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/lit/ - Literature

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4073584 No.4073584 [Reply] [Original]

A question to those avid readers in here, what's the benefit of reading books? I've read books for 3 years, sometimes I would pause and take a long break, sometimes I would go full on, but I can't say it's helped me overcome hurdles in my life, a few hurdles here are there maybe but I'm still miserable. They say knowledge is power, but does it perform? What does it mean to be happy and intelligent? Does reading have anything to do with success?

>> No.4073591
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4073591

>assuming that reading is anything other than the finest for of entertainment
>Fully plebeian

>> No.4073597

>>4073591
Stop trolling me and help me here.

>> No.4073608

Literature is the only thing I care about. That's all.

>> No.4073610

>implying living the life of the mind is not its own reward

thinking books will give you some kind of middle class version of "success" was the first mistake you made

>> No.4073612

you can learn stuff from non fiction
don't know what the benefits are with fiction other than its entertaining and fun.

>> No.4073631

>>4073584
>what's the benefit of reading books?
Increased articulation, higher capability of metaphorical reasoning, more comfortability with ambiguity, trivial knowledge
>I can't say it's helped me overcome hurdles in my life
>I'm still miserable
>They say knowledge is power, but does it perform?
Books aren't the answer for your problems. They are only conduits to the kinds of benefits listed above. You still have to figure out how to use those benefits for your particular situation.
>Does reading have anything to do with success?
Some people think so. I think it's a combination of reading and knowing what to do with the things you read. As well as a shitload of luck.

>> No.4073633

>>4073584
The idea that you are becoming more intelligent by reading is flawed. Reading by itself does absolutely nothing for you outside of entertainment, however literary studies are a different matter. An in depth, critical reading of a great work of fiction will work to expand your vocabulary and along with it your articulation, as well as your ability to think metaphorically and critically. Of course, the same could be said for the analysis of great film or music.

>> No.4073658

In my opinion, if you are asking questions like that then you really shouldn't be here. Think about it. Why is literature meant to benefit your life affairs? Literature is what you want it to be.

Knowledge performs if you want it to, and you impose your own meaning on happiness and intelligence.

>> No.4073664

>>4073633
How can I learn to read critically?

>> No.4073706

>>4073584
Depends on what you read. You're awfully vague about what that reading was and not all reading are equal, both in content and method.

Furthermore, if you're reading as a substitute for doing those things which you fear doing, hoping that you'll find in book an oblique way to conquer your fears, then yeah you'll be fucked.

I've been doing everything except what I fear for too long not to know that it's completely useless. I haven't progressed for shit and in fact in many way have regressed.

Don't read expecting anything else than what the book has to offer. It's never really life changing.

Think of it this way : you didn't become the person that you are by reading books.

>> No.4073723

>>4073584
what is the benefit

>> No.4073724

>>4073706
>Don't read expecting anything else than what the book has to offer. It's never really life changing.

>Think of it this way : you didn't become the person that you are by reading books.

I beg to differ. Reading books is part of your life experience, in some cases it can be life-changing (though that's not common) and it definitely impact on how you evolves, particularly when you start reading at young age.

Agree with the rest of the post though. Reading is no shortcut to any form of succes, it simply is a very interesting way to entertain your mind and develop your thinking

>> No.4073726

you become smart as hell. people around you fear and respect you. it's epic.

>> No.4073731

>>4073724
Say, good sir, I was too general.

Let's instead think of it this way : most people don't become who they are by reading books. This include people that read books.

This suggests that the person you will be will be as little influenced by your current reading that the person that you are now was by it's past reading.

Reading is a low emotional, low involvement activity. It's nothing like a parental or social relationship, it's nothing like coping in a new environment. It's precisely because it is so dissimilar to those experience that people want books to be life changing. It'd be much more preferable to having to tolerate the sufferings that comes with the alternative.

>> No.4073980

>>4073584
Hard work and guts > Reading

Man up faggot.

>> No.4073989

>>4073731
That's a fair point, kind sir. However, books can change the way you make decision and look at things, and it can have an influence on your worldview. That's particularly true for people who started reading late and in a moment of great despair and confusion, and also for people who used to read the same kind of books and were suddenly exposed to an entirely different worldview. But it woud probably be more accurate to say that books generally move you on a purely intellectual level (although there is some emotion in involved in reading, that's not what has the more lasting influence) and that when they are involved in a life-changing decision plenty of other cicumstances have to be factored in. To make it short, books are like cogs, big and small, in the great machinery of your self-transformation: they do move the mechanism towards its end result, but they generally don't provide the momentum.


>>4073980
That's a stupid way of putting it. Hard work is well and good, and guts are necessary, but it is not always enough. Knowing where you're headed, having an idea of how to spend your life energy and towards what end work hard is important, if not essential.

>> No.4073991

idk i only read cause i'm hoping one day it'll help me pick up chicks

>> No.4073995

>>4073991
helped me at least 3x, gl bro.

>> No.4075245

>>4073664
Well, I think the way that I learned (which I'm sure a good deal of lit will think is retarded) was too tackle the most difficult books I could, then read what scholars have written about them and try to make those types of connections. Read through Joyce and Faulkner, then read the countless papers and articles about them, and see for yourself how much the books can mean.

Slow yourself down in your reading, try and find out why a certain word is more effective than another, use up the margins for notes. Find links between plots, characters, authors, genres, anything. Relate things with one another.

A great deal of my critical reading ability comes from professional training in acting. You look at nothing but dialogue and try to figure out as much about this human being (and the character has to become a human, it's your job as an actor to make him human), you figure his motivations/history/desires/fears from his interactions with his surroundings. You read the same play thirty, forty times in a few months. Memorization aids understanding. It's because I had to study people that I learned to study places and times, and so that is all I can suggest to you.

>> No.4075265

>>4073991
>>4073995
how do you guys use books to get chicks even, it's always hurt my chances (because i sit inside and read instead of roaming about searching for pussy)

>> No.4075283

It's hard to justify that $20,000 degree in Lit. Some are smarter about such things.

Approach it for fun. How many things can be said about man besides that he's a bastard? You run out of ideas quickly. But it's still fun, even if not new.

>> No.4075420

>>4073991
yes. lol. thanks for my morning laugh

>> No.4075693

>>4075245
>Well, I think the way that I learned (which I'm sure a good deal of lit will think is retarded) was too tackle the most difficult books I could, then read what scholars have written about them and try to make those types of connections.
Is there even a different way to start, I feel like it would be extremely difficult to recognize any connections if you've never encountered anything making any sort of intelligent connections in the first place

>> No.4075707

>>4075283
>reading
>for fun
knowledge for the sake of knowledge
no other necessary reason to read, and no other reason is superior for any activity