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/lit/ - Literature

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3106629 No.3106629 [Reply] [Original]

Be honest: Whenever you see someone carrying/reading a book in public, you make sure to see the title so that you can quietly judge them based on that.

>> No.3106635

I do this.
I am not ashamed to boldly admit it.

>> No.3106637

Absolutely. First and foremost, to see if I can strike up a conversation. Most often, though, it's judgement.

>> No.3106640 [DELETED] 

I honestly hide the title so people don't think I'm a poser.

>> No.3106643

nine times out of ten it's the fucking Hunger Games

>> No.3106647

Oh wow, you're reading, that cool, I like rea...

Dammit it's someone else reading GRRM.

>> No.3106649

>>3106647
Better college-tier fantasy than middle-school tier bondage.

>> No.3106651

I always wonder what those people think of mine, since it's likely many have never heard of the authors. Is it auto assumed that they're trash, or do the people who like to judge try to look up the authors later?

>> No.3106654

Yeah, but most of them are YA shit, or ASoIaF. Though I once met a guy on the bus who was reading Catch-22. He was pretty cool.

>> No.3106661

I once saw a girl reading Kafka's Metamorphosis. I approached her and told her that I read such classics too.
...
...
...
She was a bitch.

>> No.3106672

All over-the-shoulder readers raise your hands

>Most people are reading complete shit on public transport
>tfw the owner of the book is pleb-shit at reading and you're waiting for him/her to turn the fucking page already.

>> No.3106676

>>3106654
It was probably a school assignment.

>> No.3106686

>>3106672
LOL

>> No.3106700
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3106700

>> No.3106704

>>3106700
lol, are those fifty shades of grey knockoffs?

>> No.3106708

>>3106704
Must be, cover theme + titles are just ridiculous

>> No.3106717
File: 18 KB, 450x300, 16350733[1].jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
3106717

>what I usually see

>> No.3106722

>>3106700
>reverse image search
>"Ulana Suomalak, 46, and Carina Hanks, 39, exchange some insights into racy novels at the West Thebarton Library."
>exchange some insights

I'm sure that was such a stimulating conversation.

>> No.3106852

>>3106651
Can any of you answer this? I'm not usually the type to care about what other people are reading, but I think I might be one who would look up the author later.

>> No.3106877

>>3106629
Yes, but sometimes the judgment is fair.
I just feel very lonely intellectually, so seeing people that read good books makes my day.

>> No.3106884

>>3106852
I spend my days in bookstores.
90% I know the book, 5% I guess it by the title, 5% I don't know the book and I try to sneak behind and read the page.

>> No.3106910

>>3106708

The worst I ever saw was a Fifty Shades style book set in a sci-fi setting.

The sub-title was "set phasers to do me"

I stood there holding it in bewilderment for like 5 minutes.

>> No.3106956
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3106956

>>3106910

>set phasers to do me

>> No.3106969
File: 14 KB, 482x498, that's some funny shit.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
3106969

>>3106910
Oh Jesus, that's a great anecdote, real or not.

>> No.3106971

>>3106651

i'll be honest--if i haven't heard of the author, i usually assume the book is a piece of shit.

sometimes, down the road, i'll discover the author on my own and think they're good and remember that one time i saw that person reading them, but more often than not, i just move on and don't encounter the author.

but yeah, for whatever reason, if i see someone reading an author i haven't heard of, i assume it's garbage. it's probably an ego thing--"i've heard of everyone worth hearing about," or "pff, it must be trendy hipster garbage," or "pff it must be trendy academic garbage," or whatever, depending on my mood.

>> No.3106978

>>3106969
It's real: https://play.google.com/store/books/details/Karen_Kelley_Cosmic_Sex?id=MVyEfJ433dUC&hl=en

>> No.3106993

>>3106971
Yeah, that's the response I was kind of expecting. It's a little upsetting to think of all the people who may have written me off as a trashy lit reader or never spoke to me because I'm not reading Nabokov, Camus, DFW, etc.

>> No.3107004

>>3106629
Show me what you read and I will tell you who you are.

/Thread

>> No.3107006

I met my ex in the subway when she was reading the same book that I was reading (don quixote)

I'll never talk to someone who is reading a book that I'm interested in public transport

>> No.3107009

>quietly judge them based on that

I get up in their face and tell them my opinion of their literary choices. Because everyone needs to hear what I have to say.

>> No.3107010

>>3106993
You've got it all wrong. Highbrows would write you off as a trashy lit reader for reading Nabokov, Camus, DFW.

>> No.3107011

>>3107009
You sound like a man who doesn't afraid of anything.

I respect that.

>> No.3107012

I work in a book store. most of my customers are middle aged and old women buying romance novels. The second biggest demographic is old men buying war history books

>> No.3107015

>>3107009
Why not? Incidents like that, random strangers talking to me, even people I dont' care for, are moments I rarely enjoy but in memory cherish.

>> No.3107033

I always wonder why people read 50 shades in public.

If I bust out a skin mag and go to the sex stories section on the bus people look at me weird, it's the same thing.

>> No.3107041

>>3107033

This bothers me as well. I see 50 year old women reading it in airports. Do they think we don't notice or something? I wouldn't pull up redtube in an airport, how is it any different?

>> No.3107049

>>3107041
well, me and my 12 years old sister seat in front an old guy reading lolita in the train. It was fun.

>> No.3107457

>>3106629
>quietly

>> No.3107458

>>3107033
>>3107041
When women read porn they are liberated and emancipated, when men do so they are perverts. Duh.

>> No.3107463

I once saw a 16-or-something-year-old girl reading Hagakure on the bus. Large quantities of spaghetti were spilled that day.

>> No.3107468

>>3107463
>you will never have a teenage girlfriend who's favourite movie is Ghost Dog

>> No.3108076

I like chicks reading books ..even if is shades of fuck it all I don't care I find it hot to see them bitches reading. fuck you all

>> No.3108093

>>3108076
How is reading 50 Shades of Grey or the Hunger Games any better than reading nothing at all? A cinephile wouldn't see a girl watching Transformers and say to himself, "well, at least she watches films!"

>> No.3108102

>>3107468
Been there done that.

>> No.3108105

>>3108093
why wouldn't he?

a girl who reads shit is at least a start. Much better than ''oh i don't read, reading is boring.'