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/lit/ - Literature


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13496486 No.13496486 [Reply] [Original]

>Detecting a pleb library at a glance

Give me some tips /lit/

>> No.13496495

>>13496486

>White bookshelves

>> No.13496508
File: 70 KB, 727x1098, 1525642257138.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
13496508

>Books in only one language

>> No.13496529

>>13496486
Tips to detect? The presence of juvenile fiction, franchise tie-ins, among literature the overuse of uniform aesthetic by publisher (Penguin, Easton Press or worse yet Barnes & Noble)

>> No.13496532

>color-coded

>> No.13496534
File: 293 KB, 1024x1024, life_by_spiegellicht-d8jzu4n.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
13496534

>No books in poor physical condition

>> No.13496538
File: 1.58 MB, 3024x4032, bookshelf.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
13496538

>>13496486

They really make YA shit be really colorful and stand out, don't they?

>> No.13496541

>>13496486
It's too ordered and tidy.

>> No.13496598

>>13496486
If more than a handful of books in your library are written by people still alive. And the ones that are alive are younger than 40.

>> No.13496642

>>13496486
Posts on 4chan

>> No.13496647

>>13496538

Is it just me or does looking at that shelf make one think that whomever actually read all that is probably still a more interesting person than most other hobbyless people?
Sure, they probably really like all their drivel, but it's probably made them think about things more than vidya has made vidya folk think.

I'd rather talk to someone about something like Twilight or DeathNote than I would about League of Legends or CS:GO.

Not to say there are no interesting games, but as far as pleb-tier goes, pleb-tier books are probably a lot better for a person than pleb-tier games or movies or any other plebmedia.

>> No.13496784
File: 3.18 MB, 3264x2448, 20190719_194240.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
13496784

Hi friends, is my shelf the shelf of a pleb?

>> No.13496793
File: 92 KB, 854x1225, 1559666995305.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
13496793

>>13496486
Give your shelf some more style like me.

>> No.13496794

>>13496486
plastic toys and ""collectibles"
translations
theology books that have clearly never been read

>> No.13496813

>>13496495
This. They should be covered in grubby handprints.

>> No.13496826

>>13496784
Worse, it's the shelf of an Australian

>> No.13496855

>>13496647
>think about things more than vidya has made vidya folk think
that's stupid
idk about league of legends but a game like dota can really prepare one for the disappointments in life, the importance of collaboration and paying a rightful price for your mistakes. Basically all the hard knock lessons of life.

>> No.13496865

>>13496855
the value of right moments, never giving up even in face of worst odds etc

>> No.13496875

>>13496855
Those things really aren't conversation fodder though.

>> No.13496941

>>13496647
You're comparing one facet of geek culture with another, and it's very likely, nearly 100% actually, that this person plays vidya too. You're saying one type of insipid nonsense is better than another type of insipid nonsense. What are you trying to argue here? It's like trying to distinguish the differences and quality between one turd and another turd, but by the end of the day, a turd is still a turd.

>> No.13497092

>>13496486
too much manga. not gonna rag on people for liking manga but there's a limit and you know it when you see it.

>> No.13497261

>>13496486
Fiction that isn't a vehicle for philosophy

>> No.13497801
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13497801

Nigga we live in the fuckin era of film. If they've read 80% of the books they've got then they aren't a pleb. The books may not be educational or even interesting but if they're reading these days then they've crossed the threshold. Quit being an elitist bitch.

>> No.13497807

Too colorful covers, too decorated bookshelves, young adult shit.

>> No.13497810

>>13496538
Literally there is not a single readable book in this picture.

>> No.13497811

Edge your books, don't jam them all the way to the back. Like this, but with actual books >>13496538.

>> No.13497812

>tfw I both read /lit/core, watch vhs anime and play ps2 games
what does that make me?

>> No.13498000

>>13496486
>Thinking at all about the impressions bookshelves make

Pleb.

>> No.13498032

>>13496784
hello me

>> No.13498039

>knick knacks in front of the books
>Only the "necessary" classics like Austen and other female writers
>YA in large quantity
>Sorting by height or colour.

>> No.13498299

>>13497812
A try-hard fag.

>> No.13498308

>>13496826
ha

>> No.13498315

>>13496793
Why does he look like an unholy combination of ralphthemoviemaker and reviewbrah?

>> No.13498332

Not having multiple copies of The Fault in our Stars

>> No.13498364
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13498364

>>13496538
thicc

>> No.13498406

If their book shelves seem totally random with regards to subject, genre, and so on they are a pleb.

Having a bookshelf of a hundred random classics is less impressive than having 10 books related to Ernst Jünger

>> No.13498438

If it has a single work of fiction on it, they're a pleb.

>> No.13498519

>>13496538
>>13497810
They don't even have entry level normie literature like LOTR, usually you'll at least see a flawless, obviously unread copy of The Hobbit but they couldn't even manage that.
This is a truly dreadful collection, possibly the worst I've ever seen of this size.

>> No.13498528

>>13498039
What is the patrician way of sorting books? Alphabetically or by genre? Mine are all just in a couple of big stacks.

>> No.13498541
File: 1.52 MB, 3000x1942, DenBooks-lg.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
13498541

>>13496486
I think I'm guilty of almost every sin listed here: white shelves, genre, comics, nick-knaks, living authors. My upstairs library is more patrician, but the den is my plebeian masterpiece.

>> No.13498555

>>13496486

>> No.13498566

>>13498541
I don't think there is a single book I wouldn't mind stealing from that huge collection and that is a goddamn accomplishment

>> No.13498593

>>13496486
>no books are in poor condition/clearly only ever been read once if at all
>wife or gf's YAF and romance mixed in
>your own YAF (even worse)
>no philosophy or non-fiction books
>colour coded/sorted by height/some other söy 'aesthetics first' ordering system
>owner brags about how diverse their authors are, but they're all American/British and from the very late 20th/early 21st century (like here: >>13496538) and thinks diversity means counting black Americans and vaginas
That last one I actually had to deal with once, smugly asked me if I noticed anything about his library, legit laughed in his face.

>> No.13498599

>>13498593
Shit, forgot the ultimate sin:
>toys/knick knacks on sheld

>> No.13498613

>>13498599
They're called Funko Pops and stop making fun of them you sick fuck. I have some and they're currently in.

>> No.13498618
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13498618

My bookshelf is small and it's all nonfiction.

>> No.13498672 [DELETED] 
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13498672

>>13498599
Absolutely. What kind of monster would mix bric-a-brac and books?

>> No.13498685
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13498685

>>13498599
Absolutely. What kind of monster mixes bric-a-brac and books and swords and D&D stuff? Very sad.

>> No.13498696

>no field guides
>no taxonomy

>> No.13498708

>>13498685
>>13498599
Really makes me just think they're trying to fill out a undersized library.

>> No.13498709
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13498709

>>13498566
Thanks. That pic's a year old, and things are bit more out of hand now. Here's a new shot. The upstairs library is too hard to photograph effectively.

>> No.13498716

>>13498708
Heh. No, not in my case, at least (over 5000 books in the house).

>> No.13498723
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13498723

>>13498709
>Ontario flag
FUCK FUCK WHY IS IT ALWAYS CANADIANS

>> No.13498728

>>13498685
What books are those in the bottom right? (Black and red)

>> No.13498764

>>13498728
D&D 5.0. I still play Dungeons & Dragons with a group.

>> No.13498836

>>13498764
Nice, that's what I thought.

>> No.13498961

>>13498723
I don't think you realise how degenerate this country is. The government (working man's taxes) literally pays $20,000 for gender reconstruction surgery.

>> No.13499175
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13499175

>>13498723
Canadians like books?

>> No.13499300

>>13496826
You beat me to it

>> No.13499327
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13499327

>>13496486
>book facing forward

>> No.13499341

>>13496486
shit's too neat, bro, looks like you bought the lot explicitly for decoration

>> No.13499343

if it has any sci-fi, chances are it's a pleb library

>> No.13499379

>>13496538
Im going to throw up

>> No.13499660

>>13496486
Anyone who puts effort into impressing people with a book collection is a pleb. May as well show off a tattoo or something equally self indulgent.

>> No.13499684

>no history books on their side because you recently went and looked through them to win an online argument or to answer an askhistorians question.
pleb

>> No.13499768

>>13499660
This (might be because I'm shizoid and don't really have any guests to show of to, but idk)

>> No.13499813

>>13497810
Hamilton's Mythology bottom right. Definitely the best book in that shitpile

>> No.13499973

>>13497801
this

>> No.13500024

>>13497801
>>13499973
>I was told that children would now read only J.K. Rowling, and I was asked whether that wasn't, after all, better than reading nothing at all? If Rowling was what it took to make them pick up a book, wasn't that a good thing?

>It is not. "Harry Potter" will not lead our children on to Kipling's "Just So Stories" or his "Jungle Book." It will not lead them to Thurber's "Thirteen Clocks" or Kenneth Grahame's "Wind in the Willows" or Lewis Carroll's "Alice."

>> No.13500031

>>13499813
Required secondary reading for percy jackson

>> No.13500410

>only contains books that others demand they read instead of ones that seem interesting to them

>> No.13500473

>>13499684
>he doesn't reshelve

>> No.13500478

>>13500031
Kek

>> No.13500532

>books arent in chronological order
a sure fire way to detect an embryo

>> No.13500536

>>13499175
Good shelf

>> No.13500598

>>13499175
canadians are retarded though

>> No.13501013
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13501013

>>13500598
Sure, anon. Whatever you say.

>> No.13501341

>>13501013

All the Calvinos ... very nice.

That said, don't you guys go to the library? I'd go broke if I had to pay for every book I'd read.

>> No.13501582
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13501582

>>13501341
I do, but my favourite local libraries all have volunteer-run bookstores and sell books for $1-$2 each. It's hard to resist just buying instead of borrowing, so I usually go that route. Also, I get free books from work all the time. But I have already placed 89 separate orders for books from amazon so far in 2019...so I can't say I don't spend too much on books.

>> No.13501588

a lot of really long books are shitty YA/fantasy so if you see too many of those it's likely all trash. Anything in a series longer than 3 books is also likely YA/fantasy.

>> No.13501636

>>13501582
>But I have already placed 89 separate orders for books from amazon so far in 2019
How many books do you read in a week?

>> No.13501643
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13501643

>>13501588
>Anything in a series longer than 3 books is also likely YA/fantasy
*blocks your path*

>> No.13501727

Does Osprey Publishing count as pleb tier? Asking for a friend

>> No.13501744

>>13501727

Your friend is safe for now.

>> No.13501749

>>13498315
Underrated post

>> No.13502402

>>13499327
Why would you have the books facing backward? Afraid people will see the names of L Ron Hubbard and Stephanie Meyer on the spines?

>> No.13503305

>>13501636
It varies. I also read a lot of graphic novels, which are quick, so probably 3-10 books a week roughly.

>> No.13503361

>>13502402
>Why would you have the books facing backward? Afraid people will see the names of L Ron Hubbard and Stephanie Meyer on the spines?
Not the anon you’re replying to, but I can answer this one.

In the US, interior designers (fags and women, and as we know fags and women usually don’t read) like to decorate living rooms with books. They buy these books by the yard (that’s a bit less than a meter, for our Eurolard friends). What books they buy don’t matter; they’re only looking for a particular quantity to fill a particular amount of shelf space. It’s very pseud, no? As you can easily imagine, the books they end up receiving come in all shapes and sizes, with different styles and colors of bindings, etc. For a while, said fag/women interior designers accepted this diversity as they felt it looked more “natural” and “eclectic.” But no longer! This very same diversity is now seen as distracting to the aesthetic of the room, so the new trendy thing to do is turn the books backwards so all the viewer sees is a long, uniform row of off-white. There’s a metaphor and/or a lesson in there; I’m sure you lot can find it.

>> No.13503418

>>13498528
By topic

>> No.13503425

>>13499813
There’s also a copy of Vanity Fair on the right side, third shelf from the bottom. I presume this is by Thackeray, and that she (the owner of the bookshelves is obviously a woman) bought it by mistake. Vanity Fair is great; certainly one of the top 100 English novels.

>> No.13504234

>>13498528
I sort by topic, then alphabetical, by author.
I also keep my professional and reference books in separate bookshelves from the others.

>> No.13504249

>>13498685
That's not a bookshelf. That's a trophy case for a middle schooler.

>> No.13504253
File: 26 KB, 178x190, lovecraft.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
13504253

>>13503361
Thanks for filling me with despair.

>> No.13504363

>>13503361
>the new trendy thing to do is turn the books backwards so all the viewer sees is a long, uniform row of off-white
Can confirm. I have to deal with these shithead "designers", "stylists", and "stagers", all the fucking time.
It's all about their vision, the room esthetic, and whatever pinterest/instagram cliche' you can think of.

>> No.13504915
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13504915

>>13496855

It does, but you can get that from six hours with even the worst piece of dystopian lit.

In contrast, it's not uncommon for people who play games like dota to have played for hundreds or thousands of hours, and the lesson the game delivers doesn't really change, get much deeper, or become more profound over that long time scale.

This is why pleb-tier books beat true pleb-tier games: if you spend 50 hours reading pleb tier books, you'll get through 2-6 of them and will have been exposed to a variety of new ideas and viewpoints. If you spend 50 hours playing dota, you'll have played 50 hours of dota.

>> No.13504921
File: 217 KB, 1200x1200, EL_18_elfa-White_Living_Room_V1_R102.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
13504921

>>13503361
desu it doesn't look to bad.

>> No.13504926

>>13497261
like what? what would qualify as such?

>> No.13504933

>>13498406
I do a little bit of both.

>> No.13504937

>>13498438
90% of the greatest works of literature are fiction

>> No.13504946

>>13499343
>Micromegas by Voltaire

>> No.13505048

No books purchased secondhand from run down bookstores.

No first editions of obscure, but widely revered and respected works.

>> No.13505055

>>13505048
Sounds more like a collector than a reader.

>> No.13505182

>>13496826
Thats a pretty good joke anon. Made me genuinely chuckle

>> No.13505191

>>13498528
The trick is to not sort at all and let people guess what your thinking was behind it.

>> No.13505255

>>13496647
You are only looking at half of the problem. Sure, a smart person who reads YA could put together a decent conversation, but anyone who is proud of filling a bookshelf with exclusively pulp is mentally stunted in some way.

Imagine trying to talk about movies with a marvelfag. The stupid fuck will have watched dozens if not hundreds of movies - some more than once - but will have internalized absolutely nothing. You might think that there would be common ground, but the truth is that such a person is actually less receptive to the idea of movies as art because it is incompatible with their ego. (Similar to how YA lovers are disdainful of classics.)

A YA reader with curiosity will quickly expand their interests. A refusal to do so is indicative of other problems.

The videogame equivalent would be grinding thousands of hours half-awake in runescape versus climbing in Starcraft with deliberate practice and review. Motivation is the differentiator - not the game.

>> No.13505273

>>13496647
CS:GO is patrician tier you faggot pleb. I still play to this day and I've read the entire western canon, can recite from memory ten or twelve of Shakespeare's best plays scene by scene. You know nothing.

>> No.13505295

>>13504915
>pleb-tier books
>new ideas and viewpoints
I've read tens of those, and none of them offered anything besides easily digestible information for my addicted brain.

>> No.13505313

>>13505295
If you eat nothing but baby food and breastmilk, you'll never get on with men's work, but starting with either is certainly superior to starving

>> No.13505356

>>13499175
>"What would you like to read?"
>Yes

>> No.13506737
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13506737

>>13505356
That's about it. For instance, the larger case here is children's books, and the smaller one is all poetry.

>> No.13506755

I don’t have library, I sell my books when I’m done reading them

>> No.13506929

>>13498528
Alphabetical by author's last name, and then chronological for each book by that author.

>> No.13506952
File: 3.47 MB, 4032x3024, 20190721_203716.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
13506952

Are cookbooks a sin?

>> No.13506976

>>13505273
>can recite from memory ten or twelve of Shakespeare's best plays scene by scene
Can you really? That’s kind of a neat party trick

>> No.13506979

>>13506929
wouldn't at some point sorting by genre, and within those genres by author alohabetically, make more sense? Doing it your way seems simply inconvinient, if you have several hundred books.

>> No.13506986
File: 2.17 MB, 2304x4028, IMG_0713-2.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
13506986

I know I really need to branch out from fiction, but I’m pretty happy with my bookshelf. This isn’t everything, but it’s the main shelf. Probably 1/2 or 3/4 of these I got dirt cheap from Value Village, which I’m pretty pleased about too

>> No.13506992

>>13506952
only the celebrity chef or novelty pop culture-inspired type of of cookbooks.

>> No.13506999

>>13506979
If you have tons of books sure. I’ve got about 200 books and have no issues with my method, but I could see more organization being helpful past a certain point

>> No.13507002

>>13500024
but it might

>> No.13507003

>having a library at all
only pseuds want to display their books for the IRL friends they don't have

>> No.13507142

>>13506986
A quality collection.

>> No.13507169

>>13496784
The New Yorker is fairly pleb

>> No.13507191

>>13496486

Its vast majority consists of fiction and/or genres closely related to fiction (poetry, drama etc). In particular, it contains almost no works in the sciences.

This cuts both ways: some STEM autist with no fiction on his shelf also shouldn't be trusted. But the former is by far the more common and thus more troublesome case.

>> No.13507208

>>13507191
t. bugman

>> No.13507231

>>13503361

Actually, the opposite is generally the case. In general, (interior) designers hate having to deal with someone's personal library, becuase the said-library is a large, already-existing /thing/ that the designer didn't come up with, and therefore can't take credit for, but which must still be accomodated in the resulting design (unless the designer convinces the sap to pare down the library, which I'm sure happens every so often). Watch Home and Garden Television for a length of time and you'll eventually come across what I'm talking about.

I'm sure designers just blindly buy books to fill out a room, as you said, but in practice it's only to be a small accent-stack here, a small accent-stack there, not a true personal library.

Ikea showrooms do a similar thing, buying many copies of some cheap obscure book that no one wants, because it looks nice and can be used for illustration of how filled furniture looks on a show room floor (yes, I'm still maintaining one thing in one context (personal interior design) while admitting that it occurs in another context (retail display)).

>> No.13507242

>>13507208

You've badly misread the post to which you'd replied, or else you've responded in bad faith (the more likely circumstance). It's perfectly fine to have lots of fiction. The trouble is when the person has never taken any interest in science whatever.

>> No.13507420

>>13507191
>>13507242
Ok, so as someone in that position (almost exclusively reading fiction), what would your recommendation be for someone who wants to branch out into non-fiction? What exactly do you have in mind when you say works in the sciences?

>> No.13507459

>>13504915
shut up retard in east asia it used to be that you had to be good in go among other things to be a literati

>> No.13507485

>>13500598
Kill yourself

>> No.13507511

>>13507420

Nice to see a good-faith post. Simply put, I'd recommend that you think about some RL/non-fiction thing which has interested you, look for a book or two on same subject, and go from there. It's really a function of your personal interests and so I can't guide you too much here, but I do maintain that having NO/almost-no non-fiction/science in one's library is one of the surest tells of the pleb that has actually been stated in this thread (and so I applaud you for considering improving yourself along the lines I've suggested).

By "works in the sciences" I mean all of it: math and science textbooks, historical scientific texts, programming/IT books, pop-sci narrative trash (which is nevertheless informative).

Do you have any non-fiction interests? Sports? Sex? Economics? History? Geography? Law? Math? Automotive maintenance? etc.

>> No.13507549

>>13507511
I appreciate the reply. I was unsure if that was what you meant by the sciences just because my attitude has always been that those were books for people heavily involved in those fields, and there was no point to trying to get involved in them myself. I’ve always had a casual interest in specific eras of history, but never really chose to pursue it, mostly because of being intimidated by the amount of information out there I think, and what I said above. But I’ll try to get over that and actually pick up a history book for once. Thanks anon.

>> No.13507598
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13507598

>>13507549

The "science" books I have are mostly an extension of my other interest. For example, I like history and I love the ancient Greeks, and so it seemed natural to acquire the first volume of Heath's 'A History of Greek Mathematics'.

This may seem a dry and boring subject at first glance, but I found it to be very compelling. Particularly interesting is how basic concepts were still being defined in different, sometimes competing, ways. Not only that, but all manner of mathematical notions were being debated on philosophical grounds. None of it was settled. Maybe they were more right than we are in this. Exposure to different ideas has a way of unsettling certainties...

Non-fiction books can surprise you.

>> No.13507852

>>13507459
Use your reading comprehension anon, I said pleb-tier games for a reason. Go and Chess are not pleb-tier games.

>> No.13508291

>>13496486
Ask them if they have read everything.
I got a buddy that has an entire bookshelf filled with good philosophy and books, but the boy has not read even half of it

>> No.13508305

>>13506986
based

>> No.13508329

>>13508291
You've actually proven yourself to be the pleb. Lots of literary figures defended having a personal collection of mostly unread books. Suffice it to quote the answer which Anatole France gave to a philistine who admired his library and then finished with the standard question, "And have you read all these books, Monsieur France?" "Not one-tenth of them."

>> No.13508375

>>13508291
there's nothing wrong with that unless he's not interested in reading them. nothing unusual about buying books faster than you can read them, especially if you browse thrift and used book stores frequently.

>> No.13508387

>>13508291
yeah fu, I buy a ton of second hand books from thrift stores and yard sales all the time and the pile keeps building faster than I can follow despite reading 1 or 2 books per week besides uni study. If that somehow makes me pleb in your shallow opinion I couldn’t care less.

>> No.13508838

>>13506986
Saving this to post as mine if I ever get called a pleb thanks anon.

>> No.13508901

>>13506952
how is your Ulysses so thin

>> No.13509515

>>13496486
>books so tidy and in such good condition they're clearly not being picked up regularly