/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.2525807]

Do people around you value literature?

I was born in a total working class family. I doubt my father has ever read a book for pleasure. My two brothers are total corporate minions who like to sound very money-oriented so they constantly say things like "I don't have time for made up stories" etc.

My friends, well. In HS I never made a friend who read, and then I went to college to major in Physics and basically only met genre fiction readers or other "i don't have time for fiction" types.

My gf, who was born in a very well cultured family, has probably read by 18 more than I'll read until I'm 30. She and /lit/ are literally the only people I can talk about books. What about you guys?

[Anonymous No.2525814]

Both my parents read although mostly detective fiction and sci-fi and stuff. My mom frequently reads new releases in the thriller genre. My father doesn't read that much anymore and is kind of a pretentious cunt actually. He's the kind of guy who'd ask for books on Kierkegaard for christmas and then NEVER read them ever. I think he wants to read and appear cultured and so on, but he's just too lazy.

[Anonymous No.2525815]

>look at this asshole posting a faggoty mermaid
>open pic
>mfw

To answer your question, my closest friends are well read or otherwise versed in the arts. I don't solely associate with literary types, but often they have something else that interests me. Let's say painting or music or philosophy or something. These are the people I associate with the most, so it's nice to have such common interests. It's not that I dislike spending time with people who don't, however. As long as there is something interesting about them. I'm not the company for the sake of company kind of type.

I probably am the only one who reads anything worthwhile in my family however, apart from my mother who I can sometimes persuade to get into some of the good stuff.

[Anonymous No.2525916]

My dad has read a good chunk of the Canon, but mostly just reads crime fiction now. I have good discussions about literature with him, and he has occasionally put me onto books and authors which I otherwise wouldn't have read/heard of.

My mum died before I was old enough to get into adult literature, but she left behind an awesome collection of books which I'm still making my way through.

My brother doesn't read much, but at least he's not one of those "books are gay" types.

My friends are those "books are gay" types.

[Anonymous No.2525924]

I'm in graduate school so I am constantly surrounded by people talking about literature. My friends at work talk about books a little, but they're not as well-read as say a lit student. However, sometimes I'd like to talk visual arts with somebody. I paint and I have attempted to teach myself how to "read" a painting. My fellow students are totally "tone deaf" to what makes painting good, if you'll allow me to mix my metaphors.

[Anonymous No.2525927]

well my dad's a psychology professor he used to read a lot when he was younger, and he used to write poetry, he's a psychology professor. But now that he's getting old, it's just meh.

My mom has read some of the latin literature classics, but now she just reads spiritual things, as my sister.

Other than that, I had just one fried who loved to read and i don't see her anymore. My college is just full of borderline retards.

[Anonymous No.2525930]

My dad reads an okay amount, but he says he prefers reading news articles online. My mom reads a lot but usually the bible or some other religious book. However, they read to me and bought me tons of books as a kid, so I gave always been a reader.

[Anonymous No.2525956]

My aunt has studied philosophy and works as a part time translator, dad read(s) some phi. and classical literature, but mostly reads books related to medicine (he's a doc.), my mother reads a lot of scandinavian "classics", and my sister studies medicine - thus she does not have much time to read anything else.

The rest of my family are mostly doctors and engineers, so they aren't particularly well versed in classical literature, but they certainly respect those who are well read. I should also mention my grandfather, which was featured as one of the most "important" contemporary european poets a couple of years back, and had probably read more than I'll ever do - but he just died, so it really doesn't matter.

I don't have many firends though, but a couple of them do read a lot - alas, they tend to blend in with the YA crowd terrifyingly good.

[Anonymous No.2525993]

I grew up in small town India where no one read even popular lit, let alone the classics. Our house got an internet connection around 2005 when I was in high school and I read the shit out of what was popular at that time, Harry Potter. Then for the next two years I studies for engineering entrance exams and got my self into a good college. Here, few people read, and that too stuff like Jeffery Archer, Robert Ludnum and the like. Up to this point I exclusively read scifi/fantasy. Then around feb 2010 I read about this super secret hacker club called 4chan, and out of curiosity, I paid a visit to the global face of 4chan-/b/ and jerked around there for about a week. I posted a thread about scifi recommendations and was promptly directed to a new board called /lit/. You people exposed me to great authors and books that I would never have read otherwise, like Pynchon, Dostoevsky, HST, Steinbeck etc. And since then you guys are the only people I can discuss good literature with. Thanks /lit/ ;_;

[Anonymous No.2525995]

*Then for the next two years I studied

[Anonymous No.2526003]

>>2525815
pretty much this

[Anonymous No.2526005]

>>2525993
Why aren't you knee deep in all kinds of religious classics from your part of the world? Or is that only interesting for white people?

[Anonymous No.2526010]

>>2526005
Read the mythologies when I was little. For me Mahabharata is the epicest epic that ever epiced. But the other stuff, yeah, its more interesting for the western folk. Contemporary Hindi lit is a clusterfuck, only 23 notable authurs in the last century.

[Anonymous No.2526011]

>>2526010
fuck my keyboard. *2-3 notable authors

[Anonymous No.2526016]

>>2526010
If I were Indian I would get my Vedanta on like a motherfucker and espouse a new form of monist utilitarianism that is tightly interwoven with transhumanist ideals.

[Anonymous No.2526022]

The way I remember my grandfather: Sitting at his kitchen table drinking coffee and reading Lois L'amour.

My grandparents were both born to poor Cherokee sharecropping families. The only book available to my grandmother was a bible and my grandfather didn't learn to read until he was in the army during WW2.
They both became voracious readers and published writers. (albeit minor publications, short story anthologies and the like)

My mother reads almost religiously, I've never known anyone who can read faster than her and retain the information.

My sister and father are both occasional pop readers. (Twilight and Tom Clancy)

My wife reads nothing but cookbooks and food related, she's had two books on published on vegan and vegetarian cooking.

Most of my friends are also avid readers with the primary connection being between sci-fi/fantasy and general scientific literature (psychology, physics, statistics, mathematics, etc.)

Also:
[spoilers]Fuck Classics[/spoiler]

[Anonymous No.2526024]

>>2526016
There is a saying here-- "Distant drums sound more pleasant". Indian philosophies do not interest me in the slightest as they've been ingrained in our culture( I do not like our culture either). But I can see why they would interest people in the west as a sort of escape from what they perceive to be their highly controlled life as mindless consumers and cogs in the corporate machine, or something like that.

[Anonymous No.2526051]

My Dad really got me into literature, which is funny because he's always been an electrician and he never went to college. When I was about 6 he'd read me books by John Steinbeck before I went to bed. When I was 12 he introduced me to The Catcher in the Rye, which, though I recognize the issues in the novel now, still remains as one of my favorite books. By the time I was 15 I had read more than him, so we couldn't really have discussions because he had no time to read because of work, but we still discussed religion, politics, and life in general almost daily. He was a good guy. I loved him.

There were only a handful of people that I discussed literature with outside of English class in school. Most of them were in the grade above me. There was one kid in my class who I discussed literature with a lot. He was probably my best friend throughout high school.

[Anonymous No.2526059]

yeh basically everyone i know and choose to associate myself with reads at least somewhat

the only one bad thing is that i don't know into anyone who's seriously into science fiction in a big way, anything else i read i definitely have people i can talk about it with

[Anonymous No.2526060]

>>2526051
(cont.)
My brother and my sister never read much. My Mom read sometimes, but it was only really popular literature.

Aside from my friends who read literature, most of them were generally anti-art and anti-book. I went to high school in a rich and conservative part of Massachusetts.

[Anonymous No.2526073]

>>2526024
That sounds understandable. Is it the other way around too? Do you get Indian kids who are all about Western philosophy or something? Or is it limited to Western popular culture?

[Anonymous No.2526082]

Yep, my family are just your average working class people but we all read regularly, especially my dad who must have read almost every sci-fi novel ever written by now. So do a few of my friends, who are all from similar backgrounds. Although I must admit I'm not much for discussing literature beyond "This book is really good, fancy a lend of it?" because it seems really...wanky. I don't enjoy it and would much rather talk about music or sports. Lit is a more personal thing for me and it's a nice way to relax after reading scientific papers all day at university.

But yes, I was exposed to books from a very early age and would definitely do the same for my kids.

[Anonymous No.2526089]

>>2526073
I have never met a person who had read anything related too western philosophy. I myself have read only the very popular ones like Plato, Descartes and Marx, but I intend to read more

[Anonymous No.2526093]

The best people on earth enjoy reading fiction.
It can often be highly stimulating intellectually.

This is why some of the best people on earth congregate on /lit/, and why they seemingly know about everything.

It's because they dedicate time to fiction, which incorporates nearly all the things of earth.

[Anonymous No.2526095]

>This is why some of the best people on earth congregate on /lit/
0_0

[Anonymous No.2526149]

>>2526093
>This is why some of the best people on earth congregate on /lit/
Well... thank you.

[Anonymous No.2526151]

>>2526095
>>2526149
/lit/: the snapple of internet message boards

[Anonymous No.2526154]

>>2526151
MORE LIKE THE CRAPPLE HAHAHA AMIRITE

[Anonymous No.2526167]

I only have a few friends who read for pleasure.
Father reads more non-fiction/history than anyone I know
Doesn't touch fiction though
>"Why read fiction, I have my own imagination"

[Anonymous No.2526169]

My father has read probably every single Stephen King book written, as well as a shit-ton of Louis La'mour pulp westerns, as well as the bible and Christian eschatology.
My mom hasn't read a book for pleasure since she dropped out of school in eight grade. I just recently convinced her to start reading To Kill A Mockingbird, but I doubt if she'll have time as she works a time-demanding factory job.

I read a little bit as a kid, had trouble reading a lot in high school but have recently started playing catchup.

[Anonymous No.2526178]

I have one friend who reads /lit/-approved books but he doesn't talk about them. He just likes to read them I guess.

I have a couple friends who say they like to read (Twilight, Hunger Games, whatever bullshit is popular at the time) but haven't read anything besides what they hear is cool and new or whatever lame shit they had to read in high school.

Everyone else is "hurr books are gay CoD bro".

Oh yeah, my mom reads those weird inspirational books for old people. Bless her heart.

[Anonymous No.2526179]

Its hard to meet people who like literature outside of the internet.

probably because they are sitting at home all the fucking time reading a book

[Anonymous No.2526183]

>>2526093

you poor, misguided young fool. i like fiction, too, but you have a completely warped perception of both yourself and especially /lit/. /lit/ is a shithole, or rather a section of a greater shithole where a few of us who like to read cling together like a shitstain on the bottom of the toilet.

[Anonymous No.2526190]

>I don't have time for made up stories.

Jesus Christ, there are actually people like this? I'm assuming they don't like to watch movies either? Or are they just against all that daggum book readin'?

Anyway, my parents have always been really into reading, but I don't really know anyone else who enjoys it. My mom is a huge Shakespeare nerd, and my dad has read pretty much everything by Stephen King. Growing up I always had access to a lot of books, so I guess I'm kind of lucky in that regard.

[Anonymous No.2526194]

My parents both read quite a bit - my father mostly non-fiction, my mother just whatever she feels like - and very much encouraged me to read when I was a kid. My brother reads some - I mean, he's a smart kid, he's not an idiot - but he has other priorities (mostly partying). My friends all read to various degrees, although they have very different tastes and interests, and we talk about books to different extents and in different ways. I don't really stay close with many people who just don't read at all.

[Anonymous No.2526204]

My dad read a couple of books as I remember, but he isn't a reader, either no time or no interest would be my guess.

Mom reads a lot of crime fiction, which I really try to get into, but having worked with police for a while, it falls flat: Most murders are pretty cut and dry, and the number of serial killers that get into the whole James Bond-type set-ups is maybe 1 in history. I don't talk to her about books much because she reads 3-4 authors regularly, and her book club is a bunch of hens reading historical fiction.

My sister reads mostly mushy young adult fiction... I read it and discard it for the most part, but she loves it. I don't mind some of it, but I'm not a big fan.

So, I can talk with my mom and my sister about books. I can't talk with my wife about books: the last few books she read was Twilight saga (in the gift box, no less). I tried to point her to either Bram Stoker's Dracula or Salem's Lot, but she wouldn't have it. Even Harry Potter is a no-go.

So that means that you, /lit/... YOU are my last line of res...

Oh wait, the girls at the Library aren't total drones.... Cool.

[Anonymous No.2526218]

My father doesn't read anything outside of Sports Illustrated and Motorcycles Monthly. He spends his free time gaping at the TV, tuned to ESPN. He's of slightly above average intelligence, but it's obvious that his thoughts aren't exceptionally brilliant. He likes to gossip.

My mother is an extremely intelligent woman. I am convinced that she is a genius, and her genius lies in physics, math, and astronomy. She reads a lot of nonfiction, mostly the writings of physicists and mathematicians. She was the one who would take me to the library, read to me, and talk to me about ideas, philosophy, politics, science, etc. while my dad, for the most part, ignored us for his television.

My older brother reads to seem intelligent. He is a prime hipster specimen. He reads Nietzsche and Schopenhauer, preaches their ideas as if they were his own, and often sneers at people who don't completely share his (or, rather, whichever-philosopher-he's-reading's) beliefs. After reading Nietzsche, he became obsessed with the idea of the Übermensch. Now he's just finished reading Studies in Pessimism by Schopenhauer, and now he's forgotten about Nietzsche and is beginning to gravitate towards a disturbing sort of misogyny, which he pretends is his own idea. He even scribbles down the paraphrased thoughts of philosophers and writers in a fashionably worn leather journal, and then parades them around as his own.

Most of my friends who are intelligent and hilarious people, love the Hunger Games and its sequels and are currently reading and rereading them.
My two closest friends read the sort of things discussed on /lit/, and are truly brilliant people.


tl;dr: Dad is addicted to TV, Mom is a genius physicist type, brother is a pseudointellectual, most of my friends read Hunger Games, my two closest friends are the /lit/ sort.

[Anonymous No.2526227]

My mum was a drug addict, so she had very little time for books. My dad did philosophy at university when he was 40, but he almost never reads and the only literature I've ever talked to him about is Nausea.

I didn't care much for reading growing up until I was 16 and I rediscovered it by myself. Up until that point I'd had a few terrible teen-fiction novels forced onto me which kinda put me off.

Now I have a couple of friends who I can talk to about books.

[Anonymous No.2526258]

a few months ago i noticed my mother had started visiting the 'brary semi frequently. no one in my family reads except my older sister occasionally. was stoked about it till i realized what books she was checking out

[Anonymous No.2526294]

>>2526167
>"philosophy is for people who can't think on their own"

[Anonymous No.2526296]

>>2526218
Your brother sounds extremely annoying.

[Mad Scientist Hououin Kyouma !!RBaVX6t0twu No.2526313]

Nope, only one in my family who reads. Did have a cousin who did. But it was mostly pleb shit and thrillers she read.

[Anonymous No.2526318]

>>2525807
My mom is usually fairly well-read, but she recently picked up the Hunger Games and now I can't talk to her.

[Anonymous No.2526329]

>>2526167
>>"Why read fiction, I have my own imagination"

Your dad sounds like an awesome bro.
History and non-fiction are great, he's actually learning something.

Most fiction is really dull and intellectually shallow.

[Anonymous No.2526332]

Both of my parents have English degrees. I read a lot growing up because every room in the house was full of books.

[Anonymous No.2526940]

bump

[Anonymous No.2526957]

My parents do, so does my brother, but none of my friends and none of my co workers. I kind of wish I had someone close to talk to about books besides /lit/. I live in a poor town where many people don't really read at all.

[Anonymous No.2526968]

some do, some don't

the novel is a media product of the petit bourgeois that they have rejected because of TV, i treat it and its acolytes accordingly

[Anonymous No.2526967]

>>2525807
I don't think my dad's ever read a book. My mom pretended she was well read, but I only ever saw her pick up magazines. I have two friends who read, one reads fantasy almost exclusively and the other reads nothing but history. I don't know anyone else with a book collection. I read a lot, tend to sit down with anything that interests me and I think the world's a pretty interesting place.

[Anonymous No.2526976]

>To answer your question, my closest friends are well read or otherwise versed in the arts. I don't solely associate with literary types, but often they have something else that interests me. Let's say painting or music or philosophy or something. These are the people I associate with the most, so it's nice to have such common interests. It's not that I dislike spending time with people who don't, however. As long as there is something interesting about them. I'm not the company for the sake of company kind of type.

>posting HST
>only associating closely with self-styled intellectuals

And you wonder why he killed himself.

[Anonymous No.2526984]

>>2526329
Only post in this thread worth reading.

[Anonymous No.2526993]

Both my parents read to my as a kid, and encouraged me to get into reading, so I read Homer and Ovid and other ancient classics as a kid, and have always been a reader because of it. My Dad still reads and talks books with me, my mother pretty much reads books on nutrition and trashy romance novels.
My sister reads when she has time, and always discusses with me. She's still working through 20th century greats.
Friends don't read (with the exception of a Warhammer/ASOIAF nut)
My fiancé reads when I force him to. Both him and my father read my works before they get sent out.

Everyone hates poetry though.

[Anonymous No.2527002]

>>2526993

That's sad, because poetry is much better.

Fiction is basically a lego set of stock themes that the author self-consciously reconstructs in just a unique enough way to turn a buck. Or if it's of the capital-L literature variety, written out of a misguided humanistic/didactic impulse.

[Anonymous No.2527021]

>>2527002
genuinely amusing post.

[Anonymous No.2527022]

>>2527002
lol the existence of topos and a real and tangible literary tradition as a critique of literature

[Anonymous No.2527024]

>mfw I was hugely interested in art as a teenager and didn't care about math or science in the slightest, and now that I live in the real world I don't give five fucks in heaven about art and love math and science.
Art is some "higher intellectual calling". It's a leisure activity that people who don't want to work for a living vaunt as noble because they have the leisure afforded to them by science and technology. They're the same class of people who would have been priests 500 years ago and looked down their noses at the scientists for being heretical and the working poor for not being as pure of spirit as themselves.

This is not to say that art isn't an important part of humanity and essential to most people's happiness, it certainly is. But it often seems to attract the worst sort of self-righteous, narcissistic trash.

[Anonymous No.2527029]

>mfw I was hugely interested in art as a teenager and didn't care about math or science in the slightest, and now that I live in the real world I don't give five fucks in heaven about art and love math and science.
Art is not some "higher intellectual calling". It's a leisure activity that people who don't want to work for a living vaunt as noble because they have the leisure afforded to them by science and technology. They're the same class of people who would have been priests 500 years ago and looked down their noses at the scientists for being heretical and the working poor for not being as pure of spirit as themselves.

This is not to say that art isn't an important part of humanity and essential to most people's happiness, it certainly is. But it often seems to attract the worst sort of self-righteous, narcissistic trash.

[Anonymous No.2527033]

>>2527029
>Art is some "higher intellectual calling". It's a leisure activity that people who don't want to work for a living vaunt as noble because they have the leisure afforded to them by science and technology. They're the same class of people who would have been priests 500 years ago and looked down their noses at the scientists for being heretical and the working poor for not being as pure of spirit as themselves.

So in other words... art is what we do we do science and math for, it's the reason we bother to do all those 'productive' things. Once we have science and math and engineering out of the way and don't have to worry about them, we get to the stuff that's really worthwhile: art and the humanities.

[Leto !a/7qd1.mIE No.2527035]

>>2527029
Interesting... normally people get more intelligent with age.
Art is about what makes us human. That can't be found in science or math.

[Anonymous No.2527036]

>>2527022
Not at all. The novel is a relatively young form of writing. Relative to something like poetry it has no tradition. The tradition consists of the bellyaches of wealthy peopl
e, 80% of whom are white and male.

>>2527028

It's a critique of people who consider art the only end in itself. 'Art as the highest cultural pursuit" is also is a relatively new idea borne out of the institutionalized artistic traditions of Europe.

[Anonymous No.2527041]

Both of my parents are semi-white trash who have little interest in anything other than day to day living hand to mouth, no time to read or to appreciate my reading. MY friends don't read anything outside pleb level stuff but they'll try anything I rec' them.

[Anonymous No.2527047]

>>2527036
>It's a critique of people who consider art the only end in itself.
Yes. You have understood my point exactly.

[Anonymous No.2527050]

>>2525807

My friends like to think they "read", but only care to talk about pop-physics a la Michio Kaku and William S. Burroughs. I have one incredibly hipster friend who randomly picks up dry WWII history books in front of others. At least they try.

My mother only reads New Age books, the covers to be found in either orange, purple/pink, or blue.

[Anonymous No.2527081]

>>2527041

You should send them here.

[Anonymous No.2527461]

Mostly I'm among people who claim they don't really see "point" in reading "made-up stories" as they say.

Of course they don't follow the same philosophy in films, videogames or any other narrative medium. So it's basically their make-believe I-could-read-if-I-wanted-to excuse for the fact they're plebs.

I have one or two friends who read a lot and are intelligent, they were reading GOT because of the HBO show when we started discussing literature seriously. After a fight I got them to read a few good stuff. They're my last hope outside the internet, basically.

[LarryWoolsey !!6hZi+pVd8Mh No.2527469]

Born in a working class family. Dad was a communist/unionist

Surrounded by Dickens and Shakespeare from a young age. All the usual working class shit like John Steinbeck and Jack London were present too.

My mother mostly read crime thrillers and historical romances, so I never got much influence from her.

I work a shit tier low class job and I read on my lunch break. I've heard everything from "Gee, you read a lot" too "What the fuck do you read books for? I've never read a book in my entire life, fag".

[LarryWoolsey !!6hZi+pVd8Mh No.2527471]

>>2527469

Oh yeah, plus my dad had me surrounded with goddamn WW2 history books and communist related shit like Reds by John Reed.

[Anonymous No.2527473]

most of my friends read quite a bit. since we are all sci-fi fans we do tend to read mostly pulp. One is kind of an elitist becasue he took a lit couse in college. Mom reads romance novels almost exclusively. haven't seen dad in so long I can't remember what he read. Sister reads only WoW novels and Harry Potter.

everyone else on the other hand, are too busy with television or farmville.

[Anonymous No.2527474]

>>2527471
Your dad seems like a bro.

[Anonymous No.2527476]

>>2527469
>striking out against daddy

haha so edgy XD

[LarryWoolsey !!6hZi+pVd8Mh No.2527479]

>>2527474

On one hand being encouraged to read A Brave New World and 1984 when you're in grade 5 is fantastic.

On the other hand he was drunk or high most of the time and raised a well read but completed uneducated kid.

It's one thing to have intelligent (inb4 lol ur a retard) kids, another to actually put them in an environment that doesn't center around huffing petrol and setting possums on fire for fun.

[Anonymous No.2527480]

>>2527469
>"Gee, you read a lot" too "What the fuck do you read books for? I've never read a book in my entire life, fag".
Jesus, where are you from?

[LarryWoolsey !!6hZi+pVd8Mh No.2527482]

>>2527480

Australia.

One lebanese kid explained to me how his parents were proud because he'd made it through all of High School without reading any actual books.

Plenty of people at work joke about "fags reading books" and "wasting time reading stories", but don't bat an eyelid when you mention they spend all day reading tabloid newspapers and watching hours and hours of D grade fictional television (I'm talking about Home And Away being the highlight of their viewing roster).

[LarryWoolsey !!6hZi+pVd8Mh No.2527484]

>>2527482

Plus this question get's asked a lot (even by University students I work with);

>Why would you bother reading if it's not for school or study?

[Anonymous No.2527519]

>>2527482
>>2527484
oh god. all my rage. i would have been fired from that job long before even having the chance to quit from assaulting a coworker in a place like that.

i live in the deep south in the USA and luckily have been able to avoid prolonged contact with degenerates like these. good thing too, since i have a low tolerance for these types of people.

[Anonymous No.2527672]

>>2527519
Where are you at in the south? I live in Arkansas but I don't usually have too much trouble with people like that, apart from the occasional look of disgust I'll get from the white trash fuckers whilst reading in the park.

[Anonymous No.2527740]

>>2527672
I think it'd be safe to assume that he's in either Alabama, rural Georgia, or Mississippi

[Anonymous No.2527784]

Very few people I know enjoy reading; they will do it occasionally for novelty.

For awhile, my girlfriend pretended to be into reading.. I then bought her poetry and lightweight transcendentalist works, but she never opens them.
My family will often call me asking what i'm doing, "reading? That's boring, come help me move a mattress!" I do not enjoy moving mattresses, nor do I like having one of my intellectual endeavors classified as less engaging than labor.

My sister reads antidotally, and she seems interested in some of the philosophy/literary criticism i've been sharing with her (Lacan, Foucault).

I feel strangely alone. I've tried to give one of my friends recommendations towards poetry relatable to his feelings--he hasn't read any yet.

The people at my school are impressed by a well-read guy, but they are all so caught up in themselves that they just want to talk about how Shelley is relatable to FireFly.

Pop culture, industrialist ideology, and friends with low regard for the word.

[Anonymous No.2527836]

>>2527784
I totally know that feel.

I want people around me to read, I want to have someone to talk to about it, but they never give it a chance. I don't know if they lack interest in literature itself or they just don't trust me.

And I've made the same mistake of giving books to a girlfriend.

[Anonymous No.2527906]

>>2527519
I used to rage, now when I tell them they're part of the apathetic cancerous mass that's killing society I get blank stares.

Pic related... it's what goes through my head when I hear about these kids that don't like to read or at least hear a good story that doesn't get sliced up in chunks or has credits at the end.

Lots of humans on the earth, not many that are living up the second sapiens in the species.

[Anonymous No.2527923]

>>2527519
>>2527906
No wonder so many people hate reading. Just look at the whinging, self-loving, pseudo-intellectuals in this thread who think they're amazing for enjoying made up stories.

If the only people who read were faggots like you I'd hate reading too.

[Anonymous No.2527924]

when i was a little kid my parents had a policy that if i wanted a toy/game/album/whatever i had to earn it through chores or wait until b-day/xmas but if i wanted a book they'd buy it for me no questions asked. it had to be a "real book" in their eyes i.e. not a comic or low-brow magazine but stuff like goosebumps still counted. otherwise no restrictions on content. pretty cool policy except i was a firmly entrenched bookworm by the time i hit middle school and totally out of step with my peers re pop culture which in part led to my long and depressing journey into loserhood

[Anonymous No.2527938]

I'm OP's dad and although he's made the choice to waste his life reading fiction we still love him very much.

[Anonymous No.2527949]

>this thread
This is why I believe it's almost like a moral obligation to get as many people into good music, films and books as I can. If someone around me demonstrates interest or taste for any of those, I'll do everything I can to help them find their way through it.

This is also why I hate when people are elitist and protective about art as if they owned it. I've always thought that maybe if people weren't such snobs with literature, more people would care about it.

[Anonymous No.2527971]

>>2527923
>who think they're amazing for enjoying made up stories.
>who think they're amazing for enjoying looking at a screen for 2 hours
>who think they're amazing for enjoying watching people chase a ball
>who think they're amazing for enjoying pressing joystick buttons
It's pretty easy to dismiss something when you put it that way, huh?

Everyone picks their way of entertainment. You enjoy playing videogames, we enjoy reading fiction. No need to get mad, you didn't choose to be this way.

[Anonymous No.2528021]

>>2527971
I don't have problem with people who enjoy reading. I have a problem with people who enjoy reading while thinking anyone who doesn't is degenerate scum.

You know, one thing I notice a lot about /lit/ is how it's the most leftist board on 4chan in its politics, and constantly bemoans the state of the poor, and the working class crushed underneath the foot of capitalism, and simultaneously is the most derisive of the tastes and pleasures of the working class to the point of viewing their lack of interest in high art as some kind of sign of them being lesser human beings.

[Anonymous No.2528066]

My mum reads Dickens, Shakespeare and also read the Aenid, but she has bad memory so I can never really talk to her much about it.
Dad doesn't read.
Grandma always buys me books, bought me Penguin Modern classics collection a few years back and Ulysses for my birthday.
Girlfriend reads YA, easy-level stuff a la John Green
One close friend reads predominantly vintage sci-fi and another friend reads similar to me and therefore we have amazing literature/philosophy/book discussions that just rock.

[Anonymous No.2528117]

Go to starbucks, you'll find people discussing literature. They won't be good discussions, but you rarely find those anywhere anyways.

[Anonymous No.2528387]

Reading is for fags.


/thread

[Anonymous No.2528393]

>>2525807
>Do people around you value literature?
Not much people around me actually read all that much, but I'm a writer and I'm treated like a fucking Jesus Christ by everyone.

[Anonymous No.2528407]

>>2528021
Not that the right wing is any better, but yes this is a good observation. Reading fiction provides several things that are valuable to the first world leftist - it's an escape from reality (in all its nastiness, such as cognitive science proving that there is a human nature that likely conflicts with Marxism), it's a cultural signifier that separates them from the lesser people, and it provides them with something to do with their time that appears to be an intellectual activity without actually being challenging.

[Anonymous No.2528852]

>>2527923
Please, sit down, shut up and don't further enlighten us on your genetic level of mall coolness.

When /lit/ wants your opinion, they'll give it to you.

[Anonymous No.2528891]

Sometime before my birth my parents seemed to have read every /lit/ approved book known to man. Now my father just reads shitty sci-fi novels, while my mother just watches Madmen, or The Walking Dead.

Both of them are really intelligent though, if I bring up something I've read recently, they can instantly talk about it with me as if they are currently reading the novel.

[Anonymous No.2528909]

You guys are quite pretentious. But I still love all your recs.

Anyways, my mother basically read Harlequin Romance and every smutty romance fiction she could get her hands on. She read Pride and Prejudice though.

My Dad read the bible, thats all I know

My friends read Hunger Games, Harry Potter, Twilight etc. but some of them read and prefer LotR to the aforementioned.