10 Occasions When It’s Okay to Read Over Someone’s Shoulder

By Ginni Chen / April 21, 2015 at 12:20 pm

Have you ever been curled up comfortably, nose buried in your novel, when all of a sudden you’re overcome by the distinct, disconcerting sensation you’re being watched? Or, rather, your book is being watched? You’re instantly unable to concentrate on your book, because all you can feel is a neighboring pair of eyes reading your book over your shoulder.
For readers everywhere, there may be no bigger pet peeve than someone reading over our shoulder. And yet, we’ve all felt our own eyes drift to someone else’s page in times of great boredom and curiosity. That’s why we’ve come up with a list of the 10 occasions where it might be okay to commit this crime. You can read over someone’s shoulder:
1. When you have explicit permission.
2. When they’ve fallen asleep with their book open.
3. When they’re holding the book open but they’re ignoring it in favor of their phone or computer.
4. When you’re trapped in the middle seat on a plane and the person next to you is hogging the armrest to hold up their book.
5. When the book has extra large print and you can read it from at least 8 feet away while remaining completely undetected by its reader.
6. When the person with the book is your sibling, and your mother told you both to “share the book or else I’ll pull this car over!”
7. If you’re on a mission to save the world from evil forces and you need to crack the code in a book quickly. So, basically, if and only if you’re Hermione Granger.
8. When your friend is browsing a coffee table book. Coffee table books are more fun when perused together!
9. When it’s your child holding the book and you’re trying to make sure they’re actually reading, instead of just looking at the pictures.
10. When there’s only one copy of an incredible book within 500 miles of you and you need to read it before class, or before your next book club meeting, or before your loudmouth neighbor reads it first, or before you simply explode in anticipation.
Is it ever okay to read a book over someone’s shoulder?