Not So Posh
I wasn’t going to say anything. I was going to let the comment pass and pretend I never heard it. Then I saw the quote for the 10th time in a week and thought - oh, what the hell…
I am, of course, talking about a brilliant quote by Posh Spice AKA Mrs. David Beckham AKA The Woman Who Hasn’t Eaten In Six Years. With her memoir Learning To Fly coming out in 2005, Posh has stated - with a bizarre amount of pride - that she doesn’t read. By that I mean ever. The exact quote is: "I haven’t read a book in my life." And she is not alone.
Let’s hope the nanny reads or her kids could have some trouble. Let’s also hope she doesn’t actually write. This is one of those times that just calls out for a ghost writer, a better PR person and, oh yeah, a sandwich or two wouldn’t hurt her either.
August 29th, 2005 at 10:27 am
Well, if she hasn’t read a book in her life (how did she get through school?), the perfectly logical thing to say is that we should return the compliement with her book…
August 29th, 2005 at 3:37 pm
I remember reading that with my mouth agape. The thing that really surprised me was the pride I ‘heard’ in her voice. I was actually embarrassed for her. Goodness knows, I wouldn’t admit something like that to the world.
August 29th, 2005 at 6:33 pm
I’m not sure that it’s that big a deal to be honest.
I think that because we’re such voracious readers, we tend to look down our noses at people who don’t read anything other than celebrity magazines, but the fact is, some people absolutely HATE reading.
In the end, I think it’s all about choice, and I do think it’s a little unfair to judge someone because they don’t read.
Being put down because you don’t read, isn’t that far from being put down because of what you read. Romance anybody?
August 29th, 2005 at 8:28 pm
Karen, are you serious? I read every magazine you can think of and a few obscures ones. This isn’t a matter of thinking she’s simple because she enjoys Hello and People. This isn’t a matter of questioning her reading choices. She could read Bob the Bunny for all I care, at least that would be something. But really look at what she said - not that she wasn’t a big reader or that she didn’t enjoy reading. She said something else. She said she has NEVER actually read a book. That’s a huge statement and one that, frankly, I find scary. And Caro’s right that at least she should have read one in school, right?
August 30th, 2005 at 7:05 am
There are a lot more people out there who probably have never read a book either.
I’m not so convinced by her version of never, after all, she probably read her husband’s autobiography.
I can imagine that she probably doesn’t count autobio’s as real books.
Either way, I still think it’s harsh to judge. There are much more scarier things in this world than somebody who doesn’t share our joy of reading.