I adore this framework! Especially being critical about the performativity of "being someone who reads" - I love books/reading/book culture too but social media makes it look way too sexy for what it often is (me hunched over my page for hours at a time, struggling to finish a book (for school or pride or whatever))
YES and I’m soooo conscious of contributing to that by posting pretty cover art with aesthetic little drinks, but idk how else to capture reading visually? And no one is interested in a plain block of text on the internet. I also read a lot of ebooks and I’ve started to feel like it’s a “waste” if I don’t have an attractive physical book to package the act of reading.
I hear you!! I think there is a real delight in cozying up w a book, and that little hit of dopamine that we feel when we read a nice book w a coffee gets translated into "book culture"'s aesthetics ....I think and as long as you like supplement the aesthetic content with more multi-faceted analysis? thought? arguments? it's all good! plus I think pictures of your surroundings can be a beautiful way to frame ebooks - make it more contextual & about your life around the act of reading if the book itself is not so pretty (idk if I'm onto anything but I think there's like beauty in framing where you're reading and what it actually "looks like")
Okay yes absolutely, it’s hard to translate what a book is “like” without just reading from it, so visual clues are a great way to promote and share the activity of reading. And then thoughtful analysis can and must follow, but people need to first care about the primary source and want to read it. And cozy drinks make reading so much more fun 😌
I adore this framework! Especially being critical about the performativity of "being someone who reads" - I love books/reading/book culture too but social media makes it look way too sexy for what it often is (me hunched over my page for hours at a time, struggling to finish a book (for school or pride or whatever))
YES and I’m soooo conscious of contributing to that by posting pretty cover art with aesthetic little drinks, but idk how else to capture reading visually? And no one is interested in a plain block of text on the internet. I also read a lot of ebooks and I’ve started to feel like it’s a “waste” if I don’t have an attractive physical book to package the act of reading.
I hear you!! I think there is a real delight in cozying up w a book, and that little hit of dopamine that we feel when we read a nice book w a coffee gets translated into "book culture"'s aesthetics ....I think and as long as you like supplement the aesthetic content with more multi-faceted analysis? thought? arguments? it's all good! plus I think pictures of your surroundings can be a beautiful way to frame ebooks - make it more contextual & about your life around the act of reading if the book itself is not so pretty (idk if I'm onto anything but I think there's like beauty in framing where you're reading and what it actually "looks like")
Okay yes absolutely, it’s hard to translate what a book is “like” without just reading from it, so visual clues are a great way to promote and share the activity of reading. And then thoughtful analysis can and must follow, but people need to first care about the primary source and want to read it. And cozy drinks make reading so much more fun 😌