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I tend to view books classified as "literary fiction" as things that are probably good for me, that might better illuminate some aspect of life or increase my understanding of human nature, but not necessarily as something that I might pick up on a whim and enjoy. My mental equation now is: reading literary fiction = unwelcome chore. For example, I've wanted to read Conrad's "Heart of Darkness" for years, but I never took out a copy from the library or bought a paper copy. Now that I have the ebook version, I read a few pages, was interested in the story, but still the ebook is languishing unread on my reader.
I think that learned response developed in college from way too many English Lit classes, because I know before that, when I was in high school and earlier, I read authors who fell in to the literary fiction category on my own - and enjoyed the books. I can't read those books now without mentally preparing a term paper in my mind.
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