Dad is asking what I want for Christmas and I have no idea what to tell him

Which translation would you recommend?
Hays?
The Everyman's Library edition hast he nicest cover but I don't even know who translated that one

This is not good advice, if you reflect on your post you will come to realize that you were not truly trying to be helpful.

Do you think it has merit beyond the gimmicky stuff?

Is it pleb if I go with an edition that has illustrations for the whale anatomy parts?

I'm too stupid for that and I feel like it might border on pretentious depending on the person

>Is it pleb if I go with an edition that has illustrations for the whale anatomy parts?
no

>What is a book I can wish for that will make me look smart and sophisticated, but not pretentious?
It's your dad bro.

exactly

Infinite Jest. No, this is not a jest.

I already bought Infinite Jest when I was afraid the edition with the iconic cover would go out of print

>This is not good advice, if you reflect on your post you will come to realize that you were not truly trying to be helpful.
faglord I hope your gay faggot lover shits on your dick while you're having anal sex with him you fucking faggot jew

Vacate this thread and don't ever reply to me again.

no u

Oblivion, then. Will get you bonus points because it's more obscure, and suggests your interest in the writer's works isn't shallow.

Well, if your father knows about Finnegans Wake, then it will be as pretentious as it gets.
Maybe something else from Joyce? I´d recommend either Dubliners or Portrait, since they might not seem as pretentious as say, Ulysses or Finnegans, as well as way more accessible than the latter two

Anyway, since Borges is my favorite author, i always recommend getting his complete short stories. It might also be what you are sking for, and it shouldn´t be hard to find his Collected Fictions.

Isn't Collected Fictions a shit translation compared to the one by Normie di Giovanni or whatever his name was

the penguin version of capital

or this

amazon.com/Romans-Village-History-Earliest-Western/dp/0199730571/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1481576910&sr=1-1&keywords=the romans

otherwise just kill yourself for being such a poser

I don´t know. You´d have to ask someone else since i read his works in spanish.

Dubliners is a very nice suggestion, thank you user.
Should I get an edition with annotations or is it comprehensible for someone that's not a 19th century Irishman?

>the penguin version of capital
My dad would like that, I think he's a bit of a commie.

Have you read that particular history of Rome?
I like history and I like Rome, but so far I have been staying away from general histories that cover vast stretches of time because I'm afraid they will oversimplify or gloss over too many things.

DEATH GRiPS

I´m an ecuadorian man, read it in english and don´t remember having any trouble with it understanding it.
It´s not a hard read and it doesn´t mention anything that i remember that´s only understandable to irish people.

Thanks user, that's good to hear

I asked my pops for pic related

While a good book, if OP were to put that on a cbristmas list, OP's father may suspect that he is in fact noided.

I don't usually advocate Penguin, but the Penguin edition of Dubliners has good notes and more importantly an appendix which tells you where the characters from Dubliners appear in Ulysses.