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/lit/ - Literature

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5425514 No.5425514 [Reply] [Original]

Books you wish people wouldn't ask you what they're about.

>> No.5425534

>>5425514
But yours has a great answer!

"A movie is playing and it's so entertaining that viewers physically refuse to do anything else but watch it forever. People walk into the room where it is playing and are immediately sucked in."

Plebians become vaguely interested in the premise, squint, and just, just ever so briefly consider reading a difficult book.

>> No.5425550
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5425550

>> No.5425617

I just say it's about a tennis academy and a rehab center. Am I not wrong?

>> No.5425619

>>5425550
Description on the back of mine
""A screaming comes across the sky..." A few months after the germans' secret v2 rocket bombs begin falling in London, British intelligence discovers that a map of the city pinpointing the sexual conquests of one lieutenant Tyrone slothrop, U.S army, corresponds identically to a map showing the v2 impact sites. The implications of this discovery will launch slothrop on an amazing journey across wartorn Europe, fleeing an international cabal of military-industrial superpowers, in search of the mysterious rocket 00000, through a wildly comic extravaganza... (Then it goes into reviews)

>> No.5425642

>>5425617
That's the main story, but then there's a shit tonne of minor sub-plots all focusing on the themes of addiction, fear and depression.

>> No.5425650

Any book ever
Fuck trying to coherently convey the plot

>> No.5425653

>>5425617
I usually just say it's about tennis, weed, wheelchair assassins, Québec separatists, and addiction to entertainment. I've gotten confused looks.

>> No.5425656

>>5425514
this fat, super friendly, black security guard asked me what "the phenomenology of spirit" (that's how i had it translated at the time) was about and if it was about ghosts

>> No.5425662

i hate that question about all books. it's just annoying. it's one of those questions that feels impossible to answer accurately without being pretentious, like "what music do you like?"

>> No.5425666

>>5425662
This post pretty much summed up what I wanted to say in >>5425650

>> No.5425667

>>5425662
I agree.

>> No.5425671

>>5425656
with that name it actually could

>> No.5425673

Any book I've said I read when I actually didn't.

>> No.5425705
File: 39 KB, 298x436, littlebigLRG.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
5425705

agree with >>5425662 but in particular pic related

>some girl asks me what it's about
>uh it's a sort of fantasy love story about this family that has a special connection with like faeries or something?

i look like such a turbofag. keep in mind im on like page 150 at this point

i didn't have this cover though lol

>> No.5425822
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5425822

>"white noise? anon whats that about?"
>uh, theres a professor of hitler studies, and marriage issues, and somebody gets shot. its very postmodern, haha...
>"postmodern? you mean like, futuristic?"

>> No.5425839
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5425839

>> No.5425857
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5425857

>> No.5425878
File: 110 KB, 827x1200, 614h0wOZHeS.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
5425878

>drugs

>> No.5426119

>>5425534
>o, sounds like a shitty knock off of The Ring

>> No.5426146

>>5425878
>shock value shit tier writing that trendy hipsters say is awesome because other trendy hipsters think its awesome

piece of garbage
same as the rest of the beats

>> No.5426175
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5426175

>It's a WWII novel :^)

Real tactic employed by me several months ago NEVAR 4GET

>> No.5426183

>>5425822

Man, I laughed so hard at that picture but then I stared at it a little longer and got kinda scared.

>> No.5426678

I was reading Gravity's Rainbow before class yesterday and a female classmate went up and sat next to me and asked what the book was about. I was just at the point where Rocketman meets Mickey Rooney while trying to steal weed from President Truman.

I looked up straight into her eyes. I said:"Everything. It's about everything.", and proceeded reading.

She then said "Oh, wow.". We didn't talk after that. I don't think she could comprehend the unending content of the vast intermittencies that lie, waiting, underneath this swirling sun.

She looked like a young Christina Ricci but with Olivia Wilde's jaw.

>> No.5426738

2666

>> No.5427128

>>5425514
tennis and addiction

>>5425550
rockets and excrement

>>5425839
spooky ghosts

>>5425878
buggery and heroin

>> No.5427186

>>5425550
Pfft, thats easy.

Its about a squad of Namibian Black Rocket Scientists in post-WW2 Europe seeking the V2 rocket number 0 in order to bomb Greenland to destroy the land of death, while being pursued by their leader's Russian stepbrother, an American GI whose boners are capable of predicting V2 hit zones and a German engineer who rapes his daughter annually to make sure that there is an emotional bond between them (he is not sure, for one).

>> No.5427210

No one's said Lolita yet?

>> No.5427221

>>5426678
>She looked like a young Christina Ricci but with Olivia Wilde's jaw.

So a man?

>> No.5427237

>"Hey anon whats that book you're readin"
>Oh this, its called Babyfucker
>"whats it about anon?"

How do you respond

>> No.5427250

>>5427210
>be 15
>out at a family dinner with relatives and family
>"Hey anon, what are you reading? Lolita? What's that about?"
>"n-nothing"
>"Come on anon, let us read the back!"
>"n-no"

I stopped bringing physical copies of books out and five years later, to this day they still ask what that 'mysterious' book was about.

>> No.5427256

>>5427237
I doubt you'd get a chance to explain. You can always say
>It's actually disappointing once you start reading it.

>> No.5427277

Reading Norwegian Wood now

I really struggle every time someone asks

>> No.5427306

>>5425514
tennis and irony

>>5425550
sex and rockets

>>5425878
aliens

>>5425839
trees and crows

>>5425656
it's a history book

>> No.5427339

>>5427277
Japanese student comes of age while love forces him to make tough decisions.

easy

>> No.5427382

>>5427277
A book dedicated to name dropping bands and other books.

>> No.5427398

>>5425534
I usually try to give that answer but combined with explaining how that's only what it's about in a superficial sense, and how it's really about addiction, seeking happiness etc. but I get tongue-tied and sound like a real idiot.

>> No.5427461

>>5425878
couldnt stand this book.

>> No.5427501

>>5427398
I just tell them about the IJ movie and that its a sad satire.

>> No.5427613
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5427613

This one. Whenever I try all I get is really weird looks.

>> No.5428378

Only one... Naked lunch of miller,

>> No.5428605

>>5427250
>I stopped bringing physical copies of books out and five years later, to this day they still ask what that 'mysterious' book was about.

You're doomed when they figure out how to operate Wikipedia.