[quote]Why people read pretentious stuff like that? Is it so they can act all smart around other people?[/quote] You're saying two things here - that the book is "pretentious", and asking if people read books "like that" (what exactly is the requirement here?) to act smart around others. Both of these questions are ridiculous... A book by itself cannot be "characterised by assumption of dignity or importance", you can have an author who thinks that way about his or herself and that can be translated into literature, but that does not characterise the book itself as "pretentious" [url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xa_db5l0q4Q]because it's an inanimate object[/url]. And you are [i]always[/i] going to have the elitist crowd who think they're better than others because they do something you don't, or have an appreciation for something you despise. Exactly what does this say about the book? Nothing. Some people like it, some people don't - both sides are stupid for thinking one opinion matters over the other. [quote]It's not even a good book.[/quote] That's your opinion and you're presenting it as fact. This is what makes you and others who do things similar to this look moronic. People who read books are not pretentious, people who read books [u]and pretend that their view or interpretation of it is in some way superior to somebody else's[/u] are pretentious (and it's funny because that's exactly what you're doing, so that also makes you a hypocrite).