45 Funny And Witty Memes About Literature That Might Inspire You To Open A Book

Gorter, an Associate Content Strategy Manager at SparkNotes, explained to Bored Panda that the secret behind creating such great literary memes comes from reading a ton and spending a lot of time on X (aka Twitter).

We were curious to get her opinion on what quality literary memes have in common. “To me, a sign of a good literary meme is that people who have read the book think it’s spot-on, and people who haven’t read the book are curious enough that they decide to read it!” she said.

Some people feel like they don’t have enough spare time to read. Others, however, are dealing with extremely shortened attention spans, a huge problem these days. Gorter shared her thoughts about inspiring people to read more.

“For people who are looking to reignite their passion for literature, sometimes it’s all in how you think about it. Get rid of the idea that audiobooks don’t count; give yourself permission to stop reading a book you’re not enjoying; read several books at once if you get bored easily,” the SparkNotes team member told Bored Panda.

“I know so many people who got back into reading after a long dry spell, and the reason they came back is always different—maybe they discovered ebooks or audiobooks and it changed everything, or maybe they watched a TV or film adaptation, and wanted to read the series, or maybe (just maybe!) they saw a literary meme on Twitter that piqued their interest.”

According to Gorter, the best approach here is to meet people “where they are,” instead of forcing them or moralizing them.

“Some people are never going to be big readers, either because they don’t have time or it simply doesn’t interest them, and I think that’s okay! The great thing about literature is that it’s such a vast world, and there’s no right or wrong way to engage with it.”

Meanwhile, Professor McLendon, from the University of Kansas, echoed very similar thoughts on helping people (re)discover the love of reading.

“I’d love to see people reading more books: novels, nonfiction, whatever. I think one thing that could help, and this is something I’m encouraging my students to do over the winter break, is just read something YOU want to read for the fun of it,” she shared her thoughts with Bored Panda.

“By college, it seems that students tend to associate reading with homework, not pleasure, and if they can re-capture the feeling of reading for pleasure, then they may read more. Going along with that, people need to know it’s OK, when they’re reading for pleasure, to quit a book that they’re not into. There are so many great books in the world; don’t waste time on one you’re not enjoying!”

We also asked the professor for her thoughts on truly great student essays and how they can wow academic staff.

“Truly great student essays don’t just follow the directions (though they do that); they sparkle in both content and writing. That is, great essays approach the topic from an inventive or creative perspective and support the main idea with clear, specific information and examples,” McLendon said.