One Downsmanship?

Is there such a thing?

When I fly, I always notice if and what the person sitting next to me is reading, and so I assume that others do the same. I'm just back from DC and West Virginia, and on the plane back I had a book (The Other Boleyn Girl) given to me by a friend. When she handed it to me, she said "It's kind of trashy," and it kind of is. I was in my favorite seat---the bulkhead window---and a well-dressed businessman sat down next to me. I assumed he was probably no dummy and thought: What kind of dummy will he think I am when he sees what I'm reading? So I sort of hid the book as I read it during the flight, but when my fellow traveller pulled out his book, I saw that it was one of the Anne Rice vampire stories. Ick.

I don't know why on earth I care what a total stranger thinks about my reading material, but I guess I do care; maybe it's because a million years ago I was an English major. The question is: Which one of us had the poorer taste in literature?


Unrelated Rambling:

I am not surprised when grocery store/elevator music includes the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, or Simon and/or Garfunkel. They have been around a long time and their music has sort of become mainstream. But the music playing over the sound system on my Delta flight yesterday while we were boarding and waiting to take off included "Back to Black" by Amy Winehouse. Is she already mainstream? Is background music on a plane in the same category as grocery store music? I think she is an amazing talent; I just hope she stays around for a long time so we can enjoy more of her.

The End