Daniel Pennac: The 10 Inalienable Rights of the Reader

1. The right not to read
2. The right to skip
3. The right not to finish a book
4. The right to re-read
5. The right to read anything
6. The right to “Bovary-ism,” a textually transmitted disease (the right to mistake a book for real life)
7. The right to read anywhere
8. The right to dip in
9. The right to read out loud
10. The right to be silent

Here are Terry’s 10 additional inalienable rights for readers:

1. The Right to Mark: You have the right to contribute marginalia and doodles (as long as you own the book)
2. The Right to be Wishy-Washy: You have the right to be capricious, serendipitous, or whimsical in your reading
3. The Right of Stacks: You have the right to read multiple things at one time and create whatever stacks work for you
4. The Right of Media: You have the right not to discriminate between paper and electronic books. But not audio books: this is not reading. Sorry.
5. The Right of Choice: You have the right to choose my own books and not be compelled by the best intentions (gifts) of others
6. The Right of Security Blankets: the right to have a book with me at all times
7. The Right to Not Justify: the right not to have read all the books in my library nor does this need justification
8. The Right to List: The right to have a list of books-to-read than an average human lifespan would allow
9. The Right to Have a Favourite Child: The right to love one genre of book more than another (the right to read things you enjoy)
10. The Right to Masochistic Reading: The right to read challenging hard books even if you do not enjoy them