The Bible
When was the last time you heard of someone buying a bible?
I think no one has read Manufacturing Consent beyond the first chapter.
I swear I had all the best intentions, but that book literally taunts me from it’s place on the bookshelf where it’s been sitting for the past 2 years. Not sure I even made it to chapter 2…
Well the first chapter is very good and reading it will explain why this book is so influential. It’s also not very long. You can do it 💪
Among my friend group it’s House of Leaves.
“Wow, it’s such an eerie unsettling journey. I really love it.” “you started it last year, did you finish it?” “well …”
I saw another lemmy user claim they had to take a 17 year break from it.
I read it, and while it’s something different, it was more confusing than anything else. Definitely something I never read before though.
The Silmarillon - the yellow pages of middle earth
It is literally easier to read the KJV of the Bible than the Silmarillon.
Easy != Fun
Not in my experience. 100% of people I know that have it, also have read it. We buy that because we’re Tolkien nerds. People who don’t want to read it don’t buy it. Also it’s not at all like yellow pages for looking stuff up, it’s more like the Bible I guess, a collection of mythological tales of old.
I guess there are some people that have inherited it, or just bought it for collecting, but I don’t think this is the main case.
It might be different for The History of Middle Earth, it’s huge and requires a lot of time, and it’s more yellow pagey as far as I understand. I have them but have not read much of it yet. (Maybe you meant these?)
There is not much statistical evidence for my statement. Mostly from the people I know (though one actually read it, she is a true nerd) and myself (tried it but am probably not as much a middle earth fan as I thought)
