Awhile ago I downloaded several books including things like War & Peace, Sense & Sensibilities, Ulysses etc.
Some of them are quite thick, and I am wondering if I mostly did so to seem intelligent or smart on some subconscious level.
Have any of you gotten enjoyment or insight from any of these kinds of books? or is it just society and schooling that are telling me these are "good."?
Unless you want to study literature for years/decades, then yeah, that's kinda what you'd be doing. But it doesn't mean you can't learn anything useful. And it doesn't mean the conversation's boring.
I guess I just don't know how to view a work of literature as a conversation outside the confines of the novel.