Elan Mudrow
Smidgens
Readers
There are the flash fiction folks, the poetry peeps, long read lingerers, essay sippers, quote queers, novel nuts, the journalist jackals…sci fi sympathizers, romance unrequited rejects, the mystery mongers, the New York old-timers, speculative spectators, fantasy freaks, comic-con artists, and the not-so-young adult Harry Potters.
I’ve seen them at bars, pretending they don’t want to be flirted with. They do, but in a readerly kind of way. Never approach a reader in a writerly kind of way. They’re too much into reading to be bothered by a writer.
I saw one of them on a bus once, ignoring all noise, paying no attention to yelling crazy people. It must have taken several miserable years of public education to achieve such skill.
Some of them read on their phone, self-reflecting over what they’re reading. Or there’s Kindle which rarely start fires. Plus, there’s other e-readers for those who are literally frightened to turn pages of a book.
They create weird secret societies, like Goodreads. WhyAreYouReadingThatCrap?reads, OnlyReadWhatOprahreads 2.0, which is better than what Oprah read in 1.0. Shelfarifor those who hunt books and apparently can track them down by the empty spaces they leave on bookshelves. There’s Bookstrand Libibwhich can only be found on Bapple computers. And there’s Rifflefor the reading riff raff. Strange are these readers!
At book stores and libraries they bump into each other. You can’t hear them, except whispering, which is a secret language known only to readers. I asked a few of them about it, out loud. They shushed me. That’s why I decided to be a writer.
28 Comments on “Readers”
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Elan Mudrow 
Some astonishing lines here. Wow!
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Amusing and transferable. You’re good.
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Why thanks. You too!
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Thanks for introducing me to your writing! Fascinating blend of fun and developed out-of-the-box thinking all at once! With support, Christina
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Pingback: #AmWriting #thee100s Log 9, Round 3 – nerueru
This is highly entertaining (and probably true). Smiled the whole piece through.
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Love! Same.
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I am one of those bus readers – no miserable education required 🙂
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Wonderfully clever!
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Fabulous post
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To read or to write? Why not both? After all, it is far better to read a dictionary than to watch the media circus on the telly.
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There is a book reader’s group in Facebook called Senior Racoons 😊
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Ahh, thought so. lol!!
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Absolutely love this…that’s me on the bus, trying to ignore all the people in the back.
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Very clever! If you talk to a librarian you will get another perspective entirely.
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I love this and as one of those readers, I’d welcome your writerly responses to life. I won’t even grimace too hard at you when I’m interrupted!!! And reading in noisy places is easy if you grew up in my family!!!! I call it hiding in plain sight. Although, sometimes I do hide….
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If I ever write anything off of this you get half 🤣 like this isn’t dialogue in some movie?
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Good point! Laughing again!
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Yes, a bit of sarcasm, for if you change the title to Writers, you come up with the same group of peeps, which is you, me, and all of us. LOl! Thanks!
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Enjoyed the sarcasm! What would writers do without readers, yet some readers need to graduate to being writers.
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Brilliant, made me smile.
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Lovely.
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Hmm love this!
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Brilliant.
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But of course, as a reader has penned before me, “that’s the rub.”
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The offshoot species of reader/writer is even a stranger breed to mingle with. They can burn a hole through your thoughts with a single memory.
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Excellent piece.
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This is interesting, of course, most writers are also readers so we get the best of both.
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