Is reading at the bookstore the most pretentious thing one can possibly do?

Is reading at the bookstore the most pretentious thing one can possibly do?

No, but caring about people reading at the bookstore might be.

Are you a fucking retard? Most people read before they buy.
Why are there so many autismos on Veeky Forums? This thread, people complaining about others reading on public transit, people shitting on bookstores. What the fuck is wrong with you?

Do you even know what pretension is?

No. It could not possibly be the most pretentious thing because it is not even pretentious.

>"observe me being an intellectual"
>not pretentious

Retard spotted.

lol, what else is there to do on public transit? that's prime reading time, even when I'm in one of those times where I find reading so boring

>reading is intellectual

WHEN WILL THIS MEME END

I thought this before I discovered headphones.

Headphones are for faggots

I used to work next to this bookstore with a cafe next to it. I've read entire books there, as if it was a library. I didn't even have to bother with putting the book back to its right place or anything. My only pretension was to read books.

>being in public
It's like you want everyone to look at you and think how human you are, how much better you are just for breathing and existing there, boasting yourself for how you can walk around and sit on benches and chairs, just so you know it's fucking disgusting, you pretentious idiots. Why not be a person at home like everyone else?

Reading in the bookstore is the best way to read things that you can't find a ebook for and not pay for it. I've read 10 full books in my local bookstore.

reading doesn't make you an intellectual, but non-intellectuals definitely don't read

Read about half a Philip K. Dick book at a comfy bookstore while stoned

Felt good

what is reading, then? what's intellectual?

Where is this? This looks identical to the SMU Barnes and Noble in Dallas, and the students dress like this (unfashionable southern conservatives). I'm really curious.

My friend once sat at the base of a bookshelf out in the open in a Barnes and Noble and read a fucking manga. I can't get him to even read one chapter in a book I lent him.

Yes. Also, going to the library, going to school, and the act of studying are also pretentious.

When did this place get filled with retards?

There's always people reading on the floors of the manga section at Barnes and Noble

Anything besides subsisting on insects and wallowing in your own excretions is pretentious.

Reading in general is the most pretentious thing you can do. I hope there aren't any nerds here who read, lol

user you are an agent of evil.
Don't you get that the more you promote the idea that reading in public is pretentious the more you and other people will think that reading is for nerds, and push you further down in your mother's basement?
Read outside. Stay in the sun. Dress well, exercise, look cool. Live, user!

i am fat so i don't want to be outside because i don't want anyone to see that i look like shit
also i'm poor so i can't afford good clothes so i can't dress well

You could stop spending so much money on stuffing your fat face and use it to buy new clothes, but apparently you're too stupid to think of that, too.

If I go to buy a book then I've already made up my mind on what I'm getting via reviews or excerpts I've read online. I'm in there for about maybe two-three minutes total and out with my new purchases.

There was a Barnes and Noble in my neighborhood strip mall that closed a few years after opening from lack of business. It was always filled with parasites reading,but I guess noone was buying.

100% this. Bookstores can't stay open if you aren't buying the books they have you fucking leeches. That is what the library is for.

The chapters in my city recently renovated and actually took out all the chairs and little reading areas.

It's not pretentious, it's not for me though.I know exactly what I want, I'm in and out like a ninja.

>thinks reading makes you an intellectual
Retard spotted

Hmm, I would rather be fat than some airhead who cares about fashion.

listening to some sort of audio whilst texting your gf

>I-I'm an adult and I don't need to care about what others think of me!

I never understood reading at the bookstore. I'm never there for enough time to do any significant amount of reading; it's usually just walking around and seeing what's new, getting what I want, and leaving. Reading at the bookstore isn't very pretentious, but I'd feel guilty for doing it, and I imagine the store owners don't like it. I'd probably die of spaghetti dropping if an employee told me 'this isn't a library'.

Fuck you OP, I just wish we had a Barnes & Noble where I live so I could have somewhere other than my house or the bar to go to, to just browse, buy new books maybe get a bite to eat and yes, read.

I find that absurdly comfy, how is that "pretentious"?

>Caring what other people think of you

Isn't this generally considered a if not the hallmark of insecurity?

>not caring what other people think of you at all
There is a balance, user.

Well, I never have been one to find happiness via other people. Maybe its just me, I dunno.

One time I stayed beyond opening time without realizing. I felt quite retarded.

There's finding happiness via other people and there's being aware that you are fat and smelly and have a shit personality and have tendencies that honestly make others uncomfortable, but who cares, because nobody else matters, right?

I'm sorry user, I'm not concerned with personal appearance all that much, I mean, I'm not saying I don't bathe on a regular basis or anything, because I do.

Still don't really care what other people think about though. That's their problem to deal with.

you're doing it wrong. go to a used bookstore and get lost in the stacks

>I'd probably die of spaghetti dropping if an employee told me 'this isn't a library'.
if they did that i'd drop the book right where i was and walk out without buying anything

I think eating at a restaurant is probably the only thing more pretentious.

>those obligatory middle-aged women sitting around acting 'snobby'
>those older teenagers who just buy toys
>that 'reading club' that reads garbage
>that one guy who looks pretty respectable, but is mostly just there for coffee
>those children running around without and there parents are nowhere to be found
>that dad who sounds pretty pissed at his children, because he just wants to find something, and they're screwing around
>that old guy who goes to the civil war section, but never seems to look at anything
>the people sitting on the floor in the anime section
>the people with their lap-tops hidden in the deep recesses of the store
>those autists in the anime section who look like friendless losers
>the teenage girls who pretend to be anime autists, but are just attention whores
>the migrating shelf of classics

Barnes and Noble, a magical place.

I've gone to Barnes and Noble so many times, yet I've only seen people buy absolute garbage. It's kind of incredible.

>>those children running around without and there parents are nowhere to be found
I fucked this sentence up.
I meant
>those children running around wildly, and their parents are nowhere to be found

>the migrating shelf of classics
This
grinds my fucking gears

>tfw go to two different B&Ns to buy actual books and my guilty pleasure manga

>the people with their lap-tops hidden in the deep recesses of the store
sounds comfy

I like you

No, the seats are there just for that. It's good to have a little read of the first few pages just to see if the book is for you or not. What's so pretentious about that? It's being certain you want to commit to purchasing that book. Nobody's doing it to impress you, user, you don't really matter that much to them.

Stop wearing headphones in public

reading picture books isn't reading

a fat man has a fat brain and what does a fat brain think of other HOHGNNJYGNNGHFF NONGO MUST EAT CHOM CHOM

> go to the book shop
> get lost in all the books i want
> pick up a pile
> become convinced that i can't afford them all
> end up adding more books to the pile anyway
> must decide which to buy and which to put back
> read a few from each
> leave with the books i want

It's such a comfortable atmosphere to do this in.

> he'd rather wear adult diapers, drink nothing but mountain dew, get shit underneath his fingernails, play nothing but halo 5 and vine compilations on youtube, piss in bottles, cum in jars and wallow about wondering why no girl will look at him than rather take care of his physical health and appearance

fpbp

This. No harm in reading the first few paragraphs of chapters of a book you're considering buying. Surely just letting the customer read means you're more likely to have more loyal customers. I'd feel guilty if after reading for a while in the store that I didn't eventually pick something up.

This. The best way is to place your order and ask them to put it into a zip-loc bag with a plastic fork so you can eat your dinner as you go play on the swings at the nearby playground, this is thai food lmao you think i'm gonna eat it INSIDE when the sun is shining naw nigga i'm gonna have fun eats

> migrating shelf of classics

Every WH Smiths ever, plus the classics section is rarely more than one or two shelves in a single shelving unit.

In other words; you pretend you don't, but actually do.

You only read to make yourself feel like an intellectual? Nice projecting.

kek pleb

No, but that blondie is fire.

Reading in bookstores is for fags. You don't belong in any store if you're in there not knowing what you want to buy. Stop taking up space, cunts. Get in, get your shit, and get the fuck out.

enjoy your damaged hearing, loser

t. former headphone wearer

stop using intellectual as an adjective

I wear headphones even when I go shopping. Do not give a fuck.

Not him but earbuds are bad for your hearing long-term. Use over-the-head.

No, reading at the movie theater is.

If you haven't bought the book, then I guess it would be stealing

Reddit

only if you're in a stock photo

source? seems like bs assuming you keep the volume at a reasonable level.

>not having a literal mute Hispanic donkey as your GF

You can't text one of those, especially when you take another donkey as a sacrifice for the gods.

idiot

That thought has literally never crossed my mind while reading in public. I'm thinking about the thing I'm reading.

Nice meme tho.

Since Barnes and Noble closed down, my city doesn't have anymore bookstores, thanks Amazon.

testing a product before you purchase it is not pretentious

This aint a fucking library buy your book and get out

i used to work with guy who would whack off at the bookstore bathroom during his break. I always thought that was the most pretentious thing id ever heard

when you see people eating at a restaurant do you think "wow look at all of these pleneians showing off"

You guys don't hide your intellect?
I honestly only read when no one is around.

There wasn't a library near me when I was a kid I used to go bookstores and read entire books while I was there.
Surprised they let me do it desu

Same, and I keep my books hidden away in a cupboard. My mom is the only person in the world who knows that I read.

please clarify if this is jokes or not

Tbf I hide what I read because I don't want people making fun of me

Is reading in a thrift store better, or worse?

>reading on public transport

Who can do this? It's too fucking loud and disruptive. How can you concentrate and think?

Why does Veeky Forums look down on manga? just wondering why it's deliberately bashed around here, it barely has any relation to literature anyway.
I picked Japanese as my fourth language because I enjoy manga, now that I can read properly I've been reading some classic Jap books like No Longer Human(人間失格)

Just go play video games or watch anime. It's the same level of intellectual stimulation designed for children.

>Just go play video games or watch anime. It's the same level of intellectual stimulation designed for children.

Literature isn't about story, it's about prose.
Comics are about story and art, not prose. That and people who read comics usually seem dead-set against reading things without pictures.

99.9% of manga is complete garbage. It's fine to read the few ones that are good, but a complete waste of time after that.

Why does this thread exist?
fuck this website

This seems very american.
You don't have to pay for the books?
Here, reading in a book store is frowned upon. After a few minutes, a clerk comes to bother you, pretending to sort the books precisely near you.

But maybe there are already americanized bookstores here and I'm not aware. I mostly pirate books. (not because I believe in it or prefer digital, but because I'm broke)

what about the fuckin library

Thank you , user I was here the other day for that public transit one .

Such people have pretensions to what, being poor?

I go to Books-A-Million myself, since they seem to have an eternal bogo-half-off sale on manga, and I'm a fucking pleb faggot, but this is pretty spot on for that store as well as B&N. The only difference is my BAM is approximately in the black side of town, so there's really only people reading magazines in the cafe, instead of anyone browsing the shelves. And I'm usually the only person in the manga section.

I get irrationally bothered that Clive Cussler and Stephen King are in the same section as DFW and Pinecone. If there's a scifi/fantasy section, why not make a separate section for other genreshit?