/lit/ - Literature

>>17768161
people have to want to change

>>17768161
It's something he'll have to realize himself. My only suggestion would be try to get him a better gateway book, like PKD since he seems to like SciFi/SciFantasy.

>>17768161
We aren't your blog, so fuck off.

>>17768161
>"yeah I just started rereading the general thorn trilogy again"
I like this guy, he has excellent taste. It's "General Thrawn" by the way

>>17768161
if you can't explain to him the merits of reading anything outside of his current literary diet, despite having read all those big brain books, then maybe you need to reevaluate your own reading habits and motivations

>>17768161
He reads for his own enjoyment rather than pseudboy points and upcummies from strangers on the internet who more than likely don't exist.

Your friend is based OP.

>>17768161
>Patrician Cuck: NOOOOOOOO WHY WON'T YOU READ THE CLASSICS???!!!!
>Star Wars Chad: Ha ha, lightsaber goes pshhhrrr woo woo

reading cheap fiction is absolutely the same as reading "real books" like walden

Show him this.

Funny because if he was reading shit like Sherlock Holmes no one would care

Is there really much you can do? It's frustrating that he won't try any of your recommendations but he clearly wants to stay in his own comfort zone. If I were you, I'd probably recommend him something that is similar to star wars but that is slightly more challenging. Some entry level sci-fi perhaps. If he enjoys that he'll probably be more willing to branch out. I got into reading because of sci-fi, and only got interested in literary fiction and philosophy a year or so later. I think that the difference between genre fiction, which is plot-driven, and literary fiction, which is character-driven, can be quite daunting. Not sure if this helps. I agree that he should at least try something else. But the jump from Star Wars to Walden is a bit mad to be honest.

reading fiction is based
OP is gay

>>17768372
This. Recommend him to read LOGH, and you can try to hook him into reading War and Peace by discussing how they share similar themes.

>>17768205
>>17768372

Walden was just the latest in a series of attempts to get him to read something "real." He mentioned reading another one of Thoreau's essays for a college course he was taking and enjoying it, and I had recently been reading a bunch of Thoreau so I recommended Walden because it's a good cross-section of everything he's about. I've gone through this so many times I don't remember everything I've recommended to him, but I know I've recommended several Clarke books and other sci-fi / genre fiction stuff that I got into reading through and he just doesn't engage. It's really frustrating too because he's one of these superliberal reddit types who talks down to me when we disagree on something and refuses to listen to anything I have to say unless I can link him a news article that agrees with me.

I know I'm retarded and I'm probably fucking something up real bad here but it's seriously just getting me bummed out now because he's like the only person i have to talk to these days and I really wanna talk about books to someone with a face.

>>17768516
Yeah no worries. Recommending him Walden makes sense then. I can't really help you if you've tried the other avenues. I am in the same boat as you where I would love to discuss books with people irl. Nobody I know reads "properly" apart from like 5-10 pages before bed. I think that the issue is that books are often a much bigger time and focus investment than other media. So people are afraid to have their time "wasted". It's a stupid approach to have but what're you gonna do... Props on you for at least trying to get him interested in other things.

What are real books?

>>17768161
I learned a while ago that my friends like that just won’t read

>>17768516
>refuses to listen to anything I have to say

Find other friends. Books are irrelevant

>>17768215
That's rather rude.

You need to understand that taste grows in a sort of associative way. It's like when you hate an entire genre of music until one specific song or album clicks to you, and through constant repetition of that piece you become habituated to the canonical resources of the genre until your perception of it changes completely and you become a fan.

That only happened because at one point you found a bridge between the two, something familiar enough to be pleasant but also foreign enough to be exciting, and this is what your friend is lacking. You can't just tell him to parachute into completely different territory, you need to give him something that makes use of devices he has already learned to approach aesthetically, but that also features new things he will learn to enjoy. You said you went through that shitty Star Wars book twice, I'm sure you can figure out its underpinnings and give him something that features something similar to them instead of fucking Walden.

>>17768161
Tell him to read White Fragility. That'll get him into new territory.

>>17768345
Two good books in that stack

>>17768161
Get a Yoda puppet and use it to argue with him. Next time you want to bother him about not reading, just pull out the puppet and make it say something like "HRRRRM READ WALDEN YOU MUST OR ELSE A PLEB FOREVER YOU WILL BE HHOOHEHEHE"

>>17768516
You can't make a person read anything. Everything that you have described this person as sounds miserable to deal with. He won't listen to you, he talks down to you, he's a "superliberal reddit"-type person... is this the person you want to discuss your favorite books with? Your favorite books that you had to shove down his throat?

>>17768161
Literally you need to read his garbage and understand the fictional universe he lives in. The only difference between you and him is that what you've read has already been historically influential whereas his is influencing history atm.

Also literature will be mostly academic and has been since the motion picture was invented. Sartre knew this, as we should too

>>17768161
You can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink

>>17768699
anything made before the 50s

>>17768345
>Reads ghostwritten drivel about rapist

>>17768345
>Tom Clancy
>DFW
>Franzen
I can't tell if he's being serious or ironic.

>>17768161
>I don't know how to get him to read something interesting
The point of reading is either pleasure or learning or both. If he/you are attempting to learn, then explain to him why the knowledge is worthwhile. If he/you read for pleasure, then it's not a huge deal what you read as long as you aren't a hedonist, and tbqh there are things both pleasant and enlightening to read. It seems like you're too focused on the act of reading itself and not the content, because when you talk with him you speak of reading, not of content.

>>17768516
Ignoring the issues other anons pointed out with the fact that he talks down to you, consider that you asked each other to read books you're each interested in. You not only read his book rec, you read Walden JUST so you could talk to him about it. Meanwhile, he did not even crack the book open. He either does not value your time, or you are seriously not communicating well. You need to find new friends, not try to change this man-child. Even if you think you'd be making his life better by getting him to read real books.

>>17768161
Turn him into a sissy femboy and rape his ass

>>17769714
I tried and he said no :(

it's fucking retarded too, he's already more feminine than most of the women I know.

>>17769344
He’s being ironic. I remember following this guy when I had a Twitter. He’s an idpol dweeb, but still a funny dude.

>>17768205
>gateway book
>PKD
Dude what are you talking about. Valis is a serious in depth psychological exploration. Most of his other horror books have come true almost exactly. PKD if read properly would destroy a star wars fag

>>17769748
>he said no

time to find a new troon, bucko.

>>17769657
He didn't say Valis. PKD did some good short stories.

>>17768161
Although, you might try to get him to read Asimov short stories. They're only a dozen pages long, and I could make some recs.
>hey, you know that bit in 'Heir to the Empire' when the dude invents a cloaking device but it's totally useless?
>And then it comes back in 'The Last Command' in an unexpected, but totally obvious and clever way?
>Asimov did that stuff all the time. Here's 'I, Robot', [another collection of short stories], and 'The Dead Past'.

I was a faggy kid who read almost exclusively Star wars shit in the 90s. Try something other than walden, which is dry af.

Neil Gaiman, the sandman comics are full of mythology stuff that had me reading the Greeks before the meme existed. He also name drops gravity's rainbow, which I bought as a teen thinking it would be a sci-fi book. Pretty sure he's beloved by the Reddit crowd.

Other pulpy sci-fi that's not Star wars would be a good step too, maybe Greg bear. Redditors think Douglas Adams is fucking amazing too.

I know this is a fucking larp but you have to do baby steps with these types.

Lmao who asked

>>17768318
OP is a fag but this is 100% not true

>>17768833
Fuck off

>>17768318
Somebody gets it.

>>17768968
Kek, underrated

>>17768310
This. OP's wife is probably cheating on him with the man too

>>17768310
Thanks for my first laugh of the day anon

>>17768291
I enjoyed this comment. Have an updoot, friendo. : )

>>17768161
You cannot change people, unless they want to be changed themselves and put in effort.
Value him as he is, if you keep doing this he might stop talking to you.

>>17768968
Yes, communicate with the mandchild using puppetry.

>>17768463
Hey now, you can't just recommend LOGH out of the blue. Plus the books aren't the best thing to start on. Something easier like Dune perhaps.

Anyway, reminded me of the time I worked at the office with a gigantic turd of a star trek fanboy. He blew up one day when I said Star Trek is for children. It literally is.

These heavily autistic people will get completely stuck in their one dimensional childrens series. When they where young they fell in love with x series or y franchise and for the rest of their lives they will obsess about it and rewatch, reread and replay the same old shit over and over.

These people are constantly building their own internal idea of their fantasy world, constantly repeating the facts and tidbits of their fantasy world to themselves.

I did that in my teen years with Final Fantasy, then I grew up, some people will be stuck in their teenage autist phase.

The best thing is to mercifully kill them.

>>17770915
Thats sad. Whats the root of the issue? My opinion is not getting laid (unironically). Women will make you grow out of your infantile hobbies. I stopped playing vidya around the time I got my first gf.

>>17769344
Ten heavy hardcover books stacked on a flimsy paperback – do I have to say more?

>>17768161
>Should I just give up?
yes.

>>17768516
your friend sounds like a borderline retard that doesn't you seriously. He's also a liberal redditor who only listens to mass media, is that someone you really can connect with? Get new friends that aren't onions-addicted manchildren please

>>17769907
Yes. That's a gateway.

>>17768161
star wars is so fucking lame

>>17768968
>HRRRRM READ WALDEN YOU MUST OR ELSE A PLEB FOREVER YOU WILL BE HHOOHEHEHE
kek
Walden as Yoda’s favourite book makes sense, what about the other characters?

>>17768310
>lightsaber goes pshhhrrr woo woo

Why do people get obsessed with base things like star wars? Couldnt they obsess over the Odyssey or something?
>inb4 pseud

>>17768968
>START WITH THE GREEKS YOU WILL

>>17768968
>did you ever hear the tragedy, of Baruch Spinoza the wise?

>>17768161
heh

>>17768310
hah

>>17768345
this has to be a troll

>>17768463
Nobody in the LoGH fandom likes the LoGH books, because the English translation is not a good one.

>>17771807
Have you tried reading the books in the original Japanese? It's pretty easy, with 6 months of dedicated learning you can do it

>>17768922
Yeah, my life and rainbow six

>>17771849
I read anime subtitles, which is like reading a book that's all dialogue and no narrative. Someone who watches subtitled anime is one step away from transitioning to reading oral histories and becoming a based patrician.

>>17768161
Why do you care what other people read, Anon?

>>17768161
I hope he's reading legends book

>>17771899
I know that's an insincere question, but it's pretty normal to want to share things you love with people who are important to you.
When one party is willing to engage in the other's interests but the other party does not reciprocate, it's disappointing.

>>17771622
kek

>>17769907
And you would expect a Star Wars fag to read properly?

>>17769314
Shut the fuck up, Hillary.

>>17770564
Who hurt you?

>>17768161
You should get better friends. Seriously, cut ties with them and don't waste your time with readlets.

>>17771849
Lmao OP cant even get a guy to read in his own language. ahhaaha bro just spend six months learning japanese

>so I recommended my hyperconsumerist, short attention span friend who fetishizes science fiction a long ass book about giving up material possessions and living in nature. why hasnt he read it??????
OP, I sympathize with your situation but you made pretty much the worst recommendation possible lmao. You're going to have to compromise with his taste to get him reading more literary books. The rec of PKD above was good, you could go with the more philosophically minded scifi writers like Bradbury as well. Specifically, Slaughterhouse Five is a good mix of scifi and literature.

>>17768699
anything I like

>>17769748
>feminine
>only reads star wars books
Anon your friend is a basedboy faggot

>>17771096
From what I've seen, a failure early in childhood to socialize leads to kids spending most of their time alone with video games and movies. When they grow up, they lack all the social skills necessary to make friends, but they do find other people equally obsessed with various media for the same reasons. They take this as a "community" and shared interests as "friendship" while in actuality it is a group of individuals solipsistically building their own little worlds on images that have been aggressively marketed to them. Thus, they come to equate "knowing things about media" with having a personality, and get sucked into a cycle of believing that consuming fictional media has existential value, ironically worsening their separation from the real world and making them more dependent on these media. On the psychosocial level it's a failure of parents to force their children to make friends, while on the macro scale it's a perfection of consumer capitalism since the individual is so identified with their isolation that they see no other way to exist than to endlessly consume product.

>>17768699
No such thing as "the real,".

>>17773210
You know, I won't lie. While what you say makes sense, I have never witnessed it myself. Anytime I hear of said people it is by way of this website, and so I question how prevalent of a phenomenon it is. Frankly, I dont even believe OP's story is real. Still fun to larp, nonetheless.

>>17768161
this post now belongs to plebit

>>17773306
I grew up in liberal suburbs so it's prevalent there. I won't lie, I'm on the same spectrum myself but my taste is literature and art so I at least want to believe there's some inherent value in that (then again, I do waste a ton of time on here). The zoomer generation is even worse than ours, though, with their drug of choice being social media. The simple fact is, with parents themselves having mental issues and often working so much they can't properly raise their kids, children are only going to become more and more solipsistically dependent on media. I saw a thread on here where someone mentioned Chris Chan being the model of all future humans and I can't help but think it's true.

>>17773327
Nigger

>>17773495
There's no stopping the freight train of "progress". Simulation lives with AI waifus are coming within our lifetimes.

>>17773495
>liberal suburbs
Is it something about a politically moderate to left leaning upper-middle class life that leads to this? Obviously I don't know you, but when you said you grew up in a liberal suburb I cannot help but imagine the McMansione a la Chris Waits. And so I wonder if people literally just have too much, and never develop a sense about pleasures beyond the immediately gratifying.

>>17771746
He actually has the books, though.

>>17768345
>Rand
>Books for adults

Choose one

>>17768463
>LOGH
Pseud faggot with no real taste detected.

Unfriend this massive faggot

>>17773495
its amazing you think you're better than other people because you think the books you read are somehow superior or highbrow

>>17768161
If you can't call your friend a retard faggot for reading children's books what kind of friend are you?

>>17768161
He's not going to fuck you dude

How about Dune? Sell it as one of the books that inspired Star Wars and it's more substantial. Get him to stop being a total degenerate

>>17768273
>a post with thought behind it
Not OP but this is something that I'll have to think about as if it was aimed at me.

Let him read what he wants to. Considering how condescending you are towards him, it’s highly likely he doesn’t really trust you either.

I doubt you really read his recc, more like skimmed through it. Probably made fun of it to his face(“yeah some alien dude sliced off some limbs highly epic lol grow up dude”). And then you wonder why he doesn’t want to engage with you or accept what you’re forcing him to like.

You call him the manchild, but you’re the childish one here. “You must play the game I came up with otherwise you’re a total loser!!1!”

>>17768161
trying to push your tastes on other people never works, it always ends in tears or being totally cut off. Would you take advice from anybody on what to read? The core of Star Wars is the hero's journey, which is almost every story. Stop being a pretentious cock and read what he likes.

>>17768161
>Why isn't this object behaving like this other object which I prefer?

>>17776158
>>17776158
>Let him read what he wants to. Considering how condescending you are towards him, it’s highly likely he doesn’t really trust you either.
>I doubt you really read his recc, more like skimmed through it. Probably made fun of it to his face(“yeah some alien dude sliced off some limbs highly epic lol grow up dude”). And then you wonder why he doesn’t want to engage with you or accept what you’re forcing him to like.
>You call him the manchild, but you’re the childish one here. “You must play the game I came up with otherwise you’re a total loser!!1!”


Agreed.

Find some people who like Walden and make friends with them OP. Then you can feel smug and talk down about people who read anything but the finest literature.

>>17768161
kurt vonnegut is pretty good for gateway scifi like that it could be worth recommending some of vonneguts short stories to your friend

>>17777339
>Would you take advice from anybody on what to read
I only read books that are reccomended in threads or are in a chart

>>17777544

Bullshit, get the Yoda puppet and talk down to him even more in the condescending Yoda voice. Take videos of it and you will be the only male famous booktuber. It can just be you insulting your pleb friends with the puppet. He won’t get it anyway and you can vent your frustrations on him by talking to him like a child.

https://npcdaily.com/4830/my-wifes-boyfriend-has-coronavirus-and-she-might-have-it-too-should-i-be-worried/

>>17779008
https://npcdaily.com/5743/perspectives-i-failed-to-put-my-son-on-hormones-so-now-he-thinks-hes-a-boy/

>>17768310
cringe

>>17779008
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ziLQO3ILZlw

>>17779041
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjGv8LlH7Gc

>>17768161
Meanwhile some guy out there is telling his buddy about this weird friend who keeps intensely trying to get him to read some boring-ass old book.

>>17768463
Be a real man of substance and learn Rurrian then read War and Peace in its original form as Fat Leo meant it to be.

>>17779079
BY RURRIAN I MEANT GERMAN... fuck i mean Lithuanian.. Fat Leo was Lithuanian

>>17775752
Seems perfectly sane to look down on other people, I mean you are doing it.

>>17770171
this is probably the only way that would actually work
>Redditors think Douglas Adams is fucking amazing too
yeah, redditors fucking love the hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy

OP got filtered by a fan-fiction pleb.

>>17768161
Why not be grateful that he's reading? Trash novels are fun

>>17768161
Maybe ease him in with postmodern literature that mixes highbrow with lowbrow. Anyway, thanks for the kek

Sorry, but I think he won, OP.

>>17768161
Stop being gay OP. Thoreau is gay too. However, do you have some star wars novellas recommendations? I'm more into the original trilogy.

>>17768161
Star Wars is ok, you just don't like the idea that is admired by the mass and it has libertarian and spiritual values. It's not that bad, you just are a materialist left-wing pseud

>>17775716
This. I have ejected all the faggots that act like OPs friend. I am now alone...

>>17768161
Get him scifi/fantasy that's a cut above and slowly make him realise there's more to it. If he's intelligent he should be able to. Or just have him read the well-known ones for a start. When did he start reading? Generally-speaking, people read whatever is most immediately entertaining and accessible when they're younger, and eventually get tired and look for more interesting and engaging books.

>>17780915
>I am now alone...
I have always been alone

The consensus seems to have been reach in this thread. The only way forward for OP is through the Yoda puppet.

>>17780915
And you're better off now

>>17768161
Let him reading his Star Wars trash in peace OP.

>>17771807
the sad truth
at first I thought it was normal because I'm an ESL but even I noticed how broken it was

>>17768345
>Rainbow Six
Like a book based of a video game is any better than Disney Wars shit.

>>17768968
Yoda is kinda like a Socrates figure, mmmhh.......

>>17781866
Probably bait, but other way around.

>>17768161
Anyone reading star wars after Disney jewed it is a dumb sojaboy.

>>17773210
Big brain take

>>17768161
Does he at least stick to the old EU?

>>17779000
Isn’t there already some youtuber with a yoda puppet who pisstakes normies? Swear I got recommended a bunch of videos like that months ago

Your thread made me think about a friend of mine who refused to give a chance to any recommendation his friends gave him. Then some acquaintance - like a coworker or even a stranger - would recommend the same thing and he immediately would give it a try. It happened dozens of times and he always ended up liking the thing.
He was a cunt who valued the opinions, interests and words of strangers over those of people close to him, as insecure people tend to be.

>>17783441
Are you just conjectuing that he insecure, or are you certain? It sounds like whoever these strangers are, are people he holds in higher esteem than those you're angry he doesn't listen to.

>>17768843
I just want you to know that I screenshoted your post because I liked it and want to read it in the future

it seems like you have to bridge the gap between sci fi schlock and literature before you can get him into the habit of reading purely literary stuff

>>17783464
>>17783464
Didn’t want to talk in length about all the things I‘ve witnessed during a decade, but, yes, I’m pretty sure. The closer someone gets to this guy the lower his esteem of them. If it was something personal I would understand, but he does it to all his friends, just in different degrees. The inverse is also true: when an acquaintance or a stranger gives him a modicum of attention, he sings them praises to the high heavens and inevitably get extremely disappointed when his unreal expectations aren’t corresponded by them. His friends are the ones to lift him up, and have done so again and again, for this has happened many times.
Maybe I sound angry, but I’m just tired of this cycle.

>>17783663
Look, my friend, I have a confession. I'm a bit of a whore for gossip, and you've got me dying to know more about this person. I've never met anyone with the sort of complex you've explained? And I would love it if you spoke more about him and your experiences with him.

>>17783725
Shit, why not? I’ll be lazy and just post a bunch of trivia about the guy.
>Is a virgin and never kissed anyone besides one time while drunk, despite multiple people showing interest on him through the years
>Had a girl use him as an emotional surrogate for her boyfriend and described himself to me as an “emotional bull”
>said girl led him on for months, I tried to warn him it was going nowhere and to not create expectations, but it was all for nothing
>thought he was friends with some people from his high school, after graduation never saw them again
>thought he was friends with people from his job, they got angry with him over some minor office drama
>made a friend in uni, but they lost contact
>if one of his friends start being absent, not login in to chat or going to hang out with him, he cuts contact with them and stops inviting them to hang out
>he doesn’t appear to be angry while doing it, just says he “don’t wanna go thorough the effort of inviting said person over and over for them to never come”
>mostly just works and consumes media
>has no plans or expectations for the future, and appears to get upset when I ask him about it, even before the whole pandemic business
>me and his other friends are a bunch of nerds who used to study together and kept contact, although one by one we are each going our own way

I’m curious to hear your thoughts, anon.

I'm gonna slightly hijack the thread and ask which ones of the non-canon books are worth reading? I read some background on the extended universe and it sounds pretty neat.

>>17784009
the original Thrawn trilogy. Thrawn unironically might be the greatest antagonist in the entire Star Wars franchise. Don't know how he is in the new canon Disney stuff tho

>>17784037
Cheers, gonna check it out

>>17783999
My thoughts are of total pity. From your post, this guy sounds like someone who is (as you said initially) fairly insecure but simultaneously quite arrogant. Like who brags about being an emotional bull? That sounds like a total ego-sheltering cope by someone who isn't secure enough in himself to oppose a woman. I say this because your friend sounds like a more extreme version of how I was when I was a young teenager.

For what reason are you friends with this guy? He sounds like someone I, personally, would always think of cutting contact with but would feel too bad about doing so.

>>17768699
If the author of the book you are reading has a color photograph of them, the book is garbage

>>17784069
>>17784069
>That sounds like a total ego-sheltering cope by someone who isn't secure enough in himself to oppose a woman.
It was pretty much this. I gave him a discount with the whole thing since he had zero experience with women, but then I remember him judging the relationships of all his friends and diminishing, mocking or criticizing us for various misadventures of our love lives.
I used to get upset when he was (most of the times indirectly) critic of some aspect of my life, until one day I thought to myself “Would you take his advice on playing the piano? No, because he has never played it before. So why do you give so much weight to his opinions about other things he doesn’t understand?”
>For what reason are you friends with this guy?
Well, we know each other for a long time, are part of the same friend group, have similar tastes and a lot of experiences in common and grew up together. Most of all, we were there for each other through a lot of shit, and there’s much to be grateful for him, although there were also a lot of times where he was a cunt with me. I Ended up not mentioning it, but he’s the most spineless person I’ve ever met. Will go out of his way to avoid conflict and never take sides even when he knows someone is in the wrong. The only people he has ever been confrontational with are his friends and his family.
Anyway, I’ve been asking myself the same, and after growing apart from these friends due to corona I realize maybe it’s time to let things go.

>>17784009
the darth bane trilogy is fun schlock

Find common ground to talk to him on something and then find an issue that you can discuss, probe that the sw books offer nothing compelling on any certain issue and are just repetitive derivative pieces that don't really explore anything.
Then find something that does and recommend that.
Since the EU is full of book series, I'd take one of those bigger classic books and tell him that it's like the EU story since they were released "book by book" in literature magazines. You get the 'comfy' feeling of being with the same group of characters for the whole book "series" like the sw books.

You won't ever convince someone with belittling them, you have to side step them, offer common ground and say it's similar.

>>17768843
>>17783478
#metoo
this post is very based and you are very smart, anon
thank you for enlightening us

>>17768345
This is a manchild grabbing all the largest books in his parent's house.

>>17784338
All the best to you anon, I hope you do what makes you happiest.

>>17771849
most underrated troll in this thread. it's considerably harder to read logh than kokoro or ningen sikkaku shit, particularly in terms of vocabulary.

>>17768171
Its this.
Until your friend comes to you and talks about how all the plot lines are the same and complains about characters, setting, ect. then there is nothing you can really do to interest them into expanding their reading interests.
Part of it might be your inability to sell others on why a book is interesting.

>>17768161
>implying books are real

>>17768161
Get real friends, I guess. I don't know what else to say. Forcing him to do what you want isn't going to be happy for either of you.

>>17768161
>>17768793
Agree.
His refusal to read or try something different, and even attack it, reflects a close minded and a bit of an asshole attitude.
Find different people, don't expect him to change.
He doesn't owe you anything even if you tried the stuff he likes.

>>17768161
just let him eat his cake. not everyone can be a literature autist, be content with that

>>17785404
>>17785270

where do you guys recommend trying to meet people? I already had trouble meeting people before corona (I basically only met people at work, and none of them were even 10% as interested in reading as my friend is), and now in the middle of it I have basically nowhere to meet people. Honestly it feels like I just missed out on the opportunity to make friends with similar interests to me when I decided not to go to college; almost everyone I meet these days is just another flavor of hyper-consumerist addicted to staring at their phone. And I hate trying to make friends over the internet because I'm really retarded and struggle with doing social stuff without the extra cues you get from being in person.

>>17769344
>can't tell if he's being serious or ironic
bro look at the book on top

Try to get him into other related genre fiction. The Star Trek books were decent, then maybe the Expanse series, then pivot to Heinlein, etc.

>>17768171
fpbp and underrated

>>17768205
spbp but make it Dune, the father of bastard child Star Wars.

>>17768161

>>17768161
some of the SW books are pretty fucking cozy
also the Thrawn trilogy is some of the best SF ever written

>>17768161
Just get a smokin gf/tradwife and start a succesful business.
I drive around in my Porsche throwing Tolstoy at niggers, proper boowhipping them on the noggin then they chase after me like i'm the fucking icecream man of classic wisdom.
He doesn't do what you say because he thinks you're weaker than Bobba the hut or whatever these kids are into.
Lead by example.

>>17785690
>almost everyone I meet these days is just another flavor of hyper-consumerist addicted to staring at their phone
So are most of people you'd meet at the university.

>>17768345

>>17771746
goth asuka a cute

>>17788403
I read Thrawn trilogy for the first time a few weeks ago and I'm about to start Hand of Thrawn. Feels comfy.

>>17785690
>where do you guys recommend trying to meet people?

l have no effing idea. l have the same struggle too. Wasted too much time on searching "cool"/similar people on Reddit and Discord. Was gonna try instagram now.
l met my 2 very nice friends in the first year of collegue and l consider myself extremely lucky for that.
Try a bit on Discord, a mainstream social media like Instagram and search for reading clubs of your area in Facebook. Maybe going for a walk to X library (l know, covid. Try to be creative). Talk to the seller if he/she knows events for people that like to read. Go to the public library, maybe there is an useful pamphlet about Zoom meetings for reading groups. Perhaps a park where there is someone selling books.
ldk, this are my random ideas. They involve effort investigating but l think they are more profitable that trying to change your closeminded friend.

>>17768171
people have to want nothing

>>17768161
>You don't read real books! Reeeeee!
There isn't a way to do this because constantly bitching about what someone else reads like their mother makes you an annoying dick. If he's happy that's what matters.

>>17768345
Is all Clancy cringe? My first big book was Without Remorse and I wanted to bang Pam so bad

>>17768699

>>17773210
This also applies to books and philosophy, this website is a dragnet of these types of people throughout a range of hobbies

>>17768219
Admiral, not general.

>>17790599
it's Grand Admiral

>>17768161
Why do you care?

>>17768161
Yes give up if you value him as a friend.
If not continue to shove your opinion down his throat forcefully.

>>17770564
awww is the little incel having a temper tantrum? hahahaha XD

>>17768161
read Ayn Rand's Anthem and just leave him

>>17773210
makes sense also explains the whole reddit phenomenon well. I had a "friend" who knew nothing about me other than the fact he saw me browsing reddit during class because I was board. He viewed me as not only a friend but as someone who had corban copy interests and would be loyal to each other. he followed me around like a stray dog until I caved and sat with his group. what became apparent right away was none of them knew each other that well. they seem to almost speak a different language made up of exclusively of inside jokes and media references some of which they had actually never seen before. besides the fact they consumed the same media they were perfect strangers.

>>17774516
well think about it liberals tend to live in the city while conservatives live in the country, not to sound like a Marxist but their type of labor is different. for those living in the country family members are used as "farm hands" to help with the workload. they might spend all day working together as opposed to the liberal works in a factor or business, who might only see their child before/after work

>>17785690
join some clubs around campus if your classes are in person ask people if they want to form a study group.

>>17790450
whoa easy there, people aren't ready for that one yet

>>17794049
I follow. Truly the cultural distinction is only getting wider. I wonder whether it will get to the point where Urban and Rural people shouldn't be under the same political entity.

>>17794164
The idea of succession from the union is not as crazy as it sounds.(I am assuming you live in the united states) across the political spectrum has been bounced around now more than ever. two good books about the topic are "break it up" and "divided we fall"

>>17794218
I do, and frankly I think secession (and ultimately the foundering of the Union) is the best and most peaceful way forward. Forward as in the next century. States have their own cultural identities and metropolises are only becoming more and more distinct from everywhere else. Greater political autonomy is what will make everybody happy. Too bad we have to glass China for that to ever be feasible.

>>17794236
>States have their own cultural identities and metropolises are only becoming more and more distinct from everywhere else.
I disagree. If anything the major urban areas (and rural areas) in the US are becoming more similar to one another as a result of the nationalization of the elite and the internet making communication easier.

>Greater political autonomy is what will make everybody happy. Too bad we have to glass China for that to be feasible
Greater political autonomy won't make everyone happier. The Chinese are probably happier than people with more political freedom in the West because they know that they are not ruled by fanatics or idiots. They don't have to convince themselves that they're "Vigilantly guarding their liberties" because they don't pretend that they have them, as we do.

Also, the fetishization of "localism" or "political autonomy" just gives a free pass to idiots to ruin their part of the country because "it's popular, they have a mandate". I guess we had better allow designated shitting streets in SF or declare the proper teaching of math to be racist in Portland because of Our Venerable Radical Tradition or whatever. The idea that normies have political thoughts of their own volition is solidly refuted by the 20th Century and doesn't serve as a good argument for allowing secession or devolution, imo.

>>17768968
actually laughed out loud

>>17794440
>I disagree. If anything the major urban areas (and rural areas) in the US are becoming more similar to one another as a result of the nationalization of the elite and the internet making communication easier.
If this were true than why is the Left-Right dichotomy more distinct than it has ever been in the country's history? Further, across the board that distinction reliably manifests in Urban v. Rural areas. Politics isn't something people just have, it is contingent on how how they view the world. As such, it is demonstrative that the way people inside cities and outside of them have a clear and very consequent distinction in worldview and so culture.

>"Vigilantly guarding their liberties" because they don't pretend that they have them, as we do.
Id say it isnt about preserving civil liberties. If California wants to remove the Vote for white people and New Hampshire wants a constitutuonal monarchy where only German ethnics have a say, I say let them. The issue for me, at the most basic level, is that people who believe God exists shouldn't have political weight over those who don't and vice versa. Such perspectives are disparate and will only continue to cause greater conflict than we've already witnessed.

>>17768345
why is rand among that other shit?

>>17797211
because rand is shit

He just likes it dude. You psuedointellectuals need to stop harassing people with your hobby

>>17768161
send him pictures of basedjacks reading whatever he's reading of course

>>17768968
kek

>>17798323
let me guess, you find objectivism "dumb" or "stupid" among many other strong arguments, right?

>>17799288
well, it was written by a woman after all

>>17792016
lol

>>17794102
most people arent, if you're iq is over 130 you've probobly been dealing with it most of your life

>>17799601
a zionist jew to boot

>>17768516
Finding people who genuinely share your interests, who are engaged in the same way that you are, is very rare in my experience. Don't try to force things like that on others. It will only make them resent you and the thing you are trying to introduce. It seems like you know that anyway. The best thing you can do is make peace with the fact that you and your interests are relatively unique and that many of the people you meet who do hold them in the same way will be annoying or otherwise incompatible. Good friends may humor your interests but it's a hollow feeling. You will always be conscious of the fact that they don't really care in the same way you do. Life can be quite lonely sometimes.

>>17768161
Why are you so upset about what your friend chooses to read? He's not going to be raising your children, so why care?

>>17768516
For once, /lit/ is giving good advice. Get new friends.
Also, once you have something like a girlfriend or a wife whom you love dearly to occupy most of your emotional energy, these things won't matter nearly as much. You'll be fine with not having people to discuss these things with in real life.

>>17797211
Atlas Shrugged is possibly the worst book I've ever read. It is a bloated, repetetive, meandering, self-contradictory piece of shit. I truly do not believe anyone when they say they think it is good. They have to be joking

>>17800200
This is true. My wife's joint favorite books are Harry Potter and that Sarah Mass House of Glass thing. I've read both and holy fuck they are terrible, but she is still a very intelligent person with whom I have a lot of other things in common. I have stopped looking for somebody who reads what I read outside of the internet. I will not find them

>>17768161
Let him have his fun.

>>17771356
I felt bad that no one was taking you up on this. So

>Anakin Skywalker is basically Dmitri Karamazov
>Padme would be something liberal
>Han Solo would be Catcher in the Rye
>R2D2 would be Blood Meridian or the Unabomber manifesto
>Jar Jar would be Joyce's Ulysses
>Sheev would read Foucault purely for the joy of reading someone as evil as he is
>Baby Yoda would read Green Eggs and Ham
>Mando would read Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
>DH Lawrence for Kenobi
>Luke reads the Bible
>Rey is into chick lit
>Poe audiobooks Tom Clancy on long X-wing voyages
>Kylo likes Byron and Shelley
>Finn reads Infinite Jest
>Snoke is mentally controlled by Palpatine
>Leia is a secret Rand fan
>Jimmy Smits reads non-fiction
>C3PO reads Murakami
>Jabba likes the Art of the Deal
>Elan Sleazbaggano reads Scar Tissue
>Mace Windu reads The Republic
>Boba Fett reads The Road
>Hux reads Mein Kampf
>Pryde reads Hitler's Table Talk

Don't know about Yoda. Something Buddhist/Hindu.

>>17768161
You sound like a bitch dude

>>17800343
Rand had an honest to god cult. That's the type of brainlet that unironically enjoys her garbage.

>>17768843
Nice.

>>17773210
Also nice.

There are some astute assessments in this thread that I enjoyed reading.
Thank you for them.
Please enjoy this adorable insect as a token of my thanks.

>>17768161
Figure out what he wants to know but doesn't and recommend a book that will answer his question. If he has no questions he is man become perfect and you should leave his ass alone.

>>17768699
Socrates

>>17768968
lel

>>17800472
Saved lol

>>17768161
You just kinda get used to it. I recommend stuff to my friends all the time but they never really give a fuck and I just kinda accepted we’re not into the same shit all the time. I don’t think I’ll ever convince them to sit their asses down and read a book, and that’s alright. The only person I know who has the patience to sit down and experience shit even when the beginning is slow as fuck or the middle drags on a little too long is myself.

>>17784009
The best is probably the Thrawn trilogy, but I must recommend the X-Wing series, that shit is fun as fuck and Stackpole knows how to do WW2 in spess.

>>17802153
That shit was MY JAM in middle school, loved that series so much.

>>17800472

It's been several days, please update us OP...

DID YOU TALK TO YOUR FRIEND ABOUT WALDEN WITH A YODA PUPPET???

>>17802260
No: I'm a fag.

I talked him into giving PKD a shot, and I'd never actually read him so I read Androids yesterday and it was pretty good. We'll see if he gets more than 20 pages into it, but at least /lit/ got me to finally read him. I think I'll probably take most of these anons' advice and just try to find some new friends to talk about reading with. Even with all the vtubers and /pol/bait and shit you guys are okay sometimes. sorry for blogposting.

>>17768310
you need to go fucking back please i beg you go away turn away go to your fucking instagram repost acc or whatever but please fuck off please

>>17773210
tank u for ur serbice :DDDD XDDD

>>17768161
you cannot save soi boys leave them to die surrounded by consumer grade plastic

Bros... I cannot stop listening to the BotNS audiobooks.

I read academic philosophy constantly for work; I translate text from Greek, Latin, and German; I'm always writing essays and just started writing fiction (it reads a lot like Gene Wolfe btw). Recently, every time I get the urge to read for pleasure, my brain goes DRR DRR DRR and I end up watching something mindless with my wife, like RuPaul. But every night, when my head hits the pillow, you better believe that I'm listening to BotNS for the 30th time or so.

How do I enjoy reading again? Is enjoyment precluded when all you do is read and study?

>>17803419
REALLY hope that this is just a copypasta anon...

>>17803428
Yeah... haha... lmao... so stale, amirite?

>>17772459
See that’s a very fair way of looking at it. The problem is judging people for their choices instead of just being happy for them, which is what OP is doing. If OP just said he wished his friend would read the same books as him but fully understood that their friend was happy as they are and was happy for them it would be different. Instead they’re all caught up in looking down on their friend for not reading “real books”.

>>17799288
you don't ?

>>17799288
this board is full of commies, what'd you expect

>>17799758
Jesus, Anon, what does that have to do with anything?