  3. only read 100 books last year. I hope to do better this year.
  • Your favourite writer is Jodi Picoult? Oh. Okay. Yeah, no, she’s fine.
  • I would love to buy something like that but I spend all my money on books.
  • Ebooks? Ew. There’s just something about a tangible book and the way it smells.
  • Oh, you’re just getting to that book now? I read an ARC months ago.
  • Tee hee! I just bought all these books and goodness, I feel so guilty!
  • Um, where are your bookshelves?
  • I don’t understand how you fill your time if you don’t read!

    Remember, if you feel the urge to be a judgy-mc-judgerpants…

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