Re: a bookseller's plot to make the public more intelligent?

Greetings:

Well that's an interesting philosophy. Given that very few Americans
actually do read (I assume you are excluding Tom Clancy/John Grisham
fans) you are writing off a very large number of people.

In fact it is this very attitude of superiority that makes the rest of
them look at us (those of us who read) with some suspicion.

I make my living in what is more or less a blue collar business, yet
my father was a failed English professor. So I have seen both sides of
the street.

Generally speaking, I find that people who read can be at least as
nasty and know-it-all as those who do not read. After all, I read,
therefore I am an intellectual, therefore I am superior and have the
answers to the questions that you haven't even thought to ask.

I was raised to be one of those street-smart folk you talk about, but
I also read. I photograph. I collect modern literary firsts as well as
photo monographs.

I have many friends that don't read and I have many friends that don't
go to museums either. Some of them I try to encourage to do one or the
other, with varying degrees of success.

But to simply say all who do not read belong to a class lower than
those that do simply puts you into the same class you describe below;
limited and prejudiced.

Regards,
Denton


On Sat, 16 Jul 2005 16:51:50 GMT, Al Smith <invalid@xxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:

>I'm suspicious of people who don't read. I don't trust their
>motives or their outlook on life, and don't want to be around
>them. Those who don't read are limited in two ways. One, they
>don't possess the innate motivation to open a book, which suggests
>that they are mentally challenged to begin with. Two, they have
>been denied the educating and broadening influence of good
>literature, which makes them not only dumb but ignorant.
>
>I have known smart people who never read, but they are smart in an
>unpleasant way. They are sly smart, crafty smart, street smart,
>sneaky smart, put-one-over-on-the-other-guy smart. That kind of
>smart is (to me) repulsive. Their outlook on life is limited and
>prejudiced. Oddly enough, these are the folks who most often think
>they know everything. No one can teach them anything, or tell them
>what to do, because they already know it all.

.