I have been online long enough to remember terms like “flaming,” “cyberstalking,” and “douced,” pre-GIF ripostes like “ROFL,” and “Bingo!” and the ritual invocation of Godwin’s Law. I can even remember when “troll” referred, not simply to someone who disagreed with you, but to someone online pretending to be something they were not. Most frequently these classic “trolls” were male posters to USENET or Compuserve forums pretending to be women and revealing their sex with posts on women’s issues forums like “I’ve had my breasts grabbed in the bar where I work, and I don’t mind. Consider it a compliment, in fact.”

In 2023, this classic trollishness crops up frequently as non-readers of books pretending to be readers of books. A favorite canned internet response these days , is “educate yourself”, (which has replaced 2012-16’s “read some history,” invariably invoked by people who don’t.) Any request for book titles or authors in the aid of this self-education will usually get only a vague gesture and either “Google it” or “Google is free.”

When someone online responds to the question “what have you read recently on this subject” with “Oh, lots and LOTS!” with no titles or authors offered, you can generally bet the last book they cracked was assigned in school. The same goes for someone who replies to “what’s your favorite book” with “Oh, too many to say!” They don’t get that actual readers are eager to share the names of their favorite authors, cherished titles, to talk about them, quote them, etc.

Perhaps as the result of readers now storing their volumes out of sight on a device rather than bookshelves, people who don’t read books for pleasure no longer have any idea how many books people who enjoy reading actually read.

Intepreting “what’s your favorite book” as a request to list every book you’ve ever read and liked is a dead giveaway.