Tube life

A very good friend of mine is totally unabashed regarding whatever she's reading at the moment and where she's reading it. Such as the tube for example. She has even been known to read what has been described (in her own words) as "vampire porn". From what I've gathered about this so called, "vampire porn", you don't have to be glancing over her shoulder to gather that it's of an erotic nature...apparently the cover makes that pretty clear from the off.

I have a deep respect for this type of brazen tube reading. I've recently been reading 'The Story of O', which I've heard mutterings about for years and yet had no real idea of what it was about (I'd guessed, sex, from the ways people would get a look and would then shuffle slightly at the mention). I hadn't anticipated quite how kinky it would be though. It was however, written and published in the 1950s, so has that slightly dated feel to it and although the content is, filthy, it is also slightly clouded in woolly language. I was battling through it the other day and using my Sherlock-like mind had deduced that O was up to something...but it took me until about a 25 lines later to realise what exactly she was doing. There's no such thing as "cutting to the chase" in this story.

Anyway so I was blushing my way through this on the tube which is where I predominantly do all my reading, and was suddenly gripped by one of those painfully clear moments of self-awareness. I could practically -hear- the drunk old man sitting next to me starting to breathe more heavily as he took in the content from over my tensed up shoulder. What does one do in these sorts of situations? I suppose, a normal person would just carry on as if nothing was happening. I think this blog has done enough to destroy my reputation as a normal person (please see my post about classical themed tourettes if in any doubt) so naturally I reacted in my usual way. I.e I tensed up so much that if the train had suddenly come to stop there is a good risk that I would have shattered; I also pretended that I had randomly become partially sighted, so had to hold the book as close to my face without simultaneously drawing attention to the front cover (whihc is black apart from the text: The Story of O, the erotic cult classic). It wasn't comfortable and I ended up getting off a stop early and walking home in the rain.

However, on the other end of the spectrum, the tube is also a fantastic way to show off to total strangers who you will never see again that you read really clever books. This leads me onto the kindle. Now, I really like my kindle. I spilt an entire and I mean entire cup of tea on it the other day and it's fine! Impressive! However, to me, the kindle is a double edged sword. I read an article the other day about how women (predominantly) are loving Kindles as behind it they can hide their modesty as they read twilight based porn in public places etc etc. Super. But what if you're reading War and Peace and you want everyone to know? I've read War and Peace. IT'S REALLY LONG. I want some credit for that.

Anyway, a slightly disjointed post. Maybe don't read it on the tube? I've written the word "porn" at least 4 times. Just a suggestion.

Signing off,
H