Oh, it wasn't! As I said, there were a lot of things over the years. This one was just the point where many things became clear in our relation.

Just to be clear, I didn't give it to them as an assignement, I just said that, if they read it, I would like their thoughts.

This friend of mine went out of his way to brag about not reading it a few months after, when one of the others was speaking to me about the book (after we haven't seen each other for a while)! We were talking and my best friend interrupted the conversation because, as he didn't read it, he was feeling excluded (even though he wasn't there when the conversation started), and there he said that he hadn't read it nor he was going to!

The other person just looked at me and shrugged and we dropped the book subject!

I reffered to this incident as an example, but it's framed in things that went on for years! Let's just say that it was the straw that broke the cammels back! The thing that really made me realise the way he saw me...

...the same way OP might be realising how his friends see him!

Should he talk to his friends? Yes, if they bring it up! But if they don't, actions speak way louder then words ever will!