This from Guardian Unlimited:
Not only can you judge a book by its cover, it seems you can judge the person reading it, too. According to a survey of over 2,000 adults carried out by internet pollsters YouGov for Borders bookstore, 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.
And it gets better. For those of you troubled by the lingering idea (instilled in youth by parents obsessed with the benefits of “enjoying the sunshine”) that a life spent reading is a life half-lived, your worries are over. 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.
But before you trip off to the park clad in your most fetching sun hat and clutching your copy of the latest Jilly Cooper – be warned. Not just any book will do. Erotic fiction, horror, self-help books and the dreaded chick-lit were all, in fact, deemed turn-offs when it came to love between the covers. The genre most likely to help you pull – the itsy-bitsy-teeny-weeny yellow polka dot bikini of the books world – is the classics, followed by biography and modern literary fiction
Does blogging about the classics count? Today is Herman Melville’s birthday.
Link via Bookslut.