/lit/ - Literature

Doesn't bother me -- as long as they are reading.

>>4835618
General ambivalence.

>>4835621
Are you maybe implying some people pretend to read so they draw the atention of everyone?

Is it weird to read while walking on the street? I do it a lot and it feels like people might think its weird.

Don't really have an opinion. I really don't see it often either.

>>4835662
The world is yours. As long as you aren't breaking any major laws, do what the fuck you want, and stand proud when you do it.

I can't imagine how image conscious you would have to be to even have an opinion on reading in public.

>>4835662
i do it a lot

who cares

There's a guy I work with who reads ALL the time, when he's walking down the hall, and when I go into the restroom he's standing at the urinal reading. This morning I watched him wash his hands while reading, somehow.
Sometimes it stops mattering what it is you're doing, it is simply obsessive behavior, or avoidant.
I read on the subway, but I stop when I have to do something like fend off a knife attack.

>>4835618
It is OK, since the other option is staring blankly in public.

Some people do it to feel cool. It is usually obvious by them looking around a lot and reading less.

I bring books on the train because It is something to do while I ride the train. I read books or text book chapters for class. I hardly ever look up.

>>4835662
>>4835662
I tried this and honestly 2 things happen

>I half as read and obnoxiously walk the streets
>I spend more time making sure that I am curtious to other pedestrians than read. \


I find that when I'm walking, I listen to music or just take in the surroundings. When I'm sitting, I read.

Should be illegal, who do they think they are

>>4835716
this

the only reason I might not read in public is because I think I might miss something in the book because Im not completely focused on it

>>4835780
autist

>>4835682
>I read on the subway, but I stop when I have to do something like fend off a knife attack.

I read on the bus while commuting to college. Sometimes the bus is full so I have to go standing but even then I would read. But reading while walking? Just too much for me. I would pay way more attention to not get run over by a car than to the reading

Anybody else read while driving?

>>4835862
Only audiobooks, otherwise it's dangerous

>>4835862
Yep. I rarely look up too, my mind has to be stimulated every waking second.

>>4835790
I know the crowded thing. Sometimes I have to hold the book right up against my chest, and then I dive into it with my eyes. Meanwhile it's like a damn orgy with everyone all touching each other and bouncing around, but not in an enjoyable way.

>>4835878
I'm calling the cops. You've been backtraced.

>>4835878

>>4835862
I'm a pilot that flies for a major airline and I read while flying.

Only problem I have with reading in public is that there is always some dipshit who wants to start up an hour long conversation about the book while I'm reading. If the book is just on my lap and I'm not doing anything, then sure, talk away. But fuck you if you want to stop me from reading to listen to you drone on about it.

>>4835682
>Sometimes it stops mattering what it is you're doing, it is simply obsessive behavior, or avoidant.
Jazz for my soul.

>>4836042
Never seen someone doing this in my entire life.
Did this really happen? Does it really happen so often that it is necessary to complain about it?

>>4835673
I agree. What is there to discuss? How could someone be against reading in public?

>pretentious
>arrogant
>hipster
Literally the only reason people read in the public is to show off what kind of stuff they read. It annoys me so much. Just buy a kindle and fuck off. No one is impressed that you're reading Lolita in public.

Reading in public is perfectly fine, except if you're reading a kindle on the bus, in which case you really need to rethink things because you're the only one who cares what you're doing and nobody is going to take notice of you doing that.

>>4836093
Every time I took the bus during college I would get someone each week who wanted to talk about the book I was reading. Hell, I've been sitting in the park and people have sat down beside me to do so. I don't know if I'm in a more friendly part of the country but I get it a lot when I'm reading in public.

>>4835618
I do most of my reading in public.

I'm not autistic enough to pull out my laptop on the bus so there isn't much else to do.

>>4835623

Ambivalence? or indifference?

>>4835618


what the fuck else am i gona do while waiting around for something doing nothing. ive always carried something to read with me since i was twelve.

>>4836105
w-what if I'm commuting to school and don't care about what people thing

>>4836042
>>4836125

>reads IN PUBLIC rather than IN PRIVATE
>gets upset when people talk to him
>gets upset when people want to talk about literature and make friends
>no friends
>no fun
>no literature
>/lit/

>>4836142

think*

>>4836147


>normies

>>4835662
I do it sometimes but my pace (both of walking and reading) is considerably slower

>>4836011
That's understandable, reading while driving a car, even on a deserted highway however, is not, audio books people.

A good way to fill transit time.
I always hide the front cover of my book on my lap or behind a bag because people are too nosy.

>>4836151
why did you correct me as if I was correcting myself

>>4836172
I tend to hide the cover because I am afraid people will think I am reading a pretentious book just to show off in public

>>4836125
That's odd. Where do you live?

>>4836172
Sometimes I do. I was reading bizarro stuff for a while and it was a problem, pic related.

>>4836147
>watching movie in theater
>guy next to me wants to talk about the movie instead of letting me watch it.
>I'm the asshole for actually wanting to watch the movie
>/lit/ logic

>>4836181
Is it just me or are you consistently pushing this complete unknown's work on this board? You mention him far, far more than anyone of his status is justified in being mentioned.

>>4836180
Pittsburgh.

I don't have a problem if someone wants to talk but if I'm in the middle of something I just find it rude to make me stop whatever to keep a conversation going.

>>4835709
>It is usually obvious by them looking around a lot
I suffer from paranoia so I do this, I hope people don't think I'm a pleb when they see me. Oh fuck, something else to worry about.

>>4836125
I'm not trying to pretend to be the Underground man so I like it when people are friendly.

>>4836181
I've been exploring the bizarro genre for a few months, and it's very hit or miss. There's one I've read which was particularly awful, Carlton Mellick III.
"Quicksand House" is one of the shittest stories I've read, no doubt. The characters are flat and uninteresting, mainly racist and sexist stereotypes, but somehow he even makes those unfunny. The story itself is meandering bullshit, I could hardly bother to finish. I also read Punk Land and Armadillo Fists, which were equally dire. Punk Land is best avoided.
I'm excited about this genre, it seems fresh (though Naked Lunch would be right at home there), or at least it's fresh among all the other crap bein churned out by major publishing factories nowadays. But I think a lot of it is just going for shock value and doesn't have much substance, like Punk Rock, and maybe doesn't want substance anyway (like Quicksand House). So if you read some and don't like it, try another. I highly recommend avoiding Carlton Mellick III, full stop.
I'm interested in Shatnerquake, and I've got Ultrafuckers coming in the mail any day now.
So yeah, there's a lot of crap there but I think there are some diamonds too.
I'm the guy that sometimes posts the rare books and manuscripts I work with. This BF is a nice break from "the classics", and I'm having fun sifting through this stuff. They're cheap paperbacks, short and not meant to be taken too seriously.

>>4836229
I don't mind people being friendly either but its a consideration thing. If you're watching something on an ipad or whatever, I would find it rude for someone to make you stop watching it to talk about it.

I would have no problem if they see that I'm finished for now with whatever I was doing to start up a conversation. And that's happened before to.

>>4836237
Thank you, that was fun! Well done.

>>4836259
Stop schilling your boring tripe all over the place.

>>4836269
Alright, what would you like to talk about? You sound like an offensive ass, but you seem to want to talk to me, so...?

>>4836297
Fuck off Carl.

>>4835662
just don't do it hile bicycling. And yes, there are idiots who also do that.


Now, seriously, guys,
It's s uch a fun to all of a sudden hit those people who are reading while walking the book out of their hands. All of a sudden! They. like, really shit in their pants if you get them at the right point.

>>4836300
Not a chance, Neil.

>>4835683
no, normally people are with others having a talk about whatever blows you're mind. I know you can't, we can't, otherwise we wouldn't be spending our time here, however for others, for normal people, what's what you do in public. you don't stare, because you're with others

>>4835709
>It is usually obvious by them looking around a lot and reading less.
i look up in the subway or on a bus every time we get to a stop to see who comes in and so on, so i might stand up to leave my place for elderly or disabled people, you know.
Or, sometimes, I may know someone coming in.

>>4836042
dude, someone was fucking flirting with you. you just missed an opportunity to have / get sex.

>>4836339
virgin detected

>>4836317
>because you're with others
>implying that being 'normal' means you are with others at all times

That is not remotely true for anybody. The majority of people out at any particular moment will be on their own.

>>4836349
have you even ever tried this? If I compare this to what you can have at some club, bar or whatever - maaan, this is IT! Flirting about literature, damn.

>>4836339
Yeah, most of them are dudes. I know that wouldn't bother you but I would.

>>4836362
have / get sex!

>>4836365
you've got buttons to push - they don't mind the gender of the person who does this otherwise you might be gay for simply masturbating, you know...

>>4836368
thanks, I really enjoy whose acquaintanceships. unfortnately where I live now there are no subways and the bus is rather shit, so I have to wait until traveling.

>>4836379
This is perhaps the most attractive picture I have seen in 2014

The day I find myself a nice virginal trap is the day I enter paradise

>>4836136
>ambivalence or indifference?
Ambivalence. I don't like the look of it on one hand (pretentious, tryhard, etc) but then on the other hand, I don't think the majority of people look into it that much, and I do it too.

>mfw you think I don't know what ambivalence means

>>4836402

Yeah, that's not gonna happen. If you think that chastity is a virtue, you need to understand that traps generally trap because of a love of anal masturbation.

>>4836407
How could reading in public possibly be 'pretentious and tryhard'? That would imply people reading do so for your benefit and not their own which they quite clearly don't.

>>4836410
>every trap's the fucking same because I say so

>>4836402
you're welcome! Don't let your hopes die, love. There is a lot of time to go, still, a lot of things to happen.

>>4836410
I don't mind if sHe masturbates, as long as sHe hasn't been fucked by another person

It's still fresh boypussy in my eyes

>>4836410
No, traps usually trap because they like feeling girly or they get turned on by female clothing. Don't make up nonsense. Plenty of people put stuff in their butt without ever even considering dressing as a girl.

>>4836415
He hates himself and feels self-conscious reading in public.

>>4836415
>How could reading in public possibly be 'pretentious and tryhard'?
Because the general consensus (here at least) is that a lot of people (maybe not necessarily /lit/izens) do it in order to look sophisticated or smart.

>That would imply people reading do so for your benefit and not their own which they quite clearly don't.
No, people here "clearly don't." I don't think it makes sense to assume that all people do that. I don't think some people do it for "my" benefit, but rather to try to impress me or other onlookers. Obviously it's bit of a cynical view, but I think it's pretty realistic.

>>4836425
Not really, I mean, I said that I read in public too (which is the whole reason why I don't think it's that big of a deal).

>>4836417
>>4836421
>>4836422

SJW, please.

Gender and sexuality are inexorably tied, and when a man begins to engage with prostate orgasm and fantasizes about receiving, he will no doubt start to drum up his feminine side. Everybody has a feminine and masculine side, no matter their sex. It's engaged with through ideals of sexuality, and expressed through gestures of gender.

>>4836179
I don't really care that they think it's intellectual or stupid. I just don't like people forming opinions of my generally

>>4836441
Since when could we clearly connect identity to physical stimuli?

>>4836465

Try staying up for a few days, or going without food and water. You'll watch your identity melt.

>>4836465
>>4836470
or being repeatedly beaten, or having a "nervous habit" or a tic

>>4835618
it depends on the public place.
Under a tree or on a bench at a park is okay, you're enjoying the day and the book, but if you're reading while drinking your $18 coffee in a place with organic lamp shades it's not okay.

>>4835662
No, I read while walking to work. In downtown Manhattan.

>>4836324
>>4835780

This is not that frequently. This is what nost do, some people just glance at their book now and then all the time. I've seen the same people do it. Time and time again, day after day; They pretend read.
STOP READING WHILE WALKING. IM GOING TO BODY CHECK YOU IF YOU ARE IN MY WAY. ITS THE SAME THING AS BEING ON YOUR PHONE AND NOT PAYING ATTENTION.

>>4835682
what does he read?

>We need to make books cool again. If you go home with somebody and they don't have books, don't fuck them.
>-John Waters

Dangerous
>work in book store
>co-worker always walking around with her nose in a book
>trips on a customer that was sitting on the floor and eats it hard.
It was funny to see, but I would never do it.

i read where the fuck i want!

I don't like reading it public because it makes me feel like an attention-seeking tryhard. I am a massive pleb and I don't understand a lot of what I read beyond a superficial level, and I don't want run the risk that some genuine smartypants will see me and start asking me questions that I can't answer.

>>4837688

I have a friend who literally has no reading material in his house. No magazines or anything.
He's an investment banker though so girls fuck him alot anyway.

>>4837688
Fuck that fucking quote.
I don't want my fucking literature to become some kind of status symbol for people to fuck.
They already took video games and used it to purport gender equality.

>>4840001
>she's reading!
>QUICK
>take a picture of my beard

This is one of those things which if you do care at all about then you should come to a conclusion that you think way too much about what random people who you do not know on the internet think.

If you've had bad experiences IRL before when reading in public then that's understandable but you need to get a grip otherwise.

>>4836131

>I'm not autistic enough to pull out my laptop on the bus so there isn't much else to do.

When people do that I just wonder if it's really all that practical.

It can get you laid?

>those faggots in the reflection

I read books from my phone so everyone thinks im just another pleb playing angry birds or snapchat or whatever it is thats cool these days

I guess for a lot of people it's a way to feel superior. Personally I don't manage to concentrate if there are lots of people around me or if I'm on a moving vehicle. Hell, even just reading while standing is annoying to me, and walking? Hell no.

I could easily read on a bench so long as I'm sitting quetly by myself, though. But I can't wrap my head around how people can really enjoy the prose or understand any of the book when they read under such stressful environments... but of course people are different. Just my two cents anyway. Let people do what they want to do as long as it does no harm.

>tfw read stories here about seeing qrs reading at uni or cafes or whatever
> never see that

Do I just go to a shit school?

>>4840929
I used to find it hard but after a couple months of spending upwards of an hour and a half every day on public transport you can get used to reading even when it's busy

Now I'm comfortable enough on trains and buses that I can just doze off even if there's someone sat right next to me

>>4840957

Oh, for some reason that didn't cross my mind: getting used to it.

I guess I could get used to it too if I spent lots of time on trains and such things.

>>4835618

I do it all the time but I used to have this love-hate relationship with it.

I'm that person smiling, laughing, frowning, grimacing, and making affectatious looks of incredulity when I read, whether it's non-fiction or fiction, I just intentionally try to drown out everything around me because I'm hypersensitive to certain shifts and I hate not being able to just focus on my book. Living in a major city where reading in public means reading with at least 20 people in your immediate vicinity EVERYWHERE doesn't help my situation either so I do sort of have to compensate by pretending no one else is around me to be drawn in.

The truth is though, I used to hate reading in public because I'd get so self-conscious about coming across as superficial, like I'd be bothering people just by sitting there and enjoying a book. HOWEVER, I stopped giving a fuck when I finally managed to get really into a book once and some smug whore actually stood up, sneered at me, and went to the other side of the train cart. After that mfw I run into these situations is pic related (which happen a fuckton actually, probably one of you fuckers each time). I just rationalize it as bitterness, people fucking trying to project shit on you when you can earnestly do something they'd be too anxious to.

I also walk and read all the time too, without trouble, like it's a sixth sense. I don't do it when I'm in a rush mind you, or if there's a lot going on, but I do it fairly often, and fairly well.

Oh, and one thing I've noticed since I switched over to my kindle (god bless it) is that people really leave you alone more. I think the only time I've been bothered while reading since I got it was by this old lady who asked me if she should buy one for her granddaughter, but she was sweet.

>>4840957
>you can get used to reading even when it's busy
It's true, most people don't want to interact anyway. Talking with other commuters we all agree that it's quiet time away from home or office, actually. You can blend in with the crowd and disappear.

>>4840943
if you're not positive by its well known reputation that you didn't go to a shit school, you went to a shit school.

I pickpocket occasionally when I'm strapped for cash and people reading are very easy targets. I like it.

>>4840991
>yfw you can't pickpocket a pickpocket

I read on the subway, but then again i'm not a pretentios faggot, i only read on my kindle and no one even knows what im reading

>>4841026

60% of people where i live hate black people anyways. So fuck them! i read because i am bored and that way i don't see the dirty looks these racist borgs give me

I like reading in natural light. I hate reading in artificial light, I always use lamps and shades and things to provide a calming ambience if I do have to read at night. I just can't read with the ceiling light on. so yeah. read where you want, and if someone reckons you're reading a gay book, smack dat bitch. hard.

>>4841032
don't fool yourself.
most of them don't
even know you are reading

i can guarantee you a majority of people think you are either browsing face book or playing computer games or watching cat videos

>yfw people don't know the difference between ebook-reader and not a tablet

I do it all the time when waiting for something
What else am I gonna do? Think about what went wrong in my life?

I do 90% of my reading in public places.
Between classes, between classes and work, etc.
>>4841073

>>4836189

>reading novels

>>4840972

Didn't read, but thanks for the Cara.

>>4840929
I've learned to concentrate, by spending all of my time reading in school. I found though that I couldn't read really artistic expressive writing, like Faulkner or poetry written any time after the 19th century (also if I read poetry i'd alienate my pleb classmates even more than I was already doing.) I usually found that it was easy to concentrate so long as I read writing that was really mathematical and organized, like Borges and Dostoevsky and all them.

>>4836237
So, you hated everything you read, yet you're still excited for more of this "genre" coming out.

>>4840039
Well those girls really should stop that.

>>4840072
>Muh hobby shud be pure and speshul. No grills allow!

>>4842489
why are you bashing on investment bankers
they're like our aristocracy

>>4842506
What, bankers are uncultured hucksters.

>>4842526
culture is dead and popular, the aristocracy would be loathe to be a part of a populist zombie

>>4842506
>they're like our aristocracy
That's WHY I bash on them. They're also this society's priests, since "god is dead" the only real dominant faith/church is capital. (A spook)

And the guy reads nothing! Our "aristocracy" are pinheads.

>>4842531
they arent our priests
Kanye West and Drake our are priests

>>4842543
Entertainers? sacred? Bizarre thought.
Since when to we put faith into our various entertainments? It's just escapism.

>>4842565
could just be that me and my little bubble of society are bizarre
thats how I see it, they teach us how to feel and give us ambiguous experiences of meaningfulness and dictate how we dress and talk, we use it to congregate and interact with each other
(not Kanye and Drizzy drake specifically)

what social product is more meaningful to the average American than pop music?

>>4842576
AH. I see where you're coming from.

These entertainers are of course selling their image/lifestyle etc. It's all a part of the capitalist system though. Tiger Woods or somebody screws up and they lose sponsors. The money flows away from you. All mighty capital judges you unfit.

>>4842603
>It's all a part of the capitalist system though
For sure, the top level of which used to be occupied by the aristocracy/nobility, now its business magnates and hedge fund managers

popular music sells us an image and lifestyle the way the Church used to, which was also linked to the elite exploiting the people the way Record company owners do

its not just popular music, its the entire sphere of pop culture, but I think the music is the lifeblood of it

>>4842610
the priests would be the musicians in this analogy obviously. priests themselves werent usually 'bad' people and they interpreted the Bible in their own way and gave to the people. it was the Church qua business doing the exploiting

>>4842565
Truly a bizarre thought.

>>4837168
ASOIAF

>>4838739
>sitting on the floor
Why would anyone do that?

>>4842622
>>4842610
and if you find its a rather ephemeral, multifarious and incoherent substitute for the Church i would agree. it only subsists by constantly renewing itself. a kind of distraction as catharsis and catharsis as meaning

I never knew it was a questionable act

I'm gonna be a lot more self conscious next week

>>4835618
I...I r-read on my break/lunch break at work because I enjoy reading.. does that make me a tryhard lookitme hipster?

>>4842628
I already like him more than most of /lit/

>>4836181
>>4836196
Yeah, haven't you read the list of /lit/-approved authors? Those are the only ones we can complain about because we've pretended to read them. Get your unknown authors out of here you piece of shit.

>>4835618
Once I forgot my phone on the bus because I was so engrossed in what I was reading.
It was Madame Bovary

>>4843042
No, that's what I do.
My lunch breaks are an hour long. If I'm going to hang out in the break room or my car that long I'm gonna need some way to avoid human contact.

>>4840856
that has to be the saddest picture ever

>>4841631
That's cool. Myself, I find that I can lose myself in a book sometimes (not all the time). Doing so can be pretty interesting, but then there are a lot of times when I try very hard to concentrate and I just can't. Maybe I should drink orange juice or something. Maybe fish oil.

>>4836189
That's a horrible analogy.
Thing is you pay to see a movie for an hour or longer at a specific time of the day and only that one time. Reading is great because you can pick it up or stop at anytime.
Apply yourself

>>4840001
I laffed

>>4843132
From the looks of that, that is a pretty sizable music festival. Probably everyone in that image blew coke and dropped some sort of roll or trip inducing substance and also got laid.

>>4843159
>implying my time to read isn't limited and much more valuable than the price of a fucking movie ticket
>implying the little time i have to read isn't worth murdering some asshole who is being an obstacle for

I use to read every day in the train, as lots of people too. I don't really see what's the problem.
Of course, there's always some guy who carries a book just to pretend that he's smart or something, but fuck this kind of people.

My personal experiences:
>read Lolita on the bus: get dirty looks from people but no one says anything
>read an old copy of Without Feathers by Woody Allen on the bus (it's got his name in big bold red letters on the cover): laugh out loud because its hilarious. Get dirty looks from people
>read The Catcher In The Rye on the bus: as an old black man gets up to get off at his stop, he turns around at the front of the bus and recites some bible verses as loud as he can
People's ignant. Shit sucks. I ain't care.

>>4844583
>Lolita
>Woodly Allen

so you're a nonce then?

>>4844583
>being this edgy

>he turns around at the front of the bus and recites some bible verses as loud as he can
That sounds fucking hilarious

>>4844583
I think you were just imagining it
not many people that take public transportation will know what lolita is

>>4844662
But they know what a lolita is.

>>4843109
Oh sorry, I meant uh, someone else, like Cormack MacArthy or someone dead.

I was just reading while doing the laundry at the laundromat. Sometimes I get worried that someone will want to talk about what I'm reading, but then I remember:

>I have an e-reader
>I live in the South, where nobody else reads

Feels good.

>>4844673
i have a hard time believing that.