I am - in Bookcrossing terms it would appear - a book snob, so beware! :-) A book snob (a term I have only been recently introduced to, and if you view the forums, you will learn soon enough...) appears to mean a person who believes books have a value outside of their own personal opinion of them. I do, so I am. A book narcissist (a term I have coined myself) is a person who believes that books only have value according to their own personal opinion of them. Note, in both the above cases, this does not necessarily mean that the person will demand the same of others. A book narcissist will often be of the: 'you can like what you like and I can like what I like' variety.

The only problem I have with book narcissism is that, while it is marvelously neo-democratic, it is massively reductive of reading. Reading becomes as important as any other past-time that enjoyment can be received from, such as playing video games, picking toenails or masturbating, and while I'm not having a go at any of these past-times, I would still argue that there is more to reading than this.

I'm a writer and editor who is no longer a PhD candidate at the University of Melbourne. I enjoy reading, theatre, philosophy, poetry and studying French. I'm not into gardening, professional sport or house renovating (so I may as well not exist as a male in the suburbs of Australia...)