If you’ve caught any online discourse about “ performative reading ” – reading or pretending to read books in public to appear more intellectual or attractive – you might have wondered whether people really do notice or care if someone is reading a book instead of scrolling through their phone.  Illustration by molecula Reading as public performance isn’t just a concern of the digital age; Jane Austen made fun of it way back in the 19th century. But in a smartphone-obsessed world, does what we read (or whether we read at all) actually affect how people perceive us? Can reading help us make friends, fall in love or get better jobs? At 99designs by Vista, where book cover design is as popular as ever, we surveyed 1,000 people in the US to find out whether books still have the social cache they did back in Austen’s time.  Book cover design by Boja What we found is that reading is still very popular: 63% of survey respondents said they read multiple times a week or daily .…