You Do Not Simply Tell Twitter Not to Read Books in Bars

There are plenty of reasons why someone might have a book at a bar. They may be waiting for their friends to show up, or maybe they just needed to get out of the house and wanted a glass of wine to pair with their novel. But then, there is food and culture writer Jeremy Schneider, the man who is now learning what it means to be ratioed by those of us who have dared to open a book while at a bar.

Schneider took to Twitter to share a frankly absurd opinion on having books in bars—that no one likes you if you have a book in a bar, and it’s untrue! If you have a book in a bar, I want to know what you’re reading and if you recommend that I try it! If anything, it makes me want to talk to you more than some random person I don’t know who is just standing there. Or, even better, it can be a moment of peace for the person reading the book! Whatever the case, it is no one’s business why someone is reading in a bar.

Some people just want to watch the world burn. Like this man. When silence would have been better than tweeting this.

Which … why? What possesses you to care what anyone else does while at a bar? No matter what Schneider’s intentions, this tweet comes across like he was clearly ignored by someone reading a book at the bar and, instead of just forgetting about it, he tweeted for all people.

While I don’t typically go to bars with books (especially now, during COVID), I have done so in the past while waiting for friends to join me. So, to say that “nobody likes you” because someone is reading just feels like Schneider here had a problem with one person and decided to target the group of us.

Twitter fights back

Obviously, people had some problems with this statement—mainly because 1. Why does it concern anyone else, and 2. Who cares? Normally, reading a book is so that we don’t have other people trying to talk to us. If anything, bringing a book can help keep unwanted advances at bay!

Someone else’s harmless choice doesn’t matter

With so much hate and problems in our world, someone’s harmless choice to read a book in a bar should not be the concern of anyone else. It’s moments like this on Twitter when someone says something that really shows the kind of person they are. You don’t know what people are going through, and maybe that person engrossed in a book just needed to go out and have a break from life.

But the need of people like Schneider to share their opinions on someone just … reading a book has now ushered in waves of frustrated individuals telling him he’s wrong. And I agree with them. Why mock someone reading a book when you could literally do anything else with your life?

Anyway, anyone want to go to a bar and ignore each other and just read the entire time with some wine? I would do so willingly.

(image: Fox)