Opinion
My lifelong hobby has been hijacked by a hot, cool crowd
Thomas Mitchell
Culture reporterA few weeks ago, my mother handed me a box of old primary school report cards. She’s doing something called Swedish death cleaning, where you slowly shed yourself of everything you’ve been hanging onto. She’s not dying or anything, just decluttering.
One comment on my year three report card caught my eye. “Thomas is an enthusiastic and eager reader,” wrote my teacher. “He can often be found sitting silently in the corner tucked up with a good book!”
As far as I am concerned, Year Three Thomas knew what he was doing; this is how reading is supposed to be enjoyed: quietly, privately, without fanfare.
The internet has decided that being a reader makes you sexy and mysterious, but I remain unconvinced by the hot newcomers. Credit: Michael Howard
This brings me to the 8:09 am train to the city and the man seated in front of me. Conventionally good-looking in a Jude Law kind of way, he surely works in advertising, based on the logo-free luxury of his totally neutral wardrobe. The rest of us doom-scroll until our eyes hurt, but he is doing something far more noble: reading Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace.
At least he appears to be reading it, although I notice he spends much of the commute taking photos of himself with the book rather than immersing himself in it.
As a lifelong reader, I am well aware that the first rule of Book Club is that you should never judge a book by its cover, but I can almost guarantee these pictures will make it to his carefully curated Instagram, where other hot, cool readers will praise both his choice of novel and his general aesthetic.
A cultural shift has transformed reading into a status symbol, a subtle flex for It Boys and Girls, a way of signifying your connection to a more enlightened and enviable class.
As with most problems in modern life, we can blame two things: the internet and famous people.
Celebrities proving how much they love to read is nothing new (Oprah started her book club in 1996). However, the rise of social media has flooded our feeds with beautiful stars telling anyone who will listen how much they adore Joan Didion.
There are now more celebrity book clubs than there are actual celebrities, with everyone from Dua Lipa to Emma Watson, Jimmy Fallon to Kaia Gerber encouraging fans to read along with their picks of the month. Gerber, especially, has become a tour de force in the famous readers’ scene.
Four years ago, the model, now 22, launched a book club, which became an online phenomenon. Last month, she expanded the club into a full-blown book community, Library Science.
“Books have always been the great love of my life,” said Gerber when announcing the platform. “Reading is so sexy.”
How many books is too many books? Probably 3.
And it only got sexier when certified Hot Men like Jacob Elordi and Timothee Chalamet started jumping on the book wagon. It’s hard to find an interview with Chalamet in which he doesn’t casually mention Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment as his favourite book.
Meanwhile, our very own Jacob Elordi was photographed at an airport bookshop earlier this year draping himself in literature. In one shot, he holds a book in his left hand, another in his right and a third in his cargo pocket.
I’m not claiming these people don’t love books. I’m sure they do, but when they’re also professionally good-looking, the lines begin to blur. Suddenly, reading is not just an intellectual pursuit, but a hobby associated with being really hot.
Of course, the first people to figure this out are single men, such is their determination to remain ahead of the curve.
Go on any dating app, and you’ll notice candid reading photos have replaced shirtless fishing pictures. The guy who once asked, “Are you up?” now asks, “Are you up to date with the latest Murakami?”
Unfortunately, because I love books and book-related content, I cannot escape the fetishisation of reading, and now the algorithms relentlessly feed me pictures of Hot People Reading.
Here’s Harry Styles on a boat reading Sally Rooney’s Normal People and Kendall Jenner, also on a boat, reading Darcie Wilder’s Literally Show Me a Healthy Person. Wait, what about Gigi Hadid eating pasta and reading Albert Camus’ French classic The Stranger?
Kendall Jenner doesn’t just read, she takes notes! Just like the rest of us.
In these pictures, it becomes obvious Kaia Gerber is right — reading is so sexy — but it’s also unrecognisable from how I do it at home. I remain an enthusiastic and eager reader who loves nothing more than sitting silently in the corner tucked up with a good book, yet reading’s aesthetic-first rebrand has left me slightly self-conscious.
Should I be reading more books? Or at least taking more photos of myself with books? On boats? Perhaps I am not reading the right books? Does Ian McEwan count as sexy?
For me, reading is an ugly exercise featuring double chins, furrowed brows and tired arms. I put the slouching in Slouching Towards Bethlehem, constantly rearranging my body to find a comfortable position.
But before my concerns can spiral out of control, I am reminded of a passage from one of my favourite authors.
“You will become way less concerned with what other people think of you when you realise how seldom they do.” That’s from Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace.
Find more of the author’s work here. Email him at thomas.mitchell@smh.com.au or follow him on Instagram at @thomasalexandermitchell and on Twitter @_thmitchell.
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