Book Lovers – Do You Fit the Stereotype?

As I browsed through my “to read” articles collected by Zite, I came across a Huffington Post story called, These Stereotypes About Book Lovers Are Absolutely True, and That’s a Good Thing. We’re always taught that stereotypes are bad and that we “shouldn’t use stereotypes” when referring to people or cultures. But I enjoyed the article. The author really thought about the commonalities of most book lovers, including 31 stereotypes in the list. It’s a humorous list and not meant to create bad associations about book lovers.

Book Lover Stereotypes and Those Who Love Them

I’ll share a few of the best from the list. You let me know what you think and if any of these apply to you as a book lover.

You never leave home without a book (or eBook). I’ve always got some form of book with me, whether it’s a physical book or a variety of eBooks on my Kindle when I’m out and about. And don’t be surprised if you find me standing in line at Costco reading a book on my iPhone.

You’d rather buy a new copy of a book for a friend than let him borrow your copy. It’s a known fact that even among people who promptly return money they’ve borrowed, clothing they’ve borrowed, and other borrowed items, a good many are (in general) notorious about not returning books. If they do return them, they often return them with considerably more bends, breaks in bindings, stains, and other blemishes. Can you imagine someone borrowing your car and returning it with several dings and scratches and thinking nothing of it? Enough said.

If authors had trading cards, you’d collect them all. Loved this one and can’t say I wouldn’t do it, especially if they came with bubble gum.

Forget freshly-baked cookies [or one of my favorites, freshly-baked bread]; your favorite is the smell of an old book. I know people who have almost what I’d call a fetish about musty old books. They keep them tucked into random corners of their homes and closets when they run out of bookshelf space – always planning to build more shelving or buy something that will “do for now”, but they keep adding to the collection. This is definitely the mark of many book lovers. What do you think?

Some of your favorite, happiest moments as a child were reading books with your parents. Another of my favorites from the list, but I’d turn it around because some of my best memories are reading with my kids.

You think audiobooks are perfectly viable road trip soundtracks. Who doesn’t? No more explanation needed. Right?

“So, what do you do for fun?” is an anxiety-inducing question because, apparently, most people don’t really think reading is all that fun. They don’t? Then, clearly they aren’t fun people!

And here’s one of my own…

You often think of your favorite characters as more “real” than many people you know in real life. I’d like to just hang out with some of them. We’d have a lot to talk about.

Do you have any of your own book lover stereotypes to add? Share them with me in the comments.

 

Image credit: mywedding [dot] com


One Response to “Book Lovers – Do You Fit the Stereotype?”

  1. Abby Watson

    I am a few of these myself; of course, I also read a good book (or magazine) for inspiration, since I happen to be a fanfiction writer.. 🙂