Why is buying and owning books so much more fun than reading them?

Why is buying and owning books so much more fun than reading them?

Because you are a pseud.

That's called philistinism, Anonymous. I'm afraid there is no cure.

it's not

t. a pseud and a phillistine

but of course, however much these two would like that, those answers are not inherently true

It is, but only for a few days. Soon it becomes depressing once the books pile up. I stopped doing it. Now i read more.

because you are a faggot frog poster and you should kill yourself

because it's the false ones

because the joy of owning things takes a lot to really grow out of.

You fell for the materialism meme. Only your reading experience has any value, ink on paper has none.

>implying you even remember a fifth of the books you read, never mind the information they contained

sure thing lad

all wrong and bullshit.

the real answer is this: you enjoy buying and owning books because you like the idea of adding adventures, ideas, reports, maps and thoughts into your library and so, by extension, to yourself.


you feel that the more books you own, the more experiences you add to your own being. the typical mistake is ignoring that there are more steps to it, namely reading and understanding the book.
it's the same for people who spend money on art they don't understand, people who collect coins and stamps and all other sorts of things with history and stories attached to them that they are too lazy or ultimately uninterested in to actually read them.

you can buy the LotR trilogy and feel like it's yours now, but to truly HAVE IT IN YOUR HEAD, you have to read and understand it first.


in sports, you work your body and get a medal after the experience.
with books, you get the medal first but you have to exercise your brain in order to have the experience.
this is also the reason why backlogs are inherently bad, they reinforce the behaviour of stacking trophies without doing the hunting.

don't be the gatherer user, be the hunter!

>all wrong and bullshit.

i take that back, is actually correct as well

>wow this book seems like it would be really fun!
>I am sure I could learn a lot from this piece of literature!
>this non-fiction deals with a topic I have great interest in!
>this book looks beautiful!
very nice

>the time comes where you have to sit down, look at the symbols and flip the pages
yawn

Thanks for correcting yourself, I'm btw

Your autism is showing.

>It isn't because you are a pseud
>It is because you are a pseud

The idea of reading all those books is better then actually doing it.

I might not remember everything I've read but I vaguely remember a quote from Walt Whitman (I think) that excuses my being unable to recall everything I've read.

And you can't even remember the quote

Read-fags blown the fuck out once again

Why is collecting Magic cards so much more fun than playing Magic?

Got em senpai.

As much as i despise that type of behavior OP i did the same thing so hard in high school. In my freshman year of high school i had a leather bound edition of the complete works of poe. I was admiring it during class and my female friend said whilst holding her copy of Lolita: I think you like holding the book more than you enjoy reading it! and it hurt because it was true.

I'm always happy to see one of the greatest Germans on muh Veeky Forums but what does he have to do with the task at hand, pray tell?

Kek

Time for your meds senpai

>when you think you wrote a really smart and insightful post that relates pure and unfiltered truth while also being funny but you are actually a fucking retard

/thread

That was a unrelated picture.

It's not my picture, but I can imagine many other people love the idea of having shelves of books that they feel will enlighten them. The idea sounds good, they may have all those books, but can they find the time to actually read them all? Sadly many cannot.
Instead of reading in their spare time, it's usually spent doing something else. I find myself caught in this often, and I must start taking more of the spare time I have, and devout it to reading.

it's called suffering in buddhist terminology

I don't have this issue

more that I buy a lot of books and want to read so many at once I end up getting distracted and bogged down with a hundred half finished.

I need to buy less and just focus on ONE book I'm reading now or else I go mad.

I usually don't remember the exact words but I always remember the ideas and stories within them

You're a retarded consumerist on par with a trust funded booktuber. Absolutely disgusting, just like all of capitalism and capitalists.

The problem with this is that it makes me not read at all if I'm not really into it or it's too heavy.

Generally I'm fine with reading multiple books if I can see some general differences. For instance, I'm currently reading literature for a course I'm taking (basically work), while I also read a book on philosophy (when I want something challenging in my free time) and beyond those I can also read something casually that still requires me to pay attention. To top it off is something I can read before I go to bed that requires minimal effort but is simply enjoyable.

So in summary I'm fine with reading multiple books if they differ in difficulty and mood, but try to keep it at no more than 4-5.

this is what I do too

right now I'm reading count of monte cristo and Caesar's commentaries
I think it makes it easier to continue, almost like an intermission in a large book with a smaller unrelated one.

Never had that feeling. I've happily embraced ebooks. Now I don't have to clog up my apartment anymore. Also people can't judge me anymore for the trash I like to read

>pseud.
nice meme

>implying it is
I love reading you cock-guzzling faggot

damn, those shelves are so well organized. the only thing that triggers me is the shit on the top. usually some autismo just places books on shelves at random in these pics.

but yeah having all those books means almost nothing if you arent going to read them.
also
>twilight

the goal is to have all those books and shelves but actually having read them at some point.

Having a lot of unread books makes me feel like a pseud and a liar when people visit. I love buying new books (to read) and owning books (that I've read and enjoyed) though.

stop reading bro

I feel the same way, but don't you worry that you aren't absorbing the full book if you can't remember the words? My biggest fear is being a shitty reader and not knowing it.

fpbp

No you don't.

Prententious autism is hard to come by, keep yours close user

A local used bookstore near me is closing down and I feel like I must hoard everything I want from there. There might not be another chance to get those rare editions.

The author Umberto Eco is the owner of a large personal library (containing thirty thousand books), and separates visitors into two categories: those who react with “Wow! Signore professore dottore Eco, what a library you have! How many of these books have you read?” and the others — a very small minority — who get the point that a private library is not an ego-boosting appendage but a research tool. Read books are far less valuable than unread ones. The library should contain as much of what you do not know as your financial means, mortgage rates, and the currently tight real-estate market allows you to put there. You will accumulate more knowledge and more books as you grow older, and the growing number of unread books on the shelves will look at you menacingly. Indeed, the more you know, the larger the rows of unread books. Let us call this collection of unread books an antilibrary.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Personally, I buy frequently from amazon and local bookstores, and visit local libraries with volunteer-run bookstores every week. The books cost 1-3 bucks each, and are usually in excellent shape. I have certain authors I look for, and certain publishers I trust even when an author is unknown to me. If I never read the book, I've "lost" a dollar or so, I guess, but having a lovely selection of read and unread books waiting in my library makes me happy.

You sound boring.

Like a person who collects action figures and keeps them mint in box, but less justifiable.

They will just be clutter for your next of kin to throw away after you die.

Umberto Eco is dead.

I know this feel

I know, it's very sad. But when quoting from an article, you don't update the tense to reflect current events.

I just get borin with non.fiction literature.

commodity fetishism
this is me with math

Satan, actually.

>Reading
Just watch a documentary you stupid fucks, who has the time to read a 300+ page book in today's world? Fucking lol, also chick don't like guys who read.

I sure as hell only bought this so I could have it on my shelf and point it out to friends.

The length of this book is an "infinite jest".

at least for me
it´s because of the knowledge that i will never be able to finish all the things because there´s not enough time in a humans life
and thus i have always that nagging feeling of i should read something else

Well there is enough time to finish all the books you own. That could be a goal.

It's always more impressive if you have a library/collection that you've read than simply owning a bunch of books.

>documentary
What are you, a fag? Just watch the Spielberg blockbuster version.

I buy a book to read it. If I don't feel like finishing a book, then I just give it away. I don't keep books that I am never going to read (again).

i would agree and buy based on that but books like everything else sometimes disappear from the normal market forcing one to buy often badly handled used stuff for retarded prices
ie some dumb short light novel for 50€
meanwhile it is barely worth 10

>Why is buying and owning books so much more fun than reading them?

It's not.
Reading books is just more of a time investment, especially if you have school and work responsibilities that take a lot of your time.
Buying and owning books isn't as nearly fun as actually reading but it is still kind of fun and it takes me like ten minutes at lunch to spend five dollars at goodwill and increase my backlog by ten books.

buy books you enjoy reading, then you will have fun while reading them.

because you are a pseud.
/thread

>Borges
mah nigga

>Herodotus
yes please tell me story within a story within a story within a story

This, I only got to reading at the start of the year and now with around 200 books, mostly unread, I no longer buy any.

That's what I use to do when I started reading books, but I stopped doing it because I had a huge amount of unread ebooks and I started feeling overwhelmed (yes I buy ebooks, criticize me as much as you want, I don't care; I can access them on my phone where ever I am and my sight is bad, so I can increase the font).

After I felt overwhelmed, I started reading the books one after the other and then I never went back to buying and not reading books again; now I only buy a new book when I am done with the one I am reading.
I still actually have one unread book left; Head First Design Patterns, I need to read it soon.

>documentary
Fucking nerd

You're probably already diagnosed, but just in case you dismissed the other anons about the autism thing... You are indeed autistic.

two words:

Given the choice between Herodotus and Thucydides, I know who I would read for pleasure. One is like a genial relative, the other an exacting schoolmaster.

The stories within stories are the best parts. What is the bible if not a collection of narratives (at the temple, Lazarus, the good shepherd) within a larger one?

Herodotus is literature.