Looks like we got ourselves a reader.
So Meredith was suitably perfect - warm-enough weather, above-par company, and just the right amount of debauchery/Pringles. I do very much love perfecting the old lady 'pick a spot, park yourself, drink a gin' technique over the years. It's utterly wondrous to be sitting in a fold-out chair listening to The Black Lips and eyeing off the Fashions On The Field while festive kidlings roam, and this year I was very happy to curl up in my private universe and read the Mortdecai Trilogy while guitars wailed through the supernatural ampitheatre.
Until:
Man #1: What are you reading?
Me: The Mortdecai Trilogy.
Man #1: Is it good?
Me: Very.
Man #1: (narrowing eyes suspiciously) It'd wanna be.
Me: I beg your pardon?
Man #1: You heard me, sister.
Five minutes later.
Man #2: You're reading a book!
Me: I am indeed.
Man #2: Can you even concentrate on that with all this noise?
Me: Perfectly, thank you.
Man #2: But...(gesturing helplessly at stage) Dr. Dog are playing!
Me: I can still hear them. I'm just not watching.
Man #2: (shaking head) Unbelievable.
If this wasn't enough to convince me I was some kind of dorkling freak, not a minute later I was subjected to this:
Man #3: Oh my GOD. GO HOME. GO HOME.
Me: Sorry?
Man #3: LOOK AT YOU. JESUS. GO HOME.
Me: Get out of my fucking face, you oversized drug fiend.
Man #3: DR. DOG ARE TEARING IT UP.
Me: I can hear them. Christ.
Man #3: MY DOG IS MENSTRUATING.
Me: ...Obviously.
*******************************
Why is it so important to people that I drop everything I'm doing and join them in their revelry? Is it really so offensive to enjoy a quiet moment with a book amongst all the music festival chaos? I can read pretty much anywhere and was perfectly content to immerse myself in literature whilst others gyrated around me, although judging by the mortified expressions on the faces of onlookers I may as well have daubed myself in the blood of an unborn child and declared war on Jesus.
Honestly. It was one step away from being surrounded by a circle of people chanting 'Egghead likes her booky-wooks'. Bugger off and leave me alone.
Comments
while his....dog...was... menstruating
Ice, it's a dirty drug
I don't have a dog, so there's no problem there.
x
teaspoon
(or maybe I just haven't tried ice)
I had an ex who would read books in the most inappropriate of places (parties, mosh pits once at a funeral) with this super serious pout of the righteously reading - yes she was a librarian.
Horrid, but I was young and love is blind.
There are those among us that see intelligence and good looks as threatening. Why can’t you be dumb and unattractive like us, one of us, one of urf . Believe it or not oaf was having a crack,should have returned the favour,with a bat.
I love homer singing booky wook.
Eggheads will run the world, Captain eggheads will rule it
I don't think it's that horrid, Big Red. Although it certainly depends which part of the funeral she chose to 'fire up a nov' in, and which particular tome she deemed appropriate.
Readers unite! Take to the festivals with yr novels etc....
I seem to find myself accidentally very drunk often while reading these books.
* reserves book stall for Meredith 09*
Bliss.
Other: What are you doing now?
Me: Going for a walk
Other: Where to?
Me: Just having a look around
Other: What for?
Me: ..? (walks off)
Aside from wanting to find a toilet, then possibly a bite to eat and a coffee, I just wanted to have a look around the place in the early morning peace. Sorry, I wasn't shelving a pill and hitting the Pink F that early in the day.
I read a little Truman Capote while at the festival, Fits, but I had the foresight to keep it on the lowdown and hide somewhere away from the stage.
To be honest, unless you are up the front, what difference does it make if you aren't making constant eye contact with the members of the band at all moments of their set? None, that's what difference it makes. In case you didn't pick the rhetoric. Which you probably did, because you are all well read and stuff.
Next year why don’t you read on stage, so the kids can watch, not to them or anything, just so they understand it’s a done thing
Do you do that ,read aloud to some?.
But it's still a *solitary* practice, and there are some situations where people have certain expectations of sociability or shared experience. I think that's what Big Red might have been getting at with the story about the ex who read in 'inappropriate' situations. As far as festivals go, Meredith seems to put particular emphasis on shared activities - stuff like the tai chi and the Gift.
Dr. Nic, so true. I remember a particularly awful occasion during the orientation camp when I first started uni. We were all at the beach and I'd retreated up to a grassy knoll to read. The ever diligent camp leaders (on the look out for people who weren't 'fitting in') felt it necessary to send three of their people over to sit with me and make inane conversation, which I had to go along with in order not to embarrass them. It was so humiliating.
Some people find it impossible to believe that, given the choice between them and a book, you might actually prefer the company of a cast of literary friends.
MORE PHOTOS OF TEH GIFT PLEEZ.
That is all.
*wanders off with nose in a book and trips over a horizontally-reposed tripper*
please no more....
Grouch Marx
So true. I stopped someone from hassling me once in this situation:
Her: What are you reading?
Me: A book.
Her: What kind of book?
Me: One with words.
Her: Well there's no need to be rude!
Me: In what universe did me reading a book mean that I wanted to be rudely interrupted!?
She wandered away then, giving me a dirty look. Idiot.
Person to be mocked: Wow! You're reading a book! Why?
Awesome me: Because I like reading so much more that most people, I even read in public, in places like restaurants and concerts where you pay money to do one activity normally requiring full attention.
Person: Wow! Why would you do that?
Awesome me: to highlight my intellectual (and otherwise) superiority. And for general attention. Then I can blog about it.
Person: Wow, get out! You're such an interesting person!
So Miss pale face you read books at concerts...ever read "Boys own fantasies"? How about "Give it up for the King" ....Mind if I stencil a bit of Shakespeare on your back and read it while I massage your communist sensibilities right away. Its good to be left and poor but lots more fun to be right and rich!!!!
I think Dr Dog would have been the perfect opportunity to catch up on some reading.
Love your work Fitsy.
"Eggheads unite! You have nothing to lose but your yolks"
Nuff said.
having a book in a non-book sanctioned place led someone to come up with his group of language student friends to chat. we got talking, and i got invited along to a nightclub opening they were heading to, which was preceded by a party where i met some more surprisingly charming students and their local friends, which led to an amazing rooftop view of the inky sky strafed with gently twinkling stars and la sagrada familia in the distance, which led to a sudden urge for a night swim, which led us to a beach, then to a return to the party for more wine and, ultimately, me in a three way with one of the very hot students and her equally smokin' spanish friend.
god i love reading in public.
I think mixing reading with any environment populated by alcohol/drug-powered people carries the risk of adverse comment. I've experienced similar on buses through the suburbs late at night, as though I was mad not to be carefully observing the wonderful combinations of brick veneer and aluminium cladding. What bothers me most is that I get distracted and end up colouring outside of the lines.
I informed friends and family that yes, we did indeed have a lovely time; we lay on the beach most days and read and spent our Saturday night watching that fantastic election. "You read? On schoolies? Haven't you done enough of that this year?" - No bonehead, there is a difference between studying and reading and believe it or not there are some of us who enjoy the latter and allow it to consume some of our leisure time.
We did spend one day down the road in Lorne. After being repelled by all the disgusting fluoro-clad teenagers trampsing the streets (I wore white so as to distinguish myself from the muck), we retreated down a side street only to find the best smelling second hand book store I've ever been in. Our trip into Victoria's schoolies hot spot resulted in our spending about $100 each on books, heading back to our camp and reading for the rest of the week.
Spending schoolies (or as i prefer to refer to it as - the week when we went away for a bit at the end of exams) reading was, in hindsight, far more rewarding than getting whacked off our faces in Lorne with the disgusting fluoro-wearers. I also have every intention of taking books with me to this summer’s festivals where the fluoro will no doubt resurface. So I applaud you Fits. May our egghead tendencies forever distinguish us from the fluoro-wearing masses.
DrDog is a great cartoon on the ABC, gentle children's entertainment or subversive commentary on our public health system? I don't know
I need some holiday reading. Is The Mortdecai Trilogy very taxing? I want something escapist and well written but not too well written and turgid
*yawn*
I'm hurt.
it is a little tedious to keep ramming it down our throats that you read...like... everywhere.
And I must admit my surprise at you being annoyed by behaviour that you knew would result though? music festival + drugs/booze + one loan 'reader' = idiotic commentary.
BUT this is your blog and if we don't like it we can just fuck off somewhere else, indeed.
just sayin is all.
Mine's in the shop.
I mean read - please read wherever you like - personally, wouldn't even notice someone reading in that situation.
I love reading and I love reading this blog
But to be indignant or surprised is...well....a little surpising.
The Forsyte Saga (long and lush)
I Capture The Castle (Cassandra Mortmain is a DREAM)
How To Breathe Underwater (short stories by Julie Orringer)
anything by Alice Munro
the Scotland Street series by Alexander McCall Smith (little Bertie will break your heart)
Anyway, those are just some I've enjoyed and they're not taxing so perfect for holidays.
Also, if you haven't read White Teeth do so.
Bill Hicks: God's second son?
I wasn't 'at a rock concert', I was up on the hill during a music festival surrounded by hundreds of other people smoking crack and passed out on beanbags and eating corn chips and other such festively private activities. If I'd been in the middle of the mosh pit I may understand your concerns. As it was I was under a nice tree and at a very comfortable listening distance from the stage and happy to be left alone.
The indignant post stands. Do your worst, peeved commentings.
So far i've read mostly in my room. i did once start reading on the train. Yes, in public. But i looked around first to see if anyone would mind.
.. i wouldn't want to disturb any people who are living with Terminal Ignorance. it's a terrible condition, affecting many Australians.
Because it's not only the sufferers who suffer, it's the people around them who really bear the brunt.
Hang in there ms fits. Read at the beach, read at a festival. You just go right ahead and read wherever you effing want to.
I wish the menstruating canine segue was part of the canon, rather than the far more lucid offers of conversion.
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