When did you realise that the promotion of reading as an end

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>>8385777
shut up nerd

>>8385777
>obnoxious social posturing
Like your post?
Is that the bait?

>>8385777
Some people read, and some people just own books. It has always been this way - commodity fetishism.

There's been a dilettante element since the victorian era, but I really think the shit hit the fan since the promotion of pop-sci, pop-lit

There's this good intention of promoting hobbies to the masses through easily digestible and fashionable formatting, which was just intended to hook people; unfortunately, it became its own entity with people wishing to assume the airs that the popism had made fashionable through false easily digestible knowledge

Really every hobby I have is overun with image obsessed people that makes me feel quite lonely from my only means of genuine interaction being destroyed

I read at home and talk about books online.

Nobody who knows me knows I read and I don't talk to any of them because none of them can read or think.

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>>8385855
Smoke DeGrasse Highson is my friday entertainment

>>8385837
Take this trip fag saying nothing and positioning his sentence like something oscar wilde would say, without the meaning or wit

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>>8385777
I'm not entirely sure what you mean, but humans are social creatures. Having said that, when someone reads a book I think it's most natural for them to want to talk about it and shares thoughts on it with someone. You can't pick up on everything yourself so I assume it can be fun taking in what the other person perceived as they read the same novel.

As for the fetishism for classical literature. I think you may be projecting. I don't think it's anywhere close to being a big deal if you read it. I've never had anyone complement me on reading highbrow shit, though I have had relatives spark up conversations with me in an attempt to bond. But they would do that with anything, if I were into painting lotr figurines then they'd still display a similar interest.

It might also be because I'm depressed and can't see myself reading YA fiction. Classical literature is literally the only thing I can bear, but even that is a bore sometimes. I just do it cause I have no friends, no job, no life, no hobbies, and it helps kill time.

Holy shit I'm such a faggot

>>8385855

>What are you reading?
>It was written by Albert Camus, he was...
>...So anyway I read The Hunger Games and A Song of Ice and Fire, they're totes the best books ever
>mfw

Fucking lit normies

>>8385777
When I left the education system and realized that you don't bave to read what's considered classical literature, or it gas critically good reviews, or whatever's popular if you don't genuinely enjoy it. If you're reading something out of obligation or expectation, except if it's related to your job, you're putting yourself through unecessary pain. Especially if you're doing it just to brag about it to peope. Don't do it, it doesn't work, no one cares, and people might hate you for it.

For example, I am unlikely to ever read any of Mark Twain's works, Moby Dick, or ever finish Infinite Jest, I'm aware that the first two are considered classic literature, and the last one, I only picked it up because it seemed like everyone on the internet could not the fuck up about it. But I'm not going to read them, because either I can't be bothered; it's too long and I'm likely not to enjoy it, and don't care, or is so boring I put it down and never finish it again. To be honest, you only need to read just one 1000 pg. plus 'heavy' classical book, or critical, important book. In my case it was Ulysses by Joyce, and while it wasn't that terrible to slog through, I can't say it was a total pleasure to read.

Do the 100 pg. test with a book. If you've lost interest past that mark, the book is not for you. Fuck what people on the Internet, on the street, on the Opinion or Books section of the New York Times say, don't force yourself to read something you don't like. You wouldn't continue watching a movie you don't like, or continue hanging with comoany you don't enjoy, so why does it change with literature?

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>>8385917
>You wouldn't continue watching a movie you don't like, or continue hanging with comoany you don't enjoy
Y-yeah

>>8385917
To be honest though, I'm so deep into depression that I don't enjoy anything. I'm irrationally using all my will power to fight apathy and lethargy. As a result I strictly read 'classical literature' because why not? It's easier to trudge through than meaningless young adult shit imo

I always thought that reading "as an end in itself" was bound to die

reading for a good story is sustainable; reading for edification is sustainable; reading for a laugh is sustainable. reading "for the sake of reading" cannot last.

>>8385942
I don't consider anything written during and starting around the First World War and after it classical literatue. As far as I'm concerned and history is concerned, it's modern. Read modern literature. Start reading lighter novels, or short stories by Orwell, Hemingway, or Remarque. I reccomend Irvine Welsh, Haruki Murakami, Kerouac, and Joshua Ferris. I can't really relate to people speaking Elizabethan English, or the annoying overplayed and overpriced mannerisms of Victorian people, it's a chore to contextualize that setting with what I read, so start with stuff that's within our era.

>>8385777
By its very nature, social interaction, and by extension writing (along with reading), is inherently fraught with posturing.

>>8386023
Most of what I've been reading has been from the 19th century. The historical context keeps me attentive. I've read some Camus and Orwell, though I loathed the latter. I've been on the edge about reading Kerouac just cause it seems kind of edgy. What do you like about him?

>>8385866
My meaning was clear and plainly written, so I don't know where you get the idea that I was acting pretentious. If I am pretentious then you are an embittered inverse snob.