The Book Pusher

So there I was; sitting innocently upon the sofa in the common room at work, food missing my mouth and hitting my chin as I was too absorbed in the book I was reading to concentrate on feeding myself properly when - as if from a distant dream, I hear someone calling my name.

A moment or two later (after finishing the sentence in my book, of course), I see a work colleague who looked as if he had been trying to get my attention for some time. "I see you're reading a book there." Kill me now. "Yes indeed I am. I'm actually at a very pivotal point right now and I should probably-" "What's it about?" Oh how wonderful, I'm locked in now.

After some discussion about the contents of the book and the revelation that I am a fantasy-series reading nerd, I do end up actually enjoying the conversation since I get to talk about the book/s and how much I love them. I even go so far as to recommend them to my colleague since they are such an amazing read.

A few hours later, my colleague stops by my office and proudly displays his Kindle - indicating that he had just purchased the entire series and was looking forward to reading them that weeekend.

Cut to today- the colleague made his usual visit to my office to discuss theories and happenings within the book when he suddenly pulled out a book of his own and plonked it on my desk. Realizing what he now expected, I instantly regretted my disclosure that this very morning I had just finished the series and looked forward to reading something not half as dramatic and soul-destroying as what I'd subjected myself to the passed few months.

Flipping through the book I can already tell it's not something I would ever choose to read and yet, there it is sitting on my desk, staring at me with its unappealing cover, waiting to be read. And now, I've got no excuse not to read it since my colleague knows I just finished the epic fantasy novel series, he knows I wanted to read something not-so heavy and of course this book is conveniently small in size with a light-hearted-ish theme so he will expect me to read it quickly and report back to him.

Now I can say that for the first time in my life (or perhaps the second, if we include the bible), I am reading a book out of some sort of guilty obligation! I didn't choose to read it! I didn't interrupt him during his lunch hour to pry into his literary material, questioning him and asking for suggestions! And yet, here I find myself - unwanted book in my possession and an eager work colleague expecting a full report within the week.

I'm left feeling somewhat violated because I have been tricked into feeling obliged to read a book for someone else . Call this a classic case of "first-world problems" or what have you, but I am honestly appalled at the power of social courtesies and their influence over ones life. Tell me, why is it I must adhere to the conventions of the workplace for the sake of politeness when someone interrupted me in the first place?