Guilty pleasure books, when reading becomes a forbidden pleasure From performative act to hidden pleasure, reading can be against the grain

Reading used to be considered a solitary hobby, associated with nerds, scholars, and bookworms. Today that’s no longer the case: books have become a status symbol to aspire to, and reading within the fashion world has become increasingly widespread. You can see it in the rise of celebrity book clubs, like the one created by Dua Lipa, and in the emergence of book stylists, but also in the initiatives promoted by luxury brands. Many fashion houses are using literature as a real marketing tool to position themselves. One example is Miu Miu, which is increasingly promoting initiatives connected to the theme, such as the Miu Miu Summer Reads 2025 and the more recent Miu Miu Literary Club 2026. Valentino has also used books as a distinctive symbol, gifting every guest at the The Narratives Spring/Summer 2024 show a copy of A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara, the novel that inspired the collection.

Reading as a performative and identity-driven act

Streetwear has also embraced this fashion trend: today’s intellectual wears Barbour and carries an Adelphi book around. Reading therefore becomes a status symbol, yes, but above all a performative act tied to identity. Beyond the concrete benefits it can bring, carrying a book and surrounding yourself with culture communicates a very specific idea of who you are. This awareness turns books into objects useful for building a public image of oneself, which can often differ from one’s private identity.

The books we read in secret

Because yes, the book we read in the park at three in the afternoon might not be the same one we read in bed at 3 a.m. And considering everything we’ve just said, it’s easy to understand why. If books have become objects of public scrutiny, then we want to appear at our best, and what we feel we should read often doesn’t align with what we actually want to read. Being seen holding a novel by a Russian author who died in the 1800s or an essay by a semi-obscure French writer is perfectly acceptable, while being caught enjoying a romance novel that became a Wattpad sensation might require some explanation.

What is a guilty pleasure?

We feel the need to justify ourselves when the books we read aren’t considered “serious” and when we’re looking for easy, immediate pleasure. When we bought the book at a highway rest stop simply because we wanted something capable of distracting us for a few hours, it somehow feels wrong. This sense of guilt, which leads us to define these books as guilty pleasures, comes from the idea that time is precious, especially when tied to personal growth, and that spending it reading something shallow should somehow be considered blameworthy. In a society where we are constantly exposed to other people’s judgment regarding our habits and the way we spend our time, it’s common to feel the need to adapt our tastes to what is conventionally considered better. Yet our most intimate needs might be something else entirely, and maybe that book with the afternoon soap-opera storyline is exactly what we need.

We are not actually guilty

We may feel “guilty,” but it’s important to say that we are not actually guilty. Reading is an activity that brings countless benefits, especially when done peacefully. It can relieve the stress of a busy day, give us the opportunity to disconnect from the online world, and allow us to carve out time exclusively for ourselves. We shouldn’t let ourselves be limited in any way when choosing books. And this is exactly why discretion around one’s reading habits has become such a topic, with a growing need, even in Italy, to find solutions to this issue. Among them could be using an e-reader or book covers to hide a book’s cover. These are much more common in other countries, such as Germany, where wrapping your novel to shield it from prying eyes has become standard practice. On the other hand, it would be nice not to feel ashamed of what we read, to choose books even when they don’t have beautiful covers, to look beyond appearances, and to allow ourselves more fleeting joys without feeling guilty.