BootsnAll Travel Community

So I was just skimming through the "what are you reading now" and "top 3 books" threads, and it's true, I was quite impressed by some of the selections people mentioned.

But now let's be honest. What books do you SAY you're reading or have read so as to impress people? I've worked in several a bookstore, and I know that some people really do read the most esoteric stuff, just for fun. But I also know that a lot of people say they've read a lot of things, just so people will say, "Wow, really?"

Here are some of my selections:

Institutes of the Christian Religion (John Calvin) - Very Impressive in religious circles

Six Easy Pieces (Richard Feynman) - not so impressive in LA, where it was on every high school kid's reading list, but Very Impressive back in Michigan.

War and Peace (Tolstoy) - okay, actually, I have read and did enjoy that one, but loads of folks are rather daunted by it.

How about you? What's on your Very Impressive reading list?

I´ve never lied about reading a book, but for others I would consider these impressive:

"Anna Karenina" (Tolstoy) - Just because it´s so damn long.

The Bible - It´s so damn long AND so damn boring.

Anything by Kant, his terminology alone is enough to give one a headache.


I hate Jane Eyre.

Right. Maybe I should clarify. I've at least skimmed all the books on my list, or read parts of them, but never managed to make it all the way to the end and come away with great insights into life or whatever. But I say I've read them, because I've read at least *some* of each.

Is that technically a lie? Or just a half-truth?

I´d say half-truth. For those, you should get a medal for just trying.

On my very impressive list are people who not only have read the Bible, but have read it so much that they can quote it, place quotes in the Bible etc. There's books I've read up to 10-15 times but I don't have that type of recall.

Anybody who'll tackle a classic these days impresses me, which is terrible but there you are. In a world of gossip magazines and many people who don't read books at all, I'm happy to discuss anything literary with someone

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Originally posted by Sisuphile:
Anything by Kant, his terminology alone is enough to give one a headache.

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Reading Kant is definitely ambitious. I've read some Hegel and it was the WORST thing I've ever had to read.

I'm impressed by anyone who reads anything old and Russian and anything by the German philosophers (except for Neitzche because I've read some and it wasn't too bad).

I'm a philosophy student, and it's practically a past time of ours to drop names and titles of what we've read. I think it's because of this that I usually keep my mouth shut and prefer to come off as wide-eyed and in awe of them ;-) I guess I've read a lot of things that most people would not read, though:

The Fountain Head and Atlas Shrugged, by Ayn Rand (read them when I was 12, probably didn't understand enough to justify saying I've read them)
Notes from the Underground by Dostoevsky
The Phenomenology of Spirit and An Introduction to the Philosophy of History, by Hegel
Critique of Pure Reason, by Kant
Moby Dick, Melville
Nicomachean Ethics, by Aristotle
Theaetetus, by Plato
Descartes' Meditations
The Glass Bead Game, by Hesse
Being and Nothingness, Sartre

Almost all of those are actually really enjoyable reads, I think; a lot of them just require multiple readings. Oh, and of course most of these require interest in philosophy ;-) I agree on Hegel and Kant, though; they definitely pushed me to the limit like few others. Still, they're important to understand, otherwise they become just these simple representatives of what is unknowable and dialectic, without really knowing their complexity. If nothing else, it's not a bad thing to be awed by the scale of their works.
It's hard to believe there are people who devote their lives to reading every scrap of a draft of writing by these guys, though, without ever even talking about what's really being said.

Wow, sorry to hijack this, got carried away there.

Simon - I think you might win.

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Originally posted by FemaleNomad:
Simon - I think you might win.

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Uh huh.

Does Roots count?

Totally counts. I've thought of a few more to add to my list:

Proust (it just LOOKS impressive!)

the Qu'ran (sp) - quite as challenging as the Bible, I think

the Gulag Archipelago (Solzhenitsyn): mostly impressive because nobody can spell his name. But also because it's a good book everyone should read.

My brother is a graduate student, studying business, and it's interesting to see how differently we perceive the difficulty of text, just because of our interests. I'll have The Republic, and he'll have something like Accounting for Corporate Finance, and I know we're both wondering how the other can read that stuff.

I guess I could lie and say I have read ALL philosophical treatises from the 17th century through the beginning of the 20th...

...when in reality I've only read volumes 4-7 of a 'History of Philosophy' series - and good god, while that was incredibly interesting, my brain could hardly handle it, and it took me literally half a year to read (with some fluff books in between!!)

And although I would be thrown into a fiery hell, I might lie and say I've read the entire Bible...which is *almost* true - I just skipped Deuteronomy through Psalms, because it was SO boring. And I was sick of reading the stupid bible.

Eowyn - I skipped the psalms, too. gah!

Or more precisely, I haven't got past them yet. So I can put the bible on my Impressive list, but I haven't finished it yet.

I thought that the book of Judges would be the end of me. Everybody begetting everybody...for pages and pages and pages...

Others that I read (I'm a literary masochist):

*Les Miserables-Victor Hugo
*War and Peace-Tolstoy (This may have been the most painful read of my life!)
*Atlas Shrugged-Ayn Rand
*Essays by Albert Camus
*And what about Homer's epics? Not even teachers made us read the entire thing, but I did it anyway. I am in no way better off for having accomplished this.

I had to read Homer in school. Actually we had to read the Odyssey in 4th grade. It took us all year and I can't say as I've hurried back to read it again. And I liked War & Peace, although I did skim some of the "War" parts. And Dostoevsky rocks! Except in Russian. While growing up, I spent most of my church time reading the Bible instead of listening to the sermons, so I've read most of it. The first couple chapters of the old testament are essential reading, the crazy prophet chapters not so much. And the Quran is easier to get into if you start at the back - the chapters are shorter back there. Not that I've gotten all the way through it.

I'm trying to get my book club to read more classics because - as I keep telling them - they are classics for a reason. But every month we read another old Oprah book club book. But yes, I actually do read about 80% junk mysteries, 15% esoteric non-fiction, and 5% "impressive" stuff.

Hey irishpdx, I've been unable to get any of my friends on board for a "classics" book club, but if you have any interest in being in a second (a heavy load, I know) maybe we should talk...just a thought.

Read the BIG B once. I believe it would be 30% shorter if it didn't have all those "Begats" in it. Just to legitimize the people in the time that it was written.

Read Dante's Inferno. I thought that was cool. And it was commented on by some around me. I never did tell them I read it because it pertained to an "X-Men" comic thread that I was reading at the same time.

D

I'd be interested CrackerJ. Unfortunately, I'm leaving in 10 days for my trip and won't be back until Junish. It wouldn't be that much of a heavy load to add a second book club - it's not like reading the older Oprah books take more than a couple of days to read anyway. Some of them are even pretty enjoyable.

Maybe this belongs in confessions, but I never got all the way through The Inferno even though I'm sure I was tested on it. Kudos to ya Piecar!

when i started reading i admit i told some ppl i read books that i only got a hundred pages threw. like the simerilian (spelling?) by JRR Tolken. dam that was such a boring book, i couldnt handle it, theres like 10,000 names of ppl or charicters. mabey you ppl got it, i didnt.

not that ive read it but what about Ulyses. i think thats james joice. i heard thats insane.

i started reading the robert jorden books a few months and ive got threw about 5,000 pages in the wheel of time books, i love them for sure and i know that there not hard but it takes a lot of patients to get threw all the dam whimpering in it. i still got mabey 4,000 pages till im cought up on were he is in the story, not that thats the end.

im taking the count of montie cristo on my trip that im going on in a cuple of weeks. thats my classic book for this trip.

cool thred, i really like readying this one.