Don't Use This Book Nerd Insult Unless You Really Mean It

[image description: a room with the lights off. A bookshelf is on one wall and it’s dimly illuminated by a neon sign that says HELL HERE on the adjacent wall.]

Names have been redacted to protect the innocent and to avoid being yelled at by the guilty.

Awhile back, a close friend and I were discussing a mutual acquaintance, whom neither of us are fond of. He’s a shady character and has been known to lie, cheat, steal, and manipulate to get ahead. He’s a smooth talker who manages to, at least for a short time, convince people he’s a decent person.

I don’t enjoy gossip, so I should mention that this dude came up in a conversation about books. He’d been the subject of a short interview and one of the questions asked him what books he recommends. He suggested titles about history, social justice, politics, and other reads that would suggest he’s an intelligent, caring person committed to making the world a better place.

But knowing what we know about this person, my friend wasn’t convinced. She observed, “I don’t think he’s read the books he says he has.”

At the time, I simply nodded in agreement and said, “me either,” but her comment stuck with me. What does it mean to lie about the books you’ve read? And what does it mean for others to know that the person you are is not a person who has read the books you claim to have read?

The former implies a gulf between the person you want to be and/or the person you know you should be and the actual person you are. The latter implies that if you have read those books, you have been unchanged by them.

Although I don’t understand it, I’ve heard people lie about reading books for all sorts of reasons, mostly so others don’t question their intelligence. I’ve heard of people who say they’ve read Crime and Punishment or The Great Gatsby when they haven’t. While I find it silly, that doesn’t bother me as much. But to pretend to have read a bunch of books about the history of the world and its people, all of which were carefully compiled to craft a better version of yourself, is a different story.

Reading has been scientifically shown to increase the reader’s empathy, so if someone is lying about a lot of books they claim to have read, they’re probably not as empathetic as they’d like you to believe.

When that realization hit me I thought being accused of lying about the books one has read would be the worst kind of insult. There are few people I can think to apply it to.

What do you think? Is it okay to lie about the books you’ve read? If so, under what circumstances?