Nerd and Proud of It

"How do you like our new bumper sticker?" I asked my husband as I handed him "I (heart) My Library" sticker we picked up at our library today.

"The nerds of the family decided it would look pretty cool on the back window of our minivan." Said I and gave him a Steve Urkel grin.

So loving libraries or reading is nerdy, an adult might ask? It is amongst many teenagers. I had more than one senior proudly tell me that they have never read a book from cover to cover and I am yet to solicit a sincere "Hurray!" after I announce to my class that we are starting to read new book. No wonder there is such an effort being made to sell reading as a cool thing to do. This effort is evident by the celebrity READ posters such as

and

and the most recent one from the READ campaign:

strategically hanging in the teen section of our library on the wall next to the computers.

It is obvious that the target age group of these ads are teenagers. Being an adult who is currently majorly book reading deprived, I do not understand the strong resistance to holding a paperback in hands, curling up on the couch next to a fireplace, sipping on hot tea and flying away to distant lands. Whats so nerdy about that?