Current Events > If you ask me, there are 3 types of non-fiction books.

(+) Yeah! (+)

Populist, borderline, and academic.

Populist books are aimed, of course, at a very wide audience. These books are very simply written, often ghost-written, and tend to be about celebrities (lol). Don't be surprised if you end up reading a book about an actress, a singer from a popular band, or a reality TV "star". They tend to be fairly short, although not always.

Borderline books are smarter. They are written in a more sophisticated way, deal with "harder" subject matter, and are sometimes longer. They are essentially a serious look at the chosen subject, have certain academic qualities, like quoting people and using statistics, but are still done in a fairly "fun" way. Borderline books might be about someone famous, although less a celebrity and more someone who has done something such as headed a government, or about issues, e.g. feminism, environmentalism, or liberalism.

Academic books are the smartest. These tend to be dry, written using plenty of complicated, technical, and specialised language, and deal with serious subject matter. They are often about issues. Sometimes, these books will be 600 pages or 1,000 pages long. They assume the reader is intelligent, to say nothing of having mental stamina. These books are sometimes published by university presses. They don't tend to be "glossy", sensationalist, or exciting. Some history books fall into this category. These are not for everyone.

For me, personally, I really like the middle and last catergory. I like serious books about serious subjects, and well-researched, too.

Thoughts on all this? Agree, disagree? Favourite category?

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Books?
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Congratulations, you've discovered a method of transmitting snobbishness over the Internet

We get it, you read of lot of books.
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MeIon Bread posted...

For me, personally, I really like the middle and last catergory. I like serious books about serious subjects, and well-researched, too.

r/iamverysmart
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no one asked you

no one asks you anything because you have only moronic thoughts on any given subject

treewojima posted...

Congratulations, you've discovered a method of transmitting snobbishness over the Internet

That's an academic-category internet burn.
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I like some borderline books but overall I really love academic books, too.

Can you think of a few examples?
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Omnislasher posted...

no one asked you

no one asks you anything because you have only moronic thoughts on any given subject

Well...I think that's kinda unfair.

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Favourite would be the last category at the moment. Especially books like The World as Will and Representation (Schopenhauer) where heavy subjects are discussed but the author has taken care to present the material in an interesting way (such as interweaving well-selected quotes from poets and other philosophers throughout the work). If we're talking about works which are almost intentionally dry they can be okay as long as you have a specialised interest in the subject matter. For example First Outline of a System of the Philosophy of Nature (Schelling) and Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics (Kant) are both tolerable.

Populist biography-style books can be really fun to read. Some good ones from memory are those by Chris Jericho, Stephen Fry, Russell Brand, Karl Pilkington, John Cleese, Jeremy Clarkson, etc.
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K181 posted...

treewojima posted...

Congratulations, you've discovered a method of transmitting snobbishness over the Internet

That's an academic-category internet burn.

it's the only way for him to understand

That seems like an over-generalization to me. You could probably find lots of books that fit into one group or another, but I'd bet you could also probably find thousands that don't.
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Omnislasher posted...

no one asked you

no one asks you anything because you have only moronic thoughts on any given subject

Blunt force truth.
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There is a fourth type - books Sunhawk romanticizes the idea of writing but doesn't have the skill or work ethic to actually do.