small, thin, extremely intellisexy books to carry around in your back pocket

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current nominees include:

• "In the Time of the Assassins," an essay about Rimbaud by Henry Miller
• the cover of "Foucault's Pendulum" pasted onto the front of an Archie comic
• "Ways of Seeing" by John Berger
• "United Auto Workers Quarterly Review of Fine Arts and Critical Theory" (i think this is a joke)

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Friday, 1 July 2005 18:26 (twenty years ago)

Splendide-Hotel by Gilbert Sorrentino

― k/l (Ken L), Friday, 1 July 2005 18:30 (twenty years ago)

The Book of Mormon.

― n/a (Nick A.), Friday, 1 July 2005 18:30 (twenty years ago)

(xxpost) it must be, because i laughed.

― jaymc (jaymc), Friday, 1 July 2005 18:30 (twenty years ago)

A print-out of this thread, bound in fine Corinthian leather.

― n/a (Nick A.), Friday, 1 July 2005 18:31 (twenty years ago)

(Just a bit of fun, be cool.)

― n/a (Nick A.), Friday, 1 July 2005 18:31 (twenty years ago)

(i think this is a joke)

I really wish it wasn't.

...what about Strunk and White? It means you're a writer!

― giboyeux (skowly), Friday, 1 July 2005 18:31 (twenty years ago)

the crying of lot 49 by thomas pynchon

― matlewis, Friday, 1 July 2005 18:32 (twenty years ago)

Dubliners.

― giboyeux (skowly), Friday, 1 July 2005 18:33 (twenty years ago)

I think the last time I did this for reals, was when I went to go see the Animal Collective/Black Dice show last year and Sarah didn't want to go so I took "The Eye" by Nabokov to read while I waited for the bands to play, which is a very small and slim book so I stuck it in my back pocket. Then jaymc and his brother showed up so I talked to them instead.

― n/a (Nick A.), Friday, 1 July 2005 18:33 (twenty years ago)

http://www.1930shanghai.com/items/259176/catphoto.jpg

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Friday, 1 July 2005 18:34 (twenty years ago)

S/Z by Barthes
Snow White by Barthelme
Giles Goat-Boy by Barth (okay, that's not too thin)

― Haikunym (Haikunym), Friday, 1 July 2005 18:34 (twenty years ago)

Then Again, Maybe I Won't.

― andy --, Friday, 1 July 2005 18:34 (twenty years ago)

The Persecution and Assassination of Jean-Paul Marat as Performed by the Inmates of the Asylum of Charenton Under the Direction of the Marquis de Sade by Peter Weiss

Closely Watched Trains by Bohumil Hrabal

The Devil's Dictionary (Unabridged) by Ambrose Bierce

If I saw a girl with any of those, I'd pounce on her and from there on it'd be inappropriate. Alas, I probably never will see a girl carrying any of those.

― Ian Riese-Moraine has been xeroxed into a conduit! (Eastern Mantra), Friday, 1 July 2005 18:35 (twenty years ago)

uncanny x-men #137

― strng hlkngtn, Friday, 1 July 2005 18:36 (twenty years ago)

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0811210901.01._SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg

― Jerry the Nipper (Jerrynipper), Friday, 1 July 2005 18:37 (twenty years ago)

a pocket russian-english dictionary

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Friday, 1 July 2005 18:37 (twenty years ago)

clariiiiice...

― Haikunym (Haikunym), Friday, 1 July 2005 18:37 (twenty years ago)

http://images-eu.amazon.com/images/P/2851942077.08.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

― o. nate (onate), Friday, 1 July 2005 18:38 (twenty years ago)

http://www.haymarketbooks.org/Merchant2/graphics/00000001/bookcovers/art-revolution-lg.jpg

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Friday, 1 July 2005 18:38 (twenty years ago)

http://www.cato.org/constitution/

― TOMBOT, Friday, 1 July 2005 18:41 (twenty years ago)

http://www.labalabamedia.com/Amos_Tutuola.jpg

― Haikunym (Haikunym), Friday, 1 July 2005 18:41 (twenty years ago)

If I saw a girl with any of those, I'd pounce on her and from there on it'd be inappropriate. Alas, I probably never will see a girl carrying any of those.
If you did, she was probably given it to read by her rock star boyfriend, who couldn't understand it either. (Just joking, people)

Philosophy In The Tragic Age Of The Greeks by Friedrich Nietzsche.

― k/l (Ken L), Friday, 1 July 2005 18:42 (twenty years ago)

http://www.tleavesbooks.com/harper/images/rennison3.jpg

― Haikunym (Haikunym), Friday, 1 July 2005 18:43 (twenty years ago)

http://img.textbookx.com/images/large/2X/020530902X.jpg

not the new edition

― THE JAMES DEAN OF THE OLD TESTAMENT (ex machina), Friday, 1 July 2005 18:44 (twenty years ago)

http://www.mastersofcinema.org/bresson/Books/bresson_notes.gif

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Friday, 1 July 2005 18:45 (twenty years ago)

kawabata's snow country,
rilke's elgies,
The Orators

― Sterling Clover (s_clover), Friday, 1 July 2005 18:46 (twenty years ago)

http://media.bestprices.com/content/isbn/97/0811207897.jpg

― Haikunym (Haikunym), Friday, 1 July 2005 18:46 (twenty years ago)

http://photos1.blogger.com/img/20/2678/200/cronopios%20y%20lucas.jpg

― Haikunym (Haikunym), Friday, 1 July 2005 18:47 (twenty years ago)

― Rufus 3000 (Mr Noodles), Friday, 1 July 2005 18:52 (twenty years ago)

Catcher in the Rye, if you don't own a gun.

― Tinman: Set to Self-Destruct (cprek), Friday, 1 July 2005 18:53 (twenty years ago)

http://www.wwsm.co.uk/books/products/5880.jpg

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Friday, 1 July 2005 18:54 (twenty years ago)

This thread is getting better and better.

― k/l (Ken L), Friday, 1 July 2005 18:55 (twenty years ago)

Tractus Logico-Philosophicus

― Jeff-PTTL (Jeff), Friday, 1 July 2005 18:56 (twenty years ago)

http://neospheres.free.fr/images/disk/cope96.jpg

― walter kranz (walterkranz), Friday, 1 July 2005 18:57 (twenty years ago)

http://www.arnaqueur.fr/Photos/DaumalPt.jpg

― walter kranz (walterkranz), Friday, 1 July 2005 18:58 (twenty years ago)

http://www.cs.princeton.edu/~aahobor/Lucy-Day/Images/Covers-50/The-Little-Prince.jpg

― walter kranz (walterkranz), Friday, 1 July 2005 19:00 (twenty years ago)

I'm obv. not very intellisexy.

― walter kranz (walterkranz), Friday, 1 July 2005 19:00 (twenty years ago)

Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus

OTM!

― Ian Riese-Moraine has been xeroxed into a conduit! (Eastern Mantra), Friday, 1 July 2005 19:04 (twenty years ago)

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0688119093.01._SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg

― Sterling Clover (s_clover), Friday, 1 July 2005 19:05 (twenty years ago)

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0872862097.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

― andrew m. (andrewmorgan), Friday, 1 July 2005 19:06 (twenty years ago)

The Persecution and Assassination of Jean-Paul Marat as Performed by the Inmates of the Asylum of Charenton Under the Direction of the Marquis de Sade by Peter Weiss
Closely Watched Trains by Bohumil Hrabal

The Devil's Dictionary (Unabridged) by Ambrose Bierce

Don't know about the Wittgenstein, Ian but these would definitely turn my head as well.

Nocturne Indien by Antonio Tabucchi

― M. White (Miguelito), Friday, 1 July 2005 19:06 (twenty years ago)

How Do You Like Me Now? by Henny Youngman.

― Huk-L (Huk-L), Friday, 1 July 2005 19:08 (twenty years ago)

http://www.univie.ac.at/Anglistik/easyrider/data/pages/auster/jpgs/The%20Music%20of%20Chance.gif

― zaxxon25 (zaxxon25), Friday, 1 July 2005 19:17 (twenty years ago)

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0425133656.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

― cutty (mcutt), Friday, 1 July 2005 19:22 (twenty years ago)

http://www.yopi.de/images/prod_pics/519/e/519225.jpg
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Friday, 1 July 2005 19:25 (twenty years ago)

Little Prince OTM!

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0312420331.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

― Allyzay knows a little German (allyzay), Friday, 1 July 2005 19:30 (twenty years ago)

http://www.banis-associates.com/books/stdcvrsh.jpg

― M. White (Miguelito), Friday, 1 July 2005 19:39 (twenty years ago)

ihttp://a1204.g.akamai.net/7/1204/1401/05062814011/images.barnesandnoble.com/images/9860000/9869280.jpg

― jocelyn (Jocelyn), Friday, 1 July 2005 19:49 (twenty years ago)

Wow. Jocelyn, you carry that around and I'd stumble over some kind of pick up line with you. I (chastely) chatted up a girl in my building because she was reading Bellamy's 'Looking Backwards' and I just had to know what kind of woman reads that nowdays.

― M. White (Miguelito), Friday, 1 July 2005 19:52 (twenty years ago)

Skipping 36 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

http://www.moomintrove.com/images/0510129951-0-large.jpg

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Saturday, 2 July 2005 07:16 (twenty years ago)

http://seaburn.com/blackbooksplus/harriet%20the%20spy_small.jpg

― Casuistry (Chris P), Saturday, 2 July 2005 07:40 (twenty years ago)

"Monster at the End of this Book" is one of those books that I own multiple copies of. The sequel is trash, however, an abomination.

― Casuistry (Chris P), Saturday, 2 July 2005 07:52 (twenty years ago)

http://www.opencity.org/images/bermancover.gif

― sunny successor (when the lunch bell rings why dont you eat me) (katharine), Saturday, 2 July 2005 08:17 (twenty years ago)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v209/Mandalion/diesoftly.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v209/Mandalion/roadtonowhere.jpg

― Homosexual II (Homosexual II), Saturday, 2 July 2005 08:31 (twenty years ago)

I like your definition of 'intellisexy'.

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Saturday, 2 July 2005 08:36 (twenty years ago)

Chris, would the old Dover edition of Flatland be as intellisexy as the fancy-schmancy newfangled one you've posted here?

― k/l (Ken L), Saturday, 2 July 2005 09:16 (twenty years ago)

Also, a post on ILB made me think of those teeny-tiny German books, in yellow or blue.

― k/l (Ken L), Saturday, 2 July 2005 09:17 (twenty years ago)

Reclam?

― k/l (Ken L), Saturday, 2 July 2005 09:20 (twenty years ago)

i loved those pike books as a kid

― anthony easton (anthony), Saturday, 2 July 2005 09:31 (twenty years ago)

i put a reclam book in my pocket tonight! but just for a second to carry it into the other room. and it was my shirt pocket, not my back pocket. and i was alone, so no one saw me being intellisexy.

― Josh (Josh), Saturday, 2 July 2005 09:35 (twenty years ago)

http://harriet2000.cool.ne.jp/harriet/bookguide/030803.jpg

― J.D. (Justyn Dillingham), Saturday, 2 July 2005 09:46 (twenty years ago)

josh,
you are forever intellisexy

― anthony easton (anthony), Saturday, 2 July 2005 09:53 (twenty years ago)

It was your post, josh- you said you were reading "a little kafka"!

― k/l (Ken L), Saturday, 2 July 2005 12:24 (twenty years ago)

i was reading a little little kafka, but if it were in a reclam edition then i would have been reading a little little little kafka (!). but i was not. i think schocken might still have all the rights to his work?

the reclam was something else. 'romantik i' i think.

― Josh (Josh), Saturday, 2 July 2005 18:58 (twenty years ago)

All editions of Flatland are sexy; I think I gave my copy of the Princeton edition away, and hung onto the Dover edition. The hardcover annotated, which I dearly want, would be very sexy but it is not so thin.

― Casuistry (Chris P), Saturday, 2 July 2005 19:21 (twenty years ago)

This book, which I can't find an image of, is a very tiny and cute illustrated edition of a Gertude Stein book for children; I actually brought this with me to read while I waited for someone to meet me for our first date.

― Casuistry (Chris P), Saturday, 2 July 2005 19:23 (twenty years ago)

http://www.trashfiction.co.uk/girls01.jpg

― Poppy (poppy), Saturday, 2 July 2005 20:17 (twenty years ago)

ihttp://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~jimthing/stewardess1.jpg

― Casuistry (Chris P), Saturday, 2 July 2005 20:26 (twenty years ago)

Verso: http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~jimthing/stewardess2.jpg where the "C" in "C on T" stands for "champagne"!

― Casuistry (Chris P), Saturday, 2 July 2005 20:27 (twenty years ago)

The "Not for Tourists" guide to whatever city you're in.

http://www.notfortourists.com

― Paunchy Stratego (kenan), Saturday, 2 July 2005 21:02 (twenty years ago)

a person claiming to be intelligent via literary props = okay
an intelligent person reading trash = sexxxy

― sunny successor (when the lunch bell rings why dont you eat me) (katharine), Sunday, 3 July 2005 05:44 (twenty years ago)

http://prelectur.stanford.edu/lecturers/derrida/gifs/thgrammat.gif

― Kodanshi, Sunday, 3 July 2005 23:09 (twenty years ago)

Howl

― shookout (shookout), Monday, 4 July 2005 02:56 (twenty years ago)

It's already been mentioned. And it's not really all that intellisexy.

― Casuistry (Chris P), Monday, 4 July 2005 03:07 (twenty years ago)

I mean you might as well carry around

http://www.library.gatech.edu/about_us/news/banned/images/belljar.gif

― Casuistry (Chris P), Monday, 4 July 2005 03:07 (twenty years ago)

http://www.edv-buch-billig.de/img300/0596000324.jpg

― Casuistry (Chris P), Monday, 4 July 2005 03:09 (twenty years ago)

dude, dont be dissing the bell jar

― sunny successor (when the lunch bell rings why dont you eat me) (katharine), Monday, 4 July 2005 03:10 (twenty years ago)

i don't think i'd ever be attacted to someone because of what they read.

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Monday, 4 July 2005 03:27 (twenty years ago)

recent anecdotes:
° was reading the little prince at a dire sub-electrohouse club, dressed considerably more provocatively than the crowd in attendance, & had it ripped out of my hands by a drunken munter who shouted that me reading "make him sick".
° collection of gogol short stories while getting my hair & makeup done for some modelling; generic eastern european model boy next to me was reading the second artemis fowl book!
° current favourite = http://www.semiotexte.com/authors/books/kraus-title.gif

― etc, Monday, 4 July 2005 04:13 (twenty years ago)

anything semiotext(e) is handily pocket-sized. those miniature penguins, too - the one with kafka's "in the penal settlement" & "the judgement" w/goya's saturn devouring his offspring as the cover is k-sexy.

― etc, Monday, 4 July 2005 04:16 (twenty years ago)

I think the whole concept is a little bit dud. But I've been known to do it on occassion, so I can't fault anyone else. Actually, I really like having a book just sticking out a little so you're curious but can't see what it is.

― Hurting (Hurting), Monday, 4 July 2005 04:56 (twenty years ago)

Def. the concept is dud. And, to that effect, if I saw someone reading something really contrived and obvious such as "The Bell Jar", "Communist Manifesto" or otherwise "classic" and I guess slightly lefty and subversive, I'd think that they were lame... just read it at home, you're being obvious. Something that they have on them *anyway* and it's rad... biggest turn on in the world. Even moreso than an incredible record collection (to me), and that's saying a LOT.

― scout (scout), Monday, 4 July 2005 05:43 (twenty years ago)

chris i know you hate ginsberg but come on--howl is the sexiest porniest hotness, im not even arguing its good poetry, though it maybe but the fantastic ribald pumelling of hard cock imagery is hard on inducing.

― anthony easton (anthony), Monday, 4 July 2005 06:31 (twenty years ago)

http://www.ottakars.co.uk/Internet/home/penguin70s.jsp

penguins have released 70 books at £1.50 each as part of their 70th anniversary (see also Penguin 60s that they did 10 years ago at 60p each). these qualify as thin and back-pocket but i'm not really qualified to say what is intellisexy and what isn't (although the anais nin looks likely). covers are nice.

― koogs (koogs), Monday, 4 July 2005 08:31 (twenty years ago)

someone prominently reading howl in public = most likely a bit of a bore.

someone prominently reading

http://www.nextbook.org/images/books/287m.jpg

in public = someone to go up and talk to.

― J.D. (Justyn Dillingham), Monday, 4 July 2005 08:37 (twenty years ago)

http://i3.yesasia.com/assets/48/075/p1004007548.jpg

im really enjoying it, probably a bit too rockist or something to be be sexy, but it is is slim. both the penguin 70s and the penguin "great ideas" series are lovely little books, great design and just the right size for a quick journey somewhere.

― ambrose (ambrose), Monday, 4 July 2005 10:26 (twenty years ago)

i think its hilarious that anyone really thinks someone reading in public is only doing it to score. who the hell does that? oh, i guess you guys.

― sunny successor (when the lunch bell rings why dont you eat me) (katharine), Monday, 4 July 2005 17:43 (twenty years ago)

I don't hate Ginsberg, and I think Howl is a perfectly fine poem; I just think it's a little too obvious to be "intellisexy". It might be fine if you're 19, but much older and there's something unsexy about having never read Howl and feeling you need to read it now.

― Casuistry (Chris P), Monday, 4 July 2005 17:47 (twenty years ago)

i actually...think this book is good
http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0023078251.01._SCLZZZZZZZ_.gif

― caitlin oh no (caitxa1), Monday, 4 July 2005 17:49 (twenty years ago)

The problem with people coming up to you when you're reading something to talk to you about it is that presumably you're reading it and don't really want to be interrupted. I once spent a long subway ride getting more and more frustrated about spending it explaining who David Antin was to the relatively nice woman who was enquiring, when I wanted to spend that time reading it!

― Casuistry (Chris P), Monday, 4 July 2005 17:49 (twenty years ago)

Reading Howl in public only works if you're reading it very passionately out loud with sweeping hand gestures.

― walter kranz (walterkranz), Monday, 4 July 2005 18:11 (twenty years ago)

Or if you're Zombie Allen Ginsberg.

― Casuistry (Chris P), Monday, 4 July 2005 18:13 (twenty years ago)

i carry strunk and white around in my purse so i can educate myself on breaks at work so i can get a better job. the sad thing is i don't think people think i'm intellisexy, i think they think i'm reading about fashion.

― tehresa (tehresa), Monday, 4 July 2005 18:19 (twenty years ago)

Do people actually read Semiotext(e) books?

― shookout (shookout), Monday, 4 July 2005 19:29 (twenty years ago)

Strunk and White can help me get a better job??? WHY HAS NO ONE EVER TOLD ME THIS BEFORE??!!

― Hurting (Hurting), Monday, 4 July 2005 19:54 (twenty years ago)

maybe they can't... i just meant it is (hopefully) a step towards not working with high school dropouts

― tehresa (tehresa), Monday, 4 July 2005 20:05 (twenty years ago)

I only carry things around because sometimes I get tired dancing at clubs/parties/&c&c&c! (um & I'm k-short sighted & don't wear glasses/contacts, so I'm probably missing out on lots of eye contact &c&c&c, heh).
"Howl" is good but I've memorised the good bits. I wish my copy of John Berryman's 77 Dream Songs was slightly smaller, as that's the sort've thing I'd love to randomly pull out whenever I've a spare thirty seconds or so. Last week I had a brown paper bag in my pocket w/random Frank O'Hara & Stevie Smith scribbed on it.

Sort've disappointed w/what's available in Penguin 70s! Nvck Hornby!

― etc, Monday, 4 July 2005 20:46 (twenty years ago)

i read semiotext(e) books

― anthony easton (anthony), Tuesday, 5 July 2005 05:06 (twenty years ago)

I tried to read one once while house-sitting for someone who had a bunch of them. It was something about "the space of war" or "the architecture of war" or something like that, but underneath the fancy language, it just seemed like a pretty obvious explanation of war as a totalizing force.

― Hurting (Hurting), Tuesday, 5 July 2005 05:14 (twenty years ago)

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