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Reading A Book In A Pub. Weird?

2

Comments

  • #32
    Lux23
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,134 ✭✭✭Lux23


    ejmaztec wrote: »
    A woman so desperate that she's trying to get picked up by an alcoholic librarian who drops in for a skinful on his way home from work.

    If I was that desperate I wouldn't go into a pub with a book in the middle of the day on my own. I would get tanked and go to Coppers or some kip at 1 in the morning and go looking for someone just as desperate. It doesn't make sense to say a woman sitting in a pub with a book is desperate.


  • #33
    i71jskz5xu42pb
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,806 ✭✭✭i71jskz5xu42pb


    Lux23 wrote: »
    If I was that desperate I wouldn't go into a pub with a book in the middle of the day on my own. I would get tanked and go to Copper or some kip at like 1in the morning and go looking for someone just as desperate. It doesn't make sense to say a woman sitting in a pub with a book is desperate.

    Whoa there missy, are you trying to say that anybody that's in Coppers at 1am in the morning is desperate? Lots of people go there for the lively ambience, the tunes and an occasional drink.
    So I'm told.


  • #34
    Lux23
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,134 ✭✭✭Lux23


    Darwin Numerous Topaz wrote: »
    Whoa there missy, are you trying to say that anybody that's in Coppers at 1am in the morning is desperate? Lots of people go there for the lively ambience, the tunes and an occasional drink.
    So I'm told.


    I go there to read the grafitti about yore ma on the toliet door.


  • #35
    Gang of Gin
    Closed Accounts Posts: 433 ✭✭Gang of Gin


    Lux23 wrote: »
    Its Ms Genial and I have rather big breasts...


    Oh dear, that's the second time I've done that Luxy!! You'll have to forgive me...


  • #36
    AnonoBoy
    Closed Accounts Posts: 22,559 ✭✭✭✭AnonoBoy


    easyeason3 wrote: »
    I worked in a pub a few years ago. Usually the women that did come in alone for a drink, during the day or at night, were a bit dodge

    Maybe you just worked in a dodgy pub.

    easyeason3 wrote: »
    I'm all for equality & everything but at the back of it all I'm old fashioned enough even though I'm a young woman.

    Translation: I say I'm all for equality and everything but I'm not really. :p
    It's just not something I would do so that's why I'd find it strange.

    There's lots of things I wouldn't do myself that other people do but I don't consider them strange, desperate or scummy. (Except if the person doing it is in fact a scummy desperate stranger)


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  • #37
    OutlawPete
    Closed Accounts Posts: 17,689 ✭✭✭✭OutlawPete


    I read the Racing Post in pubs when alone.

    I see many women drinking / eating alone, sometimes they have a book or magazine, usually they are texting or something.

    I don't think I have ever presumed anything about that in itself.

    Or guys doing similar for that matter.


  • #38
    easyeason3
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3,104 ✭✭✭easyeason3


    AnonoBoy wrote: »
    Maybe you just worked in a dodgy pub.




    Translation: I say I'm all for equality and everything but I'm not really. :p



    There's lots of things I wouldn't do myself that other people do but I don't consider them strange, desperate or scummy.


    Well then you're a better person than I am!

    Bring back the snug I say :D


  • #39
    norrie rugger
    Closed Accounts Posts: 5,656 ✭✭✭norrie rugger


    easyeason3 wrote: »
    Maybe.

    But do you not think it's really scummy if you see a woman in a pub on her own nursing a drink?

    No


  • #40
    Degag
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 10,051 ✭✭✭✭Degag


    I work in a pub and plenty of people do it but normally in the early evening. One guy did it one night when the place was packed with music blaring, couldn't understand why!


  • #41
    norrie rugger
    Closed Accounts Posts: 5,656 ✭✭✭norrie rugger


    strobe wrote: »
    Ok so, a couple of weeks ago I popped into a pub I was passing on my way home from town and had my usual pint and a few whiskey n ices and sat there and read the novel I'm currently into. I've been doing this for years, since I was old enough to get served in bars.

    I was there for about an hour and a half and on my way out I ran into someone I know. They asked who I was with but I just told them I just came in to read my book and have a few drinks, and that it was something I always do. He thought it was gas in anyway. Then when I got home I just got thinking that I never actually recall seeing a single other person sitting on their own reading a book in a pub. Lots of people reading the paper but never a novel that I remember.

    So is it an unusal thing to do? Does anyone else here do it?

    Better than reading the back of the beer-mat


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  • #42
    nibtrix
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,305 ✭✭✭nibtrix


    I love going for a quiet pint on my own, i always read a book while I'm in there. I use an ereader though and I have had one or two people come up to me asking why I'm surfing the internet on my own in the pub.

    easyeason3 wrote: »
    But do you not think it's really scummy if you see a woman in a pub on her own nursing a drink?

    Definitely not. However, while nursing a pint alone in a pub last wednesday I did see a woman on her own drinking a pitcher of beer. That I felt was slightly weird!


  • #43
    AnonoBoy
    Closed Accounts Posts: 22,559 ✭✭✭✭AnonoBoy


    easyeason3 wrote: »
    Well then you're a better person than I am!

    A better woman than you too? On the weekends at least.
    Degag wrote: »
    I work in a pub and plenty of people do it but normally in the early evening. One guy did it one night when the place was packed with music blaring, couldn't understand why!

    Ah I wouldn't do it at night in a packed place. That's not relaxing, it'd be like going to a nightclub and trying to read, pointless.


  • #44
    Coriolanus
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,879 ✭✭✭Coriolanus


    Lux23 wrote: »
    I do it but I have found that people normally come over and chat to you. I would do it in a Cafe but its nearly impossible to find a comfy seat in a Cafe in Dublin. Most are set up so you will want to leave after drinking your coffee.
    3fe has great big cushy couches/alcoves. :)

    Anyway, yeah, I always feel a bit odd reading a book. But a magazine or newspaper doesn't get nearly as many wierd looks? :confused:


  • #45
    law86
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 701 ✭✭✭law86


    I love the ambience of a nice quiet pub. It's a little luxury sitting on your own reading in nice surroundings, some of the older pubs feel like they were made for exactly that. I would feel a bit out of place doing it after about eight in the evening. Same for dining alone - lunch, do it all the time, dinner, would feel odd. Also, when I see other women reading alone, I think they look self-assured, not desperate -unless they are licking the dregs off the table.


  • #46
    Beetlebum
    Closed Accounts Posts: 837 ✭✭✭Beetlebum


    I love sitting in an old mans pub drinking a Guinness and reading my book.
    It's so relaxing.

    I also love sitting in a nice beer garden on a sunny day sipping a cold beer reading my book.

    I'm a girl and fail to see how this is 'scummy'?

    easyeason maybe you should try it sometime before you judeg other people (women in particular) so harshly!!

    Tut tut...and you a woman yourself..


  • #47
    norrie rugger
    Closed Accounts Posts: 5,656 ✭✭✭norrie rugger


    law86 wrote: »
    I love the ambience of a nice quiet pub. It's a little luxury sitting on your own reading in nice surroundings, some of the older pubs feel like they were made for exactly that. I would feel a bit out of place doing it after about eight in the evening. Same for dining alone - lunch, do it all the time, dinner, would feel odd. Also, when I see other women reading alone, I think they look self-assured, not desperate -unless they are licking the dregs off the table.

    I imagine a lot of older pubs were built with just that in mind


  • #48
    Elliemental
    Closed Accounts Posts: 924 ✭✭✭Elliemental


    If you were sitting at home completely alone and getting falling down drunk, then possibly, that is weird. But a quiet drink in a social environment and reading a book is actually quite enjoyable.


  • #49
    Biggins
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 34,567 ✭✭✭✭Biggins


    nibtrix wrote: »
    I love going for a quiet pint on my own, i always read a book while I'm in there. I use an ereader though and I have had one or two people come up to me asking why I'm surfing the internet on my own in the pub.
    Wife and I have Sony eReaders too.
    Read from them all the time in places. Each of us has found separately its one of the most relaxing ways to spend some down time.
    A good book on one hand, a drink in the other and relaxed inside or out in the sunshine, chilling... heaven.

    Its a pity some don't "get" that. Their loss.


  • #50
    colsku
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 301 ✭✭colsku


    strobe wrote: »
    Ok so, a couple of weeks ago I popped into a pub I was passing on my way home from town and had my usual pint and a few whiskey n ices and sat there and read the novel I'm currently into. I've been doing this for years, since I was old enough to get served in bars.

    I was there for about an hour and a half and on my way out I ran into someone I know. They asked who I was with but I just told them I just came in to read my book and have a few drinks, and that it was something I always do. He thought it was gas in anyway. Then when I got home I just got thinking that I never actually recall seeing a single other person sitting on their own reading a book in a pub. Lots of people reading the paper but never a novel that I remember.

    So is it an unusal thing to do? Does anyone else here do it?

    I am actually in a bar by myself now reading boards.ie on my mobile. There's a lad sitting opposite me reading a book at another table. Bizarre that I see this thread... Nothing wrong with it i say...


  • #51
    eightyfish
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,100 ✭✭✭eightyfish


    It's not at all weird to do that in a pub.

    It would be weird to do it in a library.


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  • #52
    sbsquarepants
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 11,810 ✭✭✭✭sbsquarepants


    I wouldn't think it's odd, but it's ceratinly not something i'd do myself. I just don't see the attraction of going to a pub alone, if i'm in the mood to drink by myself, (or read for that matter!) i'd do it at home. I feel strangely uneasy when i'm in a pub by myself, even if i'm only waiting for someone to turn up!


  • #53
    stovelid
    Closed Accounts Posts: 27,252 ✭✭✭✭stovelid


    Nursing the first pint, reading the paper or surfing on your phone while waiting for (in my case, usually unpunctual) friends to show up is often one of the most enjoyable parts of the night.

    Would have no problem going to a pub by myself but usually only during the day or early evening.


  • #54
    MrsA
    Closed Accounts Posts: 321 ✭✭MrsA


    I am a woman and yes I have done this, in fact once in the Queens in Dalkey it led me to a very interesting conversation with a celebrity of the time.


  • #55
    Bugnug
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 602 ✭✭✭Bugnug


    easyeason3 wrote: »
    I would never, ever do that at home but in a random place that I'm not known then yeah I wouldn't mind.

    But I'd have to be having lunch or dinner. There's a real air of desperation off a woman if she goes into a pub alone to have a drink...reading material or not it smacks of being a loser.

    Oh dear, I think you might be the loser pal.


  • #56
    Blobby George
    Closed Accounts Posts: 690 ✭✭✭Blobby George


    I don't make a habit of it but I certainly have no problem with the practice.


  • #57
    Biggins
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 34,567 ✭✭✭✭Biggins


    Look at it from a bar owners perspective too.
    In walks a customer who buys a drink, reads and relaxes, also like most causes no problems, don't interfere with anyone else, buys another drink, relaxes more, appreciates the place he/she is in etc...
    Sounds like a damn good customer to me.

    I see it a lot more abroad in bars from Nice, France to Australia and New York than at home here but that's only because here in some ways we are still backwards with our old strange attitudes.
    It's ok to whip a laptop out in a bar and read/surf, ok to read/surf from a phone, ok to read from a paper or a magazine - but heaven forbid someone might take out a book!
    Some need to kop themselves on and wake up to the new century.


  • #58
    sbsquarepants
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 11,810 ✭✭✭✭sbsquarepants


    MrsA wrote: »
    I am a woman and yes I have done this, in fact once in the Queens in Dalkey it led me to a very interesting conversation with a celebrity of the time.

    John Joe?:D


  • #59
    Erica<3
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 384 ✭✭Erica<3


    Well I'd never do it, when i go to the pub i go to hang out and socialise with my friends. If i was going to read in a public place, i'd go to a coffee shop or cafe.


  • #60
    nocal
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 798 ✭✭✭nocal


    strobe wrote: »

    So is it an unusal thing to do? Does anyone else here do it?

    Yes. Yes.


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  • #61
    me-skywalker
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,339 ✭✭✭me-skywalker


    Yea i dont understand it. Its ok to take out your phone and browse the web. Your laptop around drunken fools? or the newspaper or magazines. But if itsa book people get all uppity about it! Forget about it!

    Going out on Monday lunch time to a busy pub for the office workers and gonna take up a whole 4 seater table on my own with a pint of guiness and a book.


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