What makes a book a "real book"?

[Annie Hall]

Everyone has done it or had it done to them. Someone says "what are you reading", you tell them, and they say "oh." and ask if you've read any "real books".

I'm not talking comics, here, but books that movies were made out of, or that no one has heard of and such. What gives someone who has not read it, the right to say a book is not a "real" one, merely because it is not classic?

Any thoughts?

[thebloodfeaster]

If somebody informed me that a book I read was not a "real book," then I would inform that person that he/she is an idiot.

[EoghainFOKeeffe]

A real book has more than 60,000 words, is printed on paper, has a hardback or a paperback, is written by a person and does not have any buttons or switches.

If the book you are reading fulfills these requirements - then you can rest assured that it's real!

[quoth_the_raven]

Originally posted by thebloodfeaster
If somebody informed me that a book I read was not a "real book," then I would inform that person that he/she is an idiot.

i think thats probably what i would say as well.

[James Logan]

Originally posted by thebloodfeaster
If somebody informed me that a book I read was not a "real book," then I would inform that person that he/she is an idiot.

Agreed.

A real book is a little object that's been published and that's made of words printed on paper. Period. There are no "noble books". As for all things, quality will change from book to book, but anything that's been published, has over two pages and can technically be read is a real book. Simple as that.

[bob]

A real book is a book that I like. And that follows the basic principles of what EoghainFOKeeffe said.

[Psychocandy]

I do actually know what these people are referring to. This crops up generally when i'm reading something that belongs to a distinct genre...horror, fantasy or sci-fi for example. Some people actually believe that for a book to be worthy of any kind of praise it must be about something "real". It's this sort of narrow-minded idiocy that sees to it that a lot of very well written books never receive the praise that they deserve. It's also the reason why some people seem surprised that The Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile and Stand By Me were written by Stephen King. It's also the reason why Terry Pratchett isn't lauded by newspapers such as The Guardian as a genius (which he is). What these people tend not to realise is that there is often ten times more understanding of the human condition in a Stephen King book than there is in the majority of the tedious "literature" that they force themselves to read in order to look more intelligent whilst riding to work on the train.

Fuck...that was bit of a rant.