/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.3572571]

So fellow /lit/s, this just happened.

>I'm reading my book while walking home from the foodstore
>Excuse me, excuse me. May I ask what you are reading?
>Turn around. Recognize a young cute girl from the foodstore that seems to have run to catch up to me just to ask this question.
>Show her
>She smiles uncertainly and just says "thanks" and goes away

I know I should have prepared for this since I've chosen to read mostly scifi/fantasy/horror/etc books and they always have these tacky ugly embarrassing covers.

Still, why didn't this happen when I was reading Bonjour Tristesse the last weak ;_;

This book is a what if about how a 2021 naval battlefleet travels back through time to 1942. It is actually a very acomplished scifi that devotes as much time for the military action as to the cultural and political impact such an event would entail. The author seems well read on his subjects and sure, some mention goes out to germans having helicopters. But. Why. Does the cover have that atrocious rendition of a future helicopter. Top mounted gun pods? A fucking swastika? My mind is thouroghly boggled

[Anonymous No.3572580]

Sorry for the spelling and gramatical errors. I seem to still be emotional about this.

[Anonymous No.3572581]

>not reading Infinite Jest
You had it coming m8

[Anonymous No.3572582]

accomplished scifi? Please stop trying to validate yourself to us in compensation for your emasculation infront of that girl.

If you don't want to seem weird, then don't read stupid shit.

[Anonymous No.3572614]

Does shit like this really happen? I'm going to start reading on the bus and see what happens.

[Anonymous No.3572621]

>>3572582
>Implying sci-fi isn't the purest form of writing humans can accomplish.

It takes our desires, our technological predispostion, our philosophies, our fears and our dramatic failing/heroism and relates them in a greater act of completion then any other genre.

Generalists are never as in depth obviously, but it is the best attempt at encapsulating humanity as a whole.

[Anonymous No.3572629]

For a MilFi time travel book, a genre that is mostly masturbatory military speculation with thinly veiled sympathies for a certain nationality, this book took it's subject seriously and the author seemed to have a firm grasp of wwII politics and history. Now I enjoy and read a lot of bad sci fi and this book was of better quality than it's more famous peers *cough turtledove cough*.

I just wish they kept the cover editor from the first book.

Also, I am weird. I will continue to read these books. Fuck the poseurs that read dostojevskij on the subway

[Anonymous No.3572636]

The girl probably glimpsed the swastika on the cover and wanted to make sure you weren't a nazi...

[Anonymous No.3572638]

>>3572614
I read all the time, bus, subway, walking home. I've done this all my life and this is the first time a complete stranger has asked me what I read. It's not common I guess.

>>3572621
Hear, hear!

[Anonymous No.3572648]

>>3572636
Nah, I hold the books I read in a way where the cover is not visible. I guess that's why she asked.

I also guess the swastika didn't impress her though.

[Anonymous No.3572652]

>not choosing a paperback that you've already read but matches your outfit

[Anonymous No.3572668]

>>3572652
fuck you

I sometimes I do this when I go out to party and need a slim book I can slip into my jacket. I usually chose Niccolo Machiavelli's "Il principe", chicks and dudes love that

[Anonymous No.3572671]

>>3572652
Thats just beyond weird.

[Anonymous No.3572685]

>>3572668
>treating books as fashion accessories

[Anonymous No.3572711]

>>3572652
>>3572668

[Anonymous No.3572741]

>>3572571
>Show her
>She smiles uncertainly and just says "thanks" and goes away
There's your problem. she already took a big step in approaching you and asking you a "on the surface" mundane question as a conversation starter. Not everyone is a brilliant conversationist, so she's not going to be able to come right back with a bright insight/joke right away. I would say that's your job, if you wanted to maintain the conversation. Just showing her wasn't going to cut it.

[Anonymous No.3572791]

>>3572741
Well, to be honest I wasn't really interested in getting her number or anything. Myself, I was unwashed, unshaved and even if this made me look more attractive in some way, it's not how I usually look so it would be a disapointment for the girl. Also, the girl was cute but also somewhere between15-20 in age. I myslef look younger than I am, and what I am is about double that girls age.

I just want to look cool while reading shit I like I guess.

[Anonymous No.3572817]

>>3572791
Sorry, I misunderstood.
Then all I have to say is the generic "read for your own enjoyment, not to impress others".
But if you want to look cool, humorous self deprecation is pretty cool when done right, in my book

[Anonymous No.3572835]

>>3572817
Yea yeah, god advice. I just wanted to share and hear if this happened to anyone else.

[Anonymous No.3572898]

This happened to me Saturday morning:

>sitting at bus stop on campus
>no one is around because spring break
>pretty cute girl reading on a bench facing my bench
>wearing a comely summer dress
>it's a gorgeous spring day, the first this year
>it's so quiet I can hear her turning the pages
>discreetly look at spine of her book
>"NIETZSCHE"
>I instantly know the honors course she's taking and the professor that teaches it (I almost took it)
>it's a situation *made* for me to start a conversation
>we sit in silence for 10 minutes
>a car stops and asks for directions; I provide directions
>we sit quietly another 5 minutes
>we get on bus
>I end up talking to an elderly hick about my camping backpack

[Anonymous No.3572899]

>>3572898
I forgot to mention the best part: I was thinking about posting this story on /lit/ basically the entire time I was sitting there avoiding eye contact.

[Anonymous No.3572991]

that happened to me once, except i was reading Poe's complete works, and the girl was kind of fat and homely. you know, the kind i'd expect to share such hobbies

[Anonymous No.3573542]

>>3572685
>>3572711
Stay mad, all I need is my flannels, hiking boots and a copy of The Dharma Bums.

[Anonymous No.3573547]

>>3572898
>>3572899

Oh lawdy, I cringed hard.


>the best part: I was thinking about posting this story on /lit/ basically the entire time I was sitting there avoiding eye contact.
That fucking feel.

You really blew it though, I hope that if any of us are ever in a similar situation that we don't fuck up that badly.

[Anonymous No.3573571]

>>3572571
Hah. I remember Birmingham when he was posting on forums with "ORIGINAL WRITING DO NOT STEAL" written all over it.

[Anonymous No.3573626]

>>3572629
>this book took it's subject seriously and the author seemed to have a firm grasp of wwII politics and history.
No, it didn't. Read soc.history.what-if rip him apart.

It is alienspace bat country.

[Anonymous No.3573668]

>my beautiful girlfriend and I sit and read together often

[Anonymous No.3573694]

>>3573668
She fucks someone else

[Anonymous No.3573729]

>>3572899
iktfb