Right? That's what severe mental illness is for.

>my favorite book
>the best book I've ever read
Pick one you dumb bitches, you can't have two favorites.

>>7357663

It's just a pleb attitude to treat art only as escapism, something just to pass the time, and books as merely scripts for little movies they play in their head, mainly bad movies.

Some people are under the weird impression that human kind is not categorically going through shit they might like to escape, and that this experience is localized with a special kind of person only of which they are one.

>>7357670
two different things

>>7357683
life is just a series of distractions
don't pretend like literature is above that, it's just seen as a more 'cultured' distraction compared to vegetating in front of a TV.

>>7357683

To add to this, they treat books like scripts to movies, but because they're books, they automatically seem intellectual, even though they don't read it in any deep way. Books automatically make you a smart person, like how putting classical music on in the background does the same thing, even if you aren't really engaged in listening to it.

>>7357687
i disagree, some emotions and experiences are fairly universal and you can probably identify with at least a few of them, even in works that were written a really long time ago

as for me i read a lot of shit to try to understand why isn't very good and maybe one of them will tell me how to make it better. is that shallow?

>>7357701
*why life isn't very good

>>7357693

If you you want to put it that way, you can, but anyone who loves great literature will tell you it's at least more than "mindless entertainment," and that there's a lot of wisdom in great literature that can help you in life.

>>7357707
so now literature is just self-help shit in the form of a nice story

>>7357829
protip: self-help shit is just literature watered down until plebs can get it, i mean wtf is the bible but the ultimate self-help book?

>>7357670
Well, you can acknowledge a book being objectively "best" for quality and overall impact but still have a fondness for another book that you would label your favorite while not considering it the "best".

My favorite book is Johnny Got His Gun but it's not the best book I ever read, I just enjoy the themes and concept.

they do the same thing with meditation.

normy = pleb

Because of threads like this

>>7357858
"Book I Love the Most" and "My Favorite Book" have to be the same though.

>>7357952
Perhaps they own two different copies because it got a reprint with a cover they prefer and they're just waiting for the chance to gift the old one to a friend.

>>7357663
Because most normies don't have the discipline to actually read a 500 page book in under six months, even if it's for school.

>>7357670
My favorite book is Catcher in the Rye, because it appealed to me like no novel had before, as I read it when I was 16 and troubled.

The best book I've ever read was Lolita

>>7357965
>similar sizes
>swans and waves can relate to the same topic
Checks out I suppose...

>>7357972
Looking forward to reading Ulysses?

>>7357663
Anything that you derive enjoyment from can be rationalized as escapism

>>7357970
I don't think that has anything to do with it

>>7357670
I disagree, I think your favourite is the one that left the biggest emotional impact on you... the best might just be something that impressed you and that you are able to recognise as extraordinarily well written.

I would say that Dostoevsky is better writer than Kurt Vonnegut, but i still like Vonnegut more than him.

>>7357693

>He isn't versed in Wallace studies

Oh no.