We’ve all been there.  You see a guy in a park reading The Bible and you automatically think of him as Christian.  The woman sitting next to you on a plane pulls out a Janet Evanovich novel (or better yet, 50 Shades of Grey) and you roll your eyes and make a mental note not to talk to her under any circumstances, to pretend you don’t speak English, even if that means ordering your scotch by making weird sounds and pointing at the menu.  You sit in a coffee shop, minding your own business and book, only to get approached by a guy who thinks women only read philosophy to get asked out on deep dates by guys who just can’t keep their opinion of Heidegger to themselves, even if it means spoiling the ending to you.  Or you quietly read Mein Kampf while waiting in your doctor’s office…

Ok, those are all made-up situations, but you get my drift.  We judge people around us based on the books we see them reading, all the while missing a key fact:  they’re just reading it now, most likely for the first time.  They don’t even know what they think of the book, so it’s a really bad idea to judge them by it.  Maybe your single serving friend is a gender studies professor researching a new book, maybe not everyone that reads Heidegger does so because they adore him, maybe there’s a lot to be learned from The Bible and Mein Kampf alike, if critical thinking isn’t a foreign concept to you–it really shouldn’t be.

“Don’t judge a book by its cover,” goes a saying, which is often used figuratively.  It’s literal meaning, however, makes little sense.  Sure, there’s more to a book than its cover, but the cover was designed by the publisher to represent the book.  Let me reiterate:  somebody sat down and thought about what that book is and then applied their best resources to representing that visually to create a cover that attracts people’s attention and makes them want to buy it.  So all in all, judging a book by its cover is a perfectly appropriate thing to do.  “Don’t judge a person by their book,” is a much more important piece of advice.  Yet I understand that it’s also a much more awkward thing to say, especially when rephrased to a less misleading “Don’t judge a person by the book they’re reading.”  I mean, “their book” could also be one they’ve written, and judging an author that way is a fairly agreeable undertaking (yes, there are circumstances and factors beyond the author’s control that could influence your opinion of the book and thereby of its author, but still).

The bottom line is that books are great.  They’re simply amazing!  Some are inspiring and thought-provoking, some “just” entertaining and escapist.  They can be informative and practical or completely made up.  Either way, reading enhances your life and broadens your horizons, so don’t judge others for wanting that, no matter where they go to get.

tl;dr:  you should read more and judge less