Have you ever bought a book just to look intelligent?

[Monkey see Monkey Do]

If so you're not alone! From today's Guardian:

"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.

It finds one in every eight young people confessing to choosing a book "simply to be seen with the latest shortlisted title". This herd instinct dwindles to affect only one in 20 over-50 year-olds."

http://books.guardian.co.uk/news/articles/0,6109,1599060,00.html

I confess to buying Finnegans Wake - in the full knowledge that I would never even attempt to read it - to look nice on my bookshelf. Otherwise, I'm too broke to buy new books & I've got far too much old stuff to be catching up with. Plus I don't commute.

(edit - forgot link)

[Chovexani]

1. No, I think it's lame poseur behavior

An ex of mine was notorious for that bullshit. He freely admitted to not having read most of the books in his library, but then again this was the kind of guy who used the word "postmodern" like it was the only word he knew.

What a jackass.

Edit: There's a difference between not reading books because you don't have the time/forgot you have them and just buying books because you think having them makes you look cool or smart to others.

[Monkey see Monkey Do]

3. that reminds me of something Derrida said

He was so influential that last year a film was made about his life - a biographical documentary.

At one point, wandering through Derrida's library, one of the
filmmakers asks him: "Have you read all the books in here?"

"No," he replies impishly, "only four of them. But I read those very, very carefully".

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/3729844.stm

[undeterred]

2. I went to graduate school just to look intelligent

:)

[Canadian Socialist]

4. Do the incredibly expensive texts

you have to buy for University, count? If so, then yes. If no, then yes. <heeee>

[CaliforniaPeggy]

5. Nope, I have not, and never will, either.....

:wtf:

[rug]

6. Who would admit this?