We've all brushed up against snobs. They may refer to themselves as "aspirational" about things like purses or neighborhoods, and if we don't share their view of what constitutes the good things in life, they'll move on and up.
The nice thing about Aspires is that we see them coming. They, bless 'em, wear their wants on their sleeves. The far more dangerous kind of snob is the buddy with whom we're comfortable and very much ourselves until he/she turns judgmental about the coffee we order, our preferred form of social-media communication, and, worst of all, the books we read.
I've got no advice for you about those who insist on French-pressed coffee and declare blogging is dead. I can, however, point you to Matt Haig, who defends books (and readers) in "30 Things to Tell a Book Snob (Revisited)."
Let's say a pal sneers at your Kindle and says he only reads hardback books. Haig's got a comeback: "E-books, like paper books, are as good as the words they contain."
Need an answer for the person who puts down your favorite genre be it paranormal, cozy mystery, romance, YA, or suspense? Haig's got you covered: "To dismiss a book because of its type, not its content, is book racism."
Want to put the snob who dismisses page-turners in his place? Haig does it this way: "Plot is not a dirty word. Plot is beautiful. Plot is the old criminal finding redemption. Plot is the quest to victory, or to love. Plot is the desire for action that is symptomatic of thinking and moving and being alive."
Read Haig's whole post, I'm begging you. Why? Because you must scroll to the end to land on number 30: "The greatest stories appeal to our deepest selves, the parts of us snobbery can’t reach, the parts that connect the child to the adult and the brain to the heart and reality to dreams. Stories, at their essence, are enemies of snobbery. And a book snob is the enemy of the book."
How do you handle book snobs?
