If this were an office, it would be bad. It's not that bad in food service.

Reading certain types of books can show that you 'fit in' certain rooms. You can make a snarky joke about Don Quixote or Dostoevsky or Tolstoy, and in the right room it will show that you 'fit'. It also is an innocuous way to demonstrate that you're a full person outside of the office. I do this in my everyday job. In my experience, it doesn't necessarily lead to higher wages, but it leads people who are also well-read to like you and want to converse with you, so it makes running your job a bit easier -- there are people for whom I have bonded with at work because we've both read french existentialist literature, for example, or because we both know the poetry of william carlos williams.

Oops I accidentally put sugar in thar Comcast truck gas tank