[ 3 / biz / cgl / ck / diy / fa / ic / jp / lit / sci / vr / vt ] [ index / top / reports ] [ become a patron ] [ status ]
2023-11: Warosu is now out of extended maintenance.

/lit/ - Literature

View post   
File: 56 KB, 679x569, 1299679100697.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
1628322 No.1628322 [Reply] [Original]

What is the most pretentious book you can read in public?

>> No.1628323

>>1628322
finnegans wake

>> No.1628324

The quran.

>> No.1628329

Anything by Ayn Rand. The Bible. Anything by Poets such as William Shakespeare, Edgar Allen Poe, etc.

>> No.1628328

Philosophical Investigations

>> No.1628338

Wittgenstein. It's Wittgenstein. Or maybe Proust or Joyce or Heidegger but I got a good feeling about Wittgenstein. High-school mode: Sartre or Nietzsche.

>> No.1628346

>>1628329
Rand, yes, the rest, no. The Bible is for the devout, and Shakespeare and Poe are just good reads. There's no pretense about it.

>> No.1628351

Gravity's Rainbow.

>> No.1628358

>>1628346
>The Bible is for the devout

lol no

Anyone who knows anything about literature just wouldn't say something like this!

>> No.1628365

War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy

Mein Kampf by Adolph Hitler

The Cardinal's Mistress by Benito Mussolini

The Communist Manifesto or Das Kapital by Karl Marx

The poems of Che Guevara

Anything by James Joyce

>> No.1628369

>>1628358
The Bible has real literary value, but reading it in public is not pretentious because the Bible is also for the devout.

You happy now?

>> No.1628371

>>1628338
>Highschool mode

Oh god, that was me in Highschool. I mean, does the average individual, having not even read much Shakespeare, have more than a vague understanding of those authors. Enough to think 'pretentious'?

>> No.1628373

Mein Kampf

>> No.1628374

>>1628371
I guess most high schoolers wouldn't know shit about it but there's still a bit of "that's pretentious" among the more knowledgeable types.

Don't worry, I did it too..

>> No.1628380
File: 730 KB, 1800x2400, dos_o_toe.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
1628380

>>1628374
I used to even read Dostoevsky and when people would ask me how I found it, I would tell them not to bother because they would have a really hard time with it.

>> No.1628381
File: 15 KB, 324x400, tractatus-logico-philosophicus.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
1628381

although if you are reading this near me i would definitely pay attention.

>> No.1628382

>>1628380
it's okay dude we all make mistakes

>> No.1628383

>>1628381
>>1628338
Tee hee.

>> No.1628387

Hemingway.

>> No.1628388

>>1628381

I've heard that it's bad to carry this thing visible in public because crazies will try to talk to you.

> i would definitely pay attention.

Confirmed, it's staying in my bad.

>> No.1628390

>>1628338
>>1628365
>Joyce
I've been reading Dubliners, sometimes on the bus to school. As far as I can tell, there's nothing pretentious about Dubliners. It seems like a nice straightforward read to me.

However there's nothing pretentious about reading anything in public - not if you have a genuine wish to read the book. If you read to be seen with a book then you have a point.

>> No.1628391

>>1628382
The thing is, I still don't know if I know many people who can read it without having to struggle a bit and kick their heels over it. My aunt, I found out, is a very dedicated reader, hundreds of books. It was interesting to notice that I had already read a lot of her favourite books by the time I caught on.

She gave me a guitar once though, and I'm still meh at guitar. :C

>> No.1628393

>>1628388

It's only by thinking even more crazily than philosophers do that you can solve their problems.

>> No.1628395
File: 10 KB, 218x216, post-it.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
1628395

>>1628393

>> No.1628397

>>1628393
Montaigne disagrees.

>> No.1628400
File: 92 KB, 500x377, 1288453493239.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
1628400

>>1628397
nah they actually agree. you gotta read my book to understand though.

>> No.1628402

applied psychology manuals

>> No.1628405
File: 97 KB, 540x720, 180602_185455024826393_100000856898056_412991_2553495_n.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
1628405

Whatever she's reading.

>> No.1628406

Art of war.

>> No.1628407

definitely mein kampf

>> No.1628408

>>1628405
what a boring bloke

>> No.1628410

>>1628400
what's it called

>> No.1628413

>>1628400
"Reading's for fags"
~Montaigne

>> No.1628415
File: 94 KB, 399x388, original.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
1628415

>>1628400
>not being objective

>> No.1628417

surprised no-one has said the prince yet

>> No.1628419
File: 30 KB, 228x598, 44183_164558270227796_100000208712533_562537_8020478_n.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
1628419

>>1628408

She's got the mind of a boy, but the body of a girl.

Kinda like the opposite of you, onion.

>> No.1628422

>>1628417
That "13 things of powerful people" or whatever it's called beats it.

>> No.1628432
File: 89 KB, 480x675, Snooki.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
1628432

>>1628422
you could be right

>> No.1628431

>>1628397
>>1628413
Someone on /lit/ who actually knows Montaigne? Brofist to you sir.

>> No.1628438

Obscure Greek dramas, in the original ancient Greek.

>> No.1628441

Ulysses

>> No.1628444
File: 32 KB, 276x361, hegel.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
1628444

Continental philosophy just reeks ostentation.

>> No.1628446

>>1628417
>mfw when I've actually read this while waiting for a lecture to start.

Pretentious reading is done when the cover is clearly visible. Read anything and hide the cover/have it parallel to the floor or surface to avoid this. Then it's OK

>> No.1628458

reading ANY book in public is pretentious

i had a friend pull out a book out of her handbag at the cinema while we were waiting for the movie to start, i told her "nigga what are you doing"

>> No.1628459

>>1628432
I simply love how it quotes from the Prince with no sense of irony.

>> No.1628461

>>1628438
>implying anyone can read linear B

>> No.1628466

A Dream Play by Strindberg

The Passion of St. Anthony by Flaubert

>> No.1628468

^
Stupid faggot.

>> No.1628471

>>1628458
Uh, no. It's really not. What would you do on a 12-hour plane journey? Sit there till your iPod batteries run out? No. You'd read a book or sleep.

>> No.1628481

>>1628471
i mean like people reading in public when they could be reading at home or a library

>> No.1628489

Reading Beverly Cleary books when you are college aged or older but not too old or you look like a pedo.

>> No.1628493

ITT: book elitists criticize the reading of books in public because they have enough ego to think the implications they might draw about the person reading them was the entire point of reading the book in the first place. having said that...it does happen occasionally

>> No.1628502

>>1628468
NO U!.jpg

>> No.1628506

>>1628481
whos gonna go to all the way to the library just to read?
cmonnow.jpg

>> No.1628511

>>1628489

>What is the most pretentious book you can read in public?
>Reading Beverly Cleary books when you are college aged or older but not too old or you look like a pedo.

Wat?

>> No.1628514

Reading the New Yorker in public is borderline pretentious, so to really cross the line, you have to occasionally nod your head and laugh with subdued but knowing pleasure.

>> No.1628522
File: 25 KB, 261x400, 9781847672506.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
1628522

The Game.

>> No.1628636
File: 14 KB, 300x300, goodbyemog.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
1628636

Goodbye Mog.

>> No.1628640

>>1628514
who the fuck finds that pretentious. if i want to read a pretentious magazine i'd read the L or new york review of books

>> No.1628641

>>1628410
tentatively philosophical reflections

>> No.1628656

>>1628641

I chuckled. I hope you market it to hipsters and not philosophers.

>> No.1628663

I'd say the god delusion or anything dawkins for that matter.

Also, I fell in love and lost to the girl in op picture.

>> No.1628667
File: 11 KB, 319x238, harvey_birdman.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
1628667

I could name any book & would automatically be criticized for some ulterior motive for reading a book (of all things). So I'mma read where I want & none'a you bitches can stop me.

Ha, ha! Periods!

>> No.1628670

>>1628656
it's deliberate homage. also every philosopher would be required to have one by law

>> No.1628675

>>1628670
after the revolution, you mean?

>> No.1628687

anything thicker than 2.5 inches.

>> No.1628689
File: 73 KB, 483x483, thatday.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
1628689

The Art of War. Especially if they pull an Alex Trebek and take great pains to pronounce the author's name correctly.

>> No.1628692
File: 547 KB, 1280x1024, me as ruler of the universe.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
1628692

>>1628675
of course, don't you want to fight for your empress?

>> No.1628696

Kafka.

Fuck Kafka fans in general.

>> No.1628698

House of Leaves
People will give you funny looks as you constantly rotate the book and hold mirrors up to it

>> No.1628713

The Evolution of American Urban Society