/lit/ - Literature

maybe Dostoevsky

or anything that has a film adaptation. that way plebs can be like "omg! who's ur fave character?" and you can say "jean valjean" and they can say "omg i love gavroche but i never read the book but i totally want to is it good?

John Green/ Hunger Games

All those popular novels

>>6634221
I grapple with this a lot. Every pleb knows to be impressed when they see you reading War and Peace, but when you read some real hardcore shit like Foucault's Pendulum no one even knows to cower in awe of your intellect. It's a fucking struggle man.

>>6634246
>"jean valjean"
Mfw I thought you were talking about Expendables 2

>>6634221

Maybe F Scott Fitzgerald or something.

>>6634221
honestly just read a collection of calvin and hobbes. people will think you're awesome and want to hang out with you. better to relate to others than to try and impress them.

>>6634221
Wittgenstein.

>>6634221
Dependszs on whom you want to impress. Murakami will impress the average Neil gay-man reader, but someone who knows lit will be either be whatever or will think you're a pleb

The bigger the book the more people will be impressed. Stuff tons of book tabs in a copy of Infinite Jest (or any large book), and carry it around everywhere.

>>6634329
>Neil gay-man

Neil Patrick Harris?

reading in public is always awkward as fuck

i've had people come up to me and ask "hey what are u reading :)" and then I tell them "uh, the phenomenology of spirit by hegel" and then they look at me like I murdered their mother

>>6634731
They don't like being getting an actual education anon, you should said GRRM or sum thing.

>>6634246
that feel when you used to carry the brothers karamazov around instead of putting it in your backpack because the pages would get bent to shit in it
did everyone think it was for attention? :'(

>>6634765
Kek

>reading books to impress others
I seriously hope you guys don't do this

>>6634731
Should have just said "some philosophy" or something
Average person will have no idea what Phenomenology of Spirit means or who Hegel is, so saying that will alienate them, whereas just saying something broad like "philosophy" is less alienating.

>>6634731
I have "murdered" your mother after showing her phenomenal log of spirit tbqh

>>6634438
>book tabs
Kind of irrelevant, but does /lit/ actually annotate their books? I've never been able to bring myself to do that to any of my books, even the really cheap editions that I have no intention of lasting more than one complete read though. I just contemplate the lines mentally.

>>6635149
>that I have no intention of lasting more than one complete read though
I just realized how badly I fucked up that phrase, but try to ignore that.

>>6635149
>I've never been able to bring myself to do that to any of my books
>overvaluing the paper a book is written on this much

>>6635149
Fiction? Usually just underline shit I really like unless I'm actively studying/researching the work.

Non-fiction? Absolutely, with an external notebook to take notes as well.

>>6635165
Well I guess it's also because I've never really seen the point. If I'm going to read a book a second time, I don't think I'd pay much attention to notes I made a while before, unless it's something as complex as Joyce.

Also, I have some books that really are that valuable. I hope you wouldn't write on a rare book.

>>6635169
>an external notebook to take notes
That seems unnecessary unless you're doing actual research for a definite reason.

>>6635149
I do it all the time, since I carry books to work I might also write notes in the back pages if I haven't got other paper at hand. I buy mostly paperbacks, and I haven't got any valuable editions, so I don't value my books for anything more than the text. For what they're worth, I can afford roughing them up; not using tabs and folding the pages, etc. Anything I have you can easily get in any bookshop, plus, I live in a very cramped space, whatever doesn't fit in the shelf I pile in a corner or kick under the bed.

>>6635186
>That seems unnecessary unless you're doing actual research for a definite reason.

How so? I don't do it for all nonfiction, but anything particularly dense (e.g. philosophy, critical theory) is better understood by summarizing their points and outlining their arguments in my own words.

>>6635205
>anything particularly dense (e.g. philosophy, critical theory) is better understood by summarizing their points and outlining their arguments in my own words
Yeah, that's true, but I usually summarize it in discussions with others about the subject. I've never thought of doing it in a notebook. It seems like it would feel awkward. Maybe I'll give it a try. When you said nonfiction, I was thinking of history and topics like that; for some reason I didn't think about philosophy.