Fuckin' Books

[Waus]

Facebook rolled out that new "Books you've read" thing who knows when, and I had to wait for some rice to cook so I was going to take my "likes" over to "reads." I realized when I started cataloguing all the books I owned, I've read less than 33% of 90% of them.

I've probably technically had the time, too - and I wasted loads of it on Borderlands 2, Civ 5 etc.

Is it worthwhile to catalogue all the books you've read or is it narcissistic? Furthermore, is it actually worthwhile to finish most books - or is that a sort of artificial cultural value that doesn't translate to anything useful or real?

[Yorkshire~Rose]

There is so much snobbery with books though. People are going to be putting that they have read the entire works of Leo Tolstoy when in fact you are more likely to find a well thumbed copy of Fifty Shades of Grey on their bedside table.
Not that i've ever read that of course ;) Or Tolstoy for that matter.

I do tend to read the whole book once i've started though. Although I tend to have at least 2 books on the go at once.

[Adam]

"He who destroys a good book kills reason itself"

Civ V isn't a waste, some of my most intelligent quotes come from computer games.

I got rid of all my books and now I get them at the library only. It's amazing how having a time limit on a book forces you to finish it and when you take it back you're always tempted for another. Going through all the Terry Pratchett right now. It's a third go which is a shame as Colour of Magic is no way his best book yet it's the one to start with, now that I'm I've read at least one of each kind (witches, death, rincewind etc) I know which ones I want to do next.

Now I want to play Civ V

[Dorothy Wood]

I don't read much literature. I do have a lot of books around though. I'm reading a book on the origins of stand up, before that I barely cracked "Proust was a Neuroscientist" or something. The premise was interesting but it didn't grab me.

Honestly I can't get into most books, I get tired, my eyes can't take it. I cant stand the writer's voice. I do really love Tom Wolfe though.

Anyway I wouldn't worry too much about not reading.

[Guy Incognito]

thread title was misleading. or my brain is in the gutter.
its not about sex manuals then. Never mind


I should read more in general but am too lazy. I like biographies and i always vowed to read them even if i didnt know who it was about but i guess i just read ones of people i like.

[Waus]

Anyway I wouldn't worry too much about not reading.

I guess I just want to be able to think about and talk about people like Kant or Nietzsche or whatever without being pretentious. That is, having actually read more than a few pages here and there before I got up to do something else.

[MC Moot]

I consider books to be as reflective of my personality as the music I love, food in my fridge and the art on my walls…reading is essential and wickedly enjoyable to me…it’s a familial tradition…being “well read’ is one of the best assets a person can acquire…read!...read all the time!...read anything!...humour,sci-fi,bio’s,history,mystery,magazines, graphic novels,comic books, short story’s,newspapers,menus,whatever…never stop reading…it fires the cerebral cortex and stirs the imagination, creative process and vocabulary…in short it makes one a hell of a lot more interesting and healthy…now having said that my home library contains only 2 or 3 titles that I haven’t read yet but will soon…everything else that remains is there because of a specific reason…I own no bad books and I don’t collect literature to front, posture or pose…

[Dorothy Wood]

no offense moot, but you're the second person I've come across who loves and values reading, but writes with atrocious grammar! :)


Waus, once an old boyfriend of mine faxed me pages of Nietzsche at work to read and I thought it was the most pretentious thing that had ever happened ever. I tried to read it, but I got bored.

I think that definitely reading is a good thing, and if you love it and you want to read all the time you should do it. I just think that sometimes people are stimulated by different media and non-readers shouldn't feel bad about watching video or reading internet stuff to get information/stimulation. It's really all just information, doesn't matter if it comes in the form of ink on a page, does it? does that make it better? I don't know, is there scientific research that proves that? if so, I'll eat my words.

[M|X|Y]

i think 90% of people (http://m.memegen.com/9f0t5e.jpg) who call themselves well read just like the way they sound when they say names like "Proust". *cringe*

Like that kid in school who stayed up all night studying and got really good grades, but is actually the dimwit who scored a 1000 on the SAT. Knows all the words, but really doesn't get the ideas. I knew this kid. Had all the accoutrements of a smart person but actually nothing but crickets in the dome. No substance.

There is so much snobbery with books though. People are going to be putting that they have read the entire works of Leo Tolstoy when in fact you are more likely to find a well thumbed copy of Fifty Shades of Grey on their bedside table.

yes. except that instead of snobbery (which can sometimes imply justified elitism - yes sometimes snobbery is justified), i'd call it douchebaggery. and instead of Shades of Grey, i'd call it an issue of Vice Magazine opened to the do's and don't section with notes scribbled at the margins.

[Waus]

Waus, once an old boyfriend of mine faxed me pages of Nietzsche at work to read and I thought it was the most pretentious thing that had ever happened ever. I tried to read it, but I got bored.

It's really all just information, doesn't matter if it comes in the form of ink on a page, does it? does that make it better?

That is pretty pretentious. I tried reading "Thus Spoke Zarathustra" and got through the first handful of chapters. I tried reading "The Will to Power" it felt like scribbles under headings and random thoughts. I finally found "A Nietzsche Reader" at the local used book store and I picked that up for like $6 because I thought it'd save me from the apparently grueling work of trying to read the originals.

I'm not really one of those reading snobs though - the kind who brags about "not owning a TV" and so on. I've just found that some types of knowledge lend themselves better to reading than television or radio or whatever.

[MC Moot]

no offense moot, but you're the second person I've come across who loves and values reading, but writes with atrocious grammar! :)

Semantics become irrelevant when the message is on point...:rolleyes:

[Dorothy Wood]

Semantics become irrelevant when the message is on point...:rolleyes:

Well maybe, I just find it curious. You'd think a voracious reader would tend to have good grammar when writing, but I've been noticing it's the opposite. I'm mostly concerned with your comma use and using apostrophes to make things plural. Not picking on you, it's just curious to me. I had grammar drilled into my head from a young age so I can't help but react when I see bad grammar especially when it comes from smart people.

[Adam]

I didn't see nothing wrong with his sentences. Your being spiteful. You could of let it go. Less mistakes that get pointed out affects the member's whose moral in the board right now is low.

[M|X|Y]

No. He's nice but his grammar really is terrible!

Grammar is like a form of etiquette. You can chew with your mouth open and burp at the dinner table to your heart's content... but most people will find it unpleasant.

Saying "grammar doesn't matter so long as the message gets through" is like saying "eating out of a bowl (like a dog) is fine so long as you're getting the food into your belly".


That said, I HAVE to start using capitalization. I started being lazy about it here but it's leaked into work, emailing, etc where I have to watch myself. My grammar isn't always great, but I try. Bad habits.

Sorry, Moot(y)

[MC Moot]

No need to apologize!...jeez it's all just shit's and giggles...my ego is entirely to centric to be effected...english is my second language and this forum is not a term paper a proposal or a quarterly report...In short I've got nothing to lose cause I don't give a fuck...in addition my table manners and social grace are much more refined than all of your petty naysaying...In comparrison ya'all be eating salad with the cake fork fools!...:D

[M|X|Y]

You've missed the point but ok. Grammar is kind of similar between English and Spanish. At least in the punctuation department. Just saying.

[MC Moot]

You've missed the point but ok. Grammar is kind of similar between English and Spanish. At least in the punctuation department. Just saying.

You're talking loud and saying nothing...really...my form is fine...the format is moot...

[M|X|Y]

Hold on... I can't hear you with my head in this dinner bowl!

Keep on with your humpty-hump, Sr. Moot(y)

[MC Moot]

Damn it all man!...It's not a dinner bowl it's a tureen and everyone else is staring at you!...;)

[zippo]

i just want to indicate that spanish and english most definitely do not have similar grammar, making it the hardest part for a person who´s learning it as a second language to learn. Vocabulary is another story. Punctuation, as mentioned, could be considered similar but the possessives with "apostrophe S" you all were giving him a hard time for don´t exist in spanish.

My point being, for a guy writing in his second language, that´s pretty damn good which is even more than i could say for some people on this board! :)

[russhie]

My taste in books is far from pretentious, but I wish I had the patience to read a classic or two, or read the complete works / political theory of such-and-such.

Currently reading Killing Fairfax, and about to start on Fairfax: The Rise & Fall. Anyone with an interest in Australian media should take a geez.