@aidje: thanks for the links to the articles. In one of those “what goes around, comes around” moments, one of the articles referred to an essay by a friend of mine. My discussions with her about this topic certainly has informed my opinions. Of course, she’s one of the writer with a child (a very precocious one at that—reading Harry Potter at age 6 or so) who is about to enter the demographic that YA is aimed at.
I suppose if you have a child around, that offers you some cover for reading YA. My wife is reading the Twilight series, and I’d like to read it, just so I know the world my daughter inhabits…. well, that’s if it’s bad. If it’s good, then just for fun.
It was also my impression that graphic novels have entered the mainstream, and are no longer shameful to read. Erotic novels… well, if it’s Anais Nin, that’s classic lit, but other stuff with lurid covers—not so much. I think you’d be looked at as a perv if you read porn on the bus.
Obviously, these things are all contextual. There will be places where, if you’re seen reading Proust, you’ll be looked at askance. Don’t do that at a romance novel convention.
I guess that what you read is taken as as much of a statement of self as what you wear is. Both, obviously, can be misleading. What you want to be seen as depends on where you are and where you want to go. Some people carry around books they’d never read, and others hide the books they want to read inside the covers of books they want to be seen to be reading.
I apologize for an analytical answer when the question calls for personal experience. It’s just the way I tend to go after a while.