If this professor is only counting chapter books that don't have pictures I have always thought that is a stupid rule. There are lots of good books that aren't chapter books...
Graphic novels especially are considered great literature in Europe but American snobs would never know it. If you look at some of the best movies in recent times they have been based on graphic novels like the Road to Perdition.
Does reading every post on the front page of the LR forum count as a book?
and of course thats not even mentioning superhero movies like Watchmen or the regular DC and Marvel universes...
The guest at your party sounds like a total antisocial bitch, but you really should be reading...
I lead a very active and social life, but I also read. I try to read ten pages a night at a minimum. Most of the time i end up reading more, but I make 10 a minimum. It just makes me open the book.
I really enjoy it, it is just too easy to do something else.
I bought a kindle but I hated it. I enjoy books. Soemthing about the experience I guess.
I also recently started reading The Economist, which is hard. At the same time, it honestly makes me much more intelligent, at least for the week. I used to get it when I traveled, consume the thing on my first flight, and then discuss the matters throughout my business trip. I realized I could do it daily. It comes on Friday and I read half with my coffee on Saturday morning and the other half on Sunday afternoon. Surprisingly, I have become a little more confident in my opinions.
Books are different though. Books are art. You need to read literature. It helps build a completely different aspect of your person.
Start with Vonnegut, Hemingway, Salinger and Orwell. Move on from there. It is fun. Some beer(s) and Hemingway can be a fun evening, believe it or not... Yes, I am married with kids and I do have a social life.
[quote]asdffsad wrote:
Everyone, thanks for the responses! I knew I'd get several colorful posts - you did not disappoint. To the poster who asked, I have a master's in management.'
You must have read some boring nonsense for that
What you need is something exciting to read try Bravo 2 Zero or Touching the Void
formerly present wrote:
Flipside: I feel bad, too, but I feel bad about myself. (Because--let's be honest--isn't it all about me?)
In a great year, I might read 100 books. (Of course, that sort of means not being on this site...) Even if I live another 50 years (hah! based on family history, I'll be lucky to get half that), that means I'll read no more than 5,000 books in the rest of my life. And every old favorite that I re-read means another new book I'll never get to.
[The one positive of realizing this: I'm very ready to stop reading a book before I finish it. If I start it, but it's just not grabbing me, I'll put it down for some days or weeks, then I *might* pick it up again; but if I give it two chances and I still DNF, out it goes. (It helps that almost all the books I read are from the library. Lots cheaper that way.)]
Anyway, 5,000 books (and much more likely to be 1,000 - 2,000) for the remainder of my life doesn't seem like very many. Sad to think what I'll be missing.
Good to know I'm not the only one that feels that way!
I got in this same arguement with a chick I dated wonce when she was telling me how great the Harry Potter books are and I should read them. I told her why should I read them when I can go watch the fvcking movie and get the same thing alot faster and its more fun. WE borke up because she was the same way, a snob about reading and being smarter than otehr poeple. You can read most books on Wikapedia and get everything important is 15 mintues. Books are old technology for poeple to show off.
This conversation is spectacular! Keep it up.
I dont know what you expected, this website is for people who like to run, not a bunch of brainiac book readers.
I never read novels, only biographies and non-fiction, and then I find it difficult to read at home. The main reading I do is on a plane because there is NOTHING else to do.
So my book total is dependent on the number of times Im in an airport.
asdffsad wrote:
To the poster who asked, I have a master's in management.
Say no more . . .
RonRon wrote:
I got in this same arguement with a chick I dated wonce when she was telling me how great the Harry Potter books are and I should read them. I told her why should I read them when I can go watch the fvcking movie and get the same thing alot faster and its more fun. WE borke up because she was the same way, a snob about reading and being smarter than otehr poeple. You can read most books on Wikapedia and get everything important is 15 mintues. Books are old technology for poeple to show off.
You're better off without her. Reading such material as Harry Potter does not entitle one to turn one's nose up at people.
No, if one wants to be like my good friend Mr. Eustace Tilley and I, one is going to to need to read something much snootier; perhaps the early John Updike or the later Henry James . . . maybe some Cheever.
And to the OP, the professor at the barbecue was probably not entitled to turn her nose up at anyone either. We snobs are not likely to be seen attending a barbecue. Imagine, Eustace and I at a barcecue, eating pork rinds and drinking cheep beer! No, no, I'm afraid wine and cheese is more our speed.
She probably teaches at a state school! Hah! What is that clever joke about such institutions . . . oh, yes, "Moo U," ho ho, hah . . . oh my!
EZ10Miler wrote:
I never read novels, only biographies and non-fiction, and then I find it difficult to read at home. The main reading I do is on a plane because there is NOTHING else to do.
So my book total is dependent on the number of times Im in an airport.
You need to buy a DS. I see busines guys and pulling them out on a plane or using there iphones, not just kids. You can find almost anykind of game you want for a DS besides Pokemon. Its alot less boring than reading.
lol
asdffsad wrote:
Everyone, thanks for the responses! I knew I'd get several colorful posts - you did not disappoint. To the poster who asked, I have a master's in management. Keep up the discussion!
This conversation is spectacular! Keep it up.
Seriously shut up and stop cheering on your lame topic...
Thanks for the bump!
America is doomed - how can a bunch of ignorant doofuses manage a global superpower?
oh wait, they don't. the people who run the country actually do read books.
Hmm.
Here's a logical leap...
Maybe...if you want to succeed, read books.
ya grok?
This is really a trick question. Define books? Do books of pictures of naked women count? Or comic books? Kid books? Or the dictionery like someone said? What if its a really long book compaired to a really short book - does it count more?
Your grammar isn't good enough for you to be a snob.
I'm lucky if I can manage 1 bonk a year