The Snob Questionnaire
I found this snob questionnaire on BookTube, where I like to lurk. Yes, lurk, because I will never have the b-- the nerve to do my own videos. Even if I were talking about books! Even if I do sound just like Sarah Vowell! (I've been told) No, just no. Shudder.
But I do like these questions, though! I'm always grappling with my own snobbish tendencies and I have an Inner Bookworm Snob who will never be happy until pillow shams are replaced with Henry James novels. So here we go:
1. ADAPTATION SNOB: Do you always read the book before you see the movie?
No, not always. Usually. It's about a 70%-30% thing with me. Examples of movies I saw first include Fight Club, The Green Mile, and The Talented Mr. Ripley.
2. FORMAT SNOB: You can only choose one format in which to read books for the rest of your life. Which do you choose: physical books, ebooks, or audiobooks?
I enjoy all the formats, but physical pleases me the most of all. I love the way the actual book feels in my hand, (even the chunky mass market paperbacks) I like being able to turn back and forth quickly if I need to re-familiarize myself about a character's relation to other characters or a salient plot point, I enjoy seeing my progress measured by the bookmark, and oh yes! Bookmarks!
3. SHIP SNOB: Would you date or marry a non-reader?
Hell no! My past relationships have mostly been dumpster fires of varying degree, but these gentle people possessed and enjoyed some sort of personal library.
4. GENRE SNOB: You have to ditch one genre -- never to be read again for the rest of your life. Which one do you ditch?
I could live with seeing science fiction in my rearview mirror.
5. UBER GENRE SNOB: You can only choose to read from one genre for the rest of your life. Which one do you choose?
Now I'm really starting to chafe from the confines of this list! I'm pretty sure I would choose biography/memoir, but I also love novels. In fact, the book in my high-beam TBR headlights right now is The Mirror and The Light by Hilary Mantel. But if I truly have to get all Quarterflash and harden my heart, biography/memoir wins.
6. COMMUNITY SNOB: Which genre do you think receives the most snobbery from the bookish community?
I'm guessing that romance doesn't get a lot of respect because the snobbery is rooted in misogyny. Although I'm not a big fan, I hope this is changing.
7. SNOBBERY RECIPIENT: Have you ever been snubbed for something that you have been reading, or for reading in general?
Back in the 1980s, I expressed my enthusiasm and admiration for Shiloh and Other Stories by Bobbie Ann Mason, and was told by an older male in my book group that the book was crap, it had no redeeming message and the characterization was horrible. I weakly responded that the book felt real. The person doubled down on his original message, and I went "But...but --" before bursting into tears. The gentleman quit the book group in a huff a few months later because we wouldn't pick the book of his choosing, which was The Sunlight Dialogues by John Gardner. To this day, I frown at it when I see it on some library shelf. Sometimes I add a derisive sniff to the frown.
As for the second half of the question, I have gotten the withering "nose in a book" comment more than I care to remember. Damn right it's in a book! Where's your nose???
Well, that was fun. What's your SQ? What's your forever genre?
But I do like these questions, though! I'm always grappling with my own snobbish tendencies and I have an Inner Bookworm Snob who will never be happy until pillow shams are replaced with Henry James novels. So here we go:
1. ADAPTATION SNOB: Do you always read the book before you see the movie?
No, not always. Usually. It's about a 70%-30% thing with me. Examples of movies I saw first include Fight Club, The Green Mile, and The Talented Mr. Ripley.
2. FORMAT SNOB: You can only choose one format in which to read books for the rest of your life. Which do you choose: physical books, ebooks, or audiobooks?
I enjoy all the formats, but physical pleases me the most of all. I love the way the actual book feels in my hand, (even the chunky mass market paperbacks) I like being able to turn back and forth quickly if I need to re-familiarize myself about a character's relation to other characters or a salient plot point, I enjoy seeing my progress measured by the bookmark, and oh yes! Bookmarks!
3. SHIP SNOB: Would you date or marry a non-reader?
Hell no! My past relationships have mostly been dumpster fires of varying degree, but these gentle people possessed and enjoyed some sort of personal library.
4. GENRE SNOB: You have to ditch one genre -- never to be read again for the rest of your life. Which one do you ditch?
I could live with seeing science fiction in my rearview mirror.
5. UBER GENRE SNOB: You can only choose to read from one genre for the rest of your life. Which one do you choose?
Now I'm really starting to chafe from the confines of this list! I'm pretty sure I would choose biography/memoir, but I also love novels. In fact, the book in my high-beam TBR headlights right now is The Mirror and The Light by Hilary Mantel. But if I truly have to get all Quarterflash and harden my heart, biography/memoir wins.
6. COMMUNITY SNOB: Which genre do you think receives the most snobbery from the bookish community?
I'm guessing that romance doesn't get a lot of respect because the snobbery is rooted in misogyny. Although I'm not a big fan, I hope this is changing.
7. SNOBBERY RECIPIENT: Have you ever been snubbed for something that you have been reading, or for reading in general?
Back in the 1980s, I expressed my enthusiasm and admiration for Shiloh and Other Stories by Bobbie Ann Mason, and was told by an older male in my book group that the book was crap, it had no redeeming message and the characterization was horrible. I weakly responded that the book felt real. The person doubled down on his original message, and I went "But...but --" before bursting into tears. The gentleman quit the book group in a huff a few months later because we wouldn't pick the book of his choosing, which was The Sunlight Dialogues by John Gardner. To this day, I frown at it when I see it on some library shelf. Sometimes I add a derisive sniff to the frown.
As for the second half of the question, I have gotten the withering "nose in a book" comment more than I care to remember. Damn right it's in a book! Where's your nose???
Well, that was fun. What's your SQ? What's your forever genre?
5 comments:
1. I prefer reading the book first, but every so often I see a movie and only then even find out that it's based upon a novel.
2. Most definitely, it's physical books for me even though I read at least a couple of e-books and listen to a couple of audioobooks a month right now.
3. Having a love of reading in common with your partner is a blessing, so that would be a big plus for me in any relationship. We have been married 50 years this month, and my wife's reading taste and mine seldom overlap, but we both have multiple partially-read books around the house at all times.
4. Bye, bye romance novels - easy to give up since I don't read them anyway. Maybe I'm cheating on this one?
5. That would be literary fiction for me. That genre has a place for so many different styles and types of stories that I would never get bored with it.
6. Either romance novels or horror fiction. I used to be a fan of horror fiction but I find myself looking down my nose at it on the bookstore shelves these days with a good bit of disdain thrown in - especially for one of my former favorites, Stephen King.
7.I clearly remember having to hide my love of reading from certain "friends" in middle school and high school because they thought there was something wrong with males who actually enjoyed a book.
And that's it.
Sam, I wanted to say literary fiction so bad. Wow, 50 years, well done! I wonder what is so disturbing about reading to some people.
I'll never look at The Sunlight Dialogues the same way again -- it'll be getting the side-eye from now on, in solidarity with my reading sister!
Off to put my nose in a book (I get that all the time, too, and it's always made me just think, "Really? That's the best you can do?")
I love the snob questionnaire. No, nothing would compel me to go out witha non-reader. I once stopped seeiing someone after seeing he had no bookshelves--in fact, not even one book. Nothing in common was the result.
This is a grreat blog
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