It's Official, Reading is Hot

According to a survey of over 2,000 adults..., books play a crucial role in influencing our opinions of strangers. Half of those asked admitted that they would look again or smile at someone on the basis of what they were reading.

Not only does sitting with your nose in a book positively influence others' opinion of you, it could actually - get this - lead to sex. A third of those surveyed said that they "would consider flirting with someone based on their choice of literature". It's finally official, people. Reading is hot...more

(Via this great post from Roswitha)

My own reading-in-public moments:

• One day on the subway for about twenty minutes, I was completely taken by this brooding sort who had his head buried in Murakami.
  

• Last summer, I was reading Kundera's Unbearable Lightness of Being inside the Smithsonian's sculpture garden with my feet dipped in the pool around the water fountain. The girl sitting next to me asked me if I liked the book. I said no. She smiled happily and said, "Me neither".
  
  
• Three weeks ago, at Starbucks, a boy two tables down shouted at me, "Don't you love Tom Robbins?" I nodded my head. Sorta. "I am so happy you are reading that. You will love the ending." Just for the record, I didn't. Although I did like the book.
  
  
• Three years ago, this woman asked me out while I was trying to finish up my time with Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead as quickly as possible. The awkward conversation was a welcome distraction from the oppressive narrative I had clouding my head.