The strangest reason you have for wanting to read a book

[Dark Muse]

The subject of this thread might sound a bit strange in itself, but there is a bit of a background story on how it all came about, and I wonder if other people have had moments like this, or I am just crazy (ok I know, I am probably still crazy anyway)

I am a huge fan of the T.V. show Lost, and for anyone not familiar with Lost, it is this really out there, awesome but totally strange and complex show, but it is one of those shows that does make you think, and gets people talking about it after word in trying to figure out what is going on and speculating. So all throughout the show there are these subtle little hints to try and piece together like a puzzle, and so if they make a point of focusing on something odds are it does have some greater significance within the show and what is really going on.

In one of the episodes last season, they made a point of zooming on one of the characters who was sitting on a bench reading a book, and it was done so the audience could clearly see the title and author of the book. So I thought, that is probably important in someway, and the book was "Everything that Rises Must Converge" by Flannery O' Conner.

So I instantly googled the book, and wrote it done in one of me TBR notebooks. But since than I got caught up in other things and forgot about it, until just recently one of my Goodreads groups is going to be reading the book in December and when I saw it, I thought, that sounds really familiar, and I looked it up and was like oh yes that is the "Lost" book.

So basically it comes down to, I want to read this book primarily because it was on an episode of the T.V. show Lost.

[mayneverhave]

Strangest reason I've had for reading a book:

the recommendation of someone on this forum

[JBI]

Who knows? One of my profs made a note of how, after he had mentioned a translated Tang Dynasty sex manual in class, it just happened to disappear off the shelves in the East Asian Library of Robarts (it's a reference library) - I could think of stranger, but if you've ever read anything about these texts, you'll get the point - the book comes with all sorts of sexual positions (and diagrams) for multiple uses, including curing your every day cold, to gaining immortality.

[AmericanEagle]

One of my profs made a note of how, after he had mentioned a translated Tang Dynasty sex manual in class, it just happened to disappear off the shelves in the East Asian Library of Robarts

Apparently, those students didn't get the memo.

[Kidijs]

A recommendation on four chan. Yeah, I know that's creepy.

[blazeofglory]

Of course I have the strangest reason to read the Mahabharata. This is a wonderful book and why I want to read this book in particular of all in point of fact it is unlike the rest of theological or scriptural books gives something different. Most importantly, I want to know in detail about the characters in the Mahabharata. Every character in this book is unique, exclusive and what is so extraordinary about its characters is every character has a flaw in life, and is not having a complete and absolute life the way the rest of other scriptural books do have. The Ramayana for instance is a book of ideals and every character is perfect and ideally inclined to good deeds, Ram for instance personifies an ideal husband and Sita an ideal wife. Their lives are unblemished. But in the Mahabharata, the character of Draupadi for instance is full of high merits and flaws. She is wise, virtuous, and religious, performs all kinds of ritual worships, worships Gods, but has pride and she happens to love Arjuna, one of the five husbands he got married to, and has a little vainglory, something womanish character customarily said vanity fair . The rest of other characters also have imperfect and flawed personae in point of fact. Even Krishna, the Avatar, that means the incarnation of Lord Vishnu is also not without slipups. One of the extraordinaire of the book is its characters though supposedly lived 3 to 4 thousands years ago still depict many features that bear great resemblance to humans today. This is a very colossal epic and I cannot read it in Sanskrit even if I have a little knowledge of Sanskrit. Unfortunately this book got never adequately reviewed and there is no full translation of the text in English

[Veva]

Talking about strange reasons for reading a book, I seem to be somehow hooked on Anne Rice and her Chronicles.... to put this right, I don't like this kind of literature, I am more of a classics person. But the thing is, that there is something in me that makes me get all the books..... :alien: spooky

[Dark Muse]

Talking about strange reasons for reading a book, I seem to be somehow hooked on Anne Rice and her Chronicles.... to put this right, I don't like this kind of literature, I am more of a classics person. But the thing is, that there is something in me that makes me get all the books..... :alien: spooky

I had something like that happen to be once, there was this author, who for some reason I felt compelled to keep buying his works whenever I saw one of them, even though I had not yet actually read anything by him.

[Scheherazade]

Quite often I will read a book because it is not recommended.

[Dark Lady]

I can't think of an especially strange reason for me wanting to read a book. My reasons for putting books on my 'to read' list tend to vary. Sometimes it's because of a recommendation from someone who has similar taste to me; or because I liked a different book by the same writer; sometimes because I read a review somewhere and it sounded interesting; sometimes just because it is a classic; and others because a character in a show talks about it and it sounds intriguing etc.

The weirdest is possibly a book on my list that I know nothing about. It's there because I had an absolutely lovely taxi driver one day back when I was doing my degree who was so enthusiastic when I said I was studying English Literature. This surprised me because he didn't strike me as the well read type (I know, you shouldn't make judgements like that about someone you don't even know) but he told me what his favourite book was. He was so keen for me to read it that he grabbed a blank receipt when the taxi was at lights and wrote down the title and author for me. I've never heard of the novel and I am skeptical about how good it will be but the guy was so lovely and since he went to the effort of writing it down for me I'm determined to read it at some point.

[Veva]

I had something like that happen to be once, there was this author, who for some reason I felt compelled to keep buying his works whenever I saw one of them, even though I had not yet actually read anything by him.

Who was the author?

[mortalterror]

Who knows? One of my profs made a note of how, after he had mentioned a translated Tang Dynasty sex manual in class, it just happened to disappear off the shelves in the East Asian Library of Robarts (it's a reference library) - I could think of stranger, but if you've ever read anything about these texts, you'll get the point - the book comes with all sorts of sexual positions (and diagrams) for multiple uses, including curing your every day cold, to gaining immortality.
So now you're immortal?

[wat??]

A recommendation on four chan. Yeah, I know that's creepy.

I suppose you've read 'Atlas Shrugged' about three hundred times in that case.

[Dark Muse]

Who was the author?

Wilbur Smith

[Nemo Neem]

The strangest reason for me to read a book relates to a movie. I saw the movie Jurassic Park, and I wanted to see how it differed from the novel.

[Veva]

I saw the movie Jurassic Park, and I wanted to see how it differed from the novel.

I had no idea there was a BOOK???!!! ..... maybe I am a little uneducated here, but still, I am the generation, which finds the Jurassic Park a retro....

[Dark Lady]

I had no idea there was a BOOK???!!! ..... maybe I am a little uneducated here, but still, I am the generation, which finds the Jurassic Park a retro....

Yep, the film was based on the book. The first film is mostly based on the book, the second film has about a third of it based on the book (the stuff they didn't include in the first film) and the third film has only one scene based on the book. Kind of explains the declining quality of the films.

[DanielBenoit]

I remember a few years back reading Immanuel Kant's Critique of Pure Reason just to see how far a could toughen it out. It turned out to be quite a fascinating journey, though I never completed it because of some of the endlessly stretched drab and boring parts.

I also remember reading Euclid's Elements one summer as if it was a novel just for the hell of it, and it was quite a lot of fun. Really beautiful stuff there.

Another one was when I decided to read the whole Harry Potter series so that I could read the seventh when it came out. Well, maybe that's not so strange now that I think of it, because I had remembered with nostaliga growing up reading the first and second ones, so to revisit them was like a walk down memory lane.

I also read The DaVinci Code once. After hearing all of the awful things about it I thought, "okay, I have to read this".

I touched a copy of Twilight once in a Barnes and Nobles, wondering what all of the fuss was about, then immedietly putting it back down upon discovering that the best thing about it was the front-cover.

[Pensive]

To make fun of the author. Have an opportunity to be just critical. (mostly regarding the most horrible literature)

I know I am a big bully :p

[Veva]

I touched a copy of Twilight once in a Barnes and Nobles, wondering what all of the fuss was about, then immedietly putting it back down upon discovering that the best thing about it was the front-cover.

Had the same experience :p

[TurquoiseSunset]

For me it could be anything...
Book reviews, best seller lists, old Top 100 lists, something I heard about on t.v, a movie trailer, or the movie itself. Sometimes I 'research' a book on Amazon, and notice something in the Customers Also Bought section. That can sometimes get out of hand...I end up clicking on stuff all over the place and then buy a book that's not even remotely like the one I was originally looking at.

[Three Sparrows]

The strangest reason why I read a book was when my dad threw Angels and Demons at me and said," I never read it, but I think its okay."
:lol:

[Dark Muse]

The strangest reason why I read a book was when my dad threw Angels and Demons at me and said," I never read it, but I think its okay."
:lol:

LOL that is a good one

I am obsessed with the book The Magus by John Fowles, and thought it was one of the most remarkable things I have ever read, and I had been watching the new show The Prisoner on AMC and I found there were some striking resemblances between the show and The Magus, so I was looking up online to see if I could find any intended connection between the two. I happened upon this website dedicated to John Fowles and The Magus, where people gave recommendations for books they thought were like The Magus, and one of the books I put on my TBR list because it was one of Fowles favorite books and actually the basis of his inspiration for writing The Magus.

[Barbarous]

I suppose you've read 'Atlas Shrugged' about three hundred times in that case.

:lol:

[The Comedian]

How about this: I read my AD & D Dungeon Master's guide (2nd edition) frequently just so I can remember how much fun I had playing D & D as a kid.

[Return Journey]

I like to collect books and can’t resist it when I find some old book by a long forgotten author
and am drawn in by the first few sentences. Older books often don’t have dust jackets and there’s nothing
inside to tell you what you might be in for. It’s not always great literature but it may have been popular in it’s time
and, you never know, you might actually like it.

[TurquoiseSunset]

I like to collect books and can’t resist it when I find some old book by a long forgotten author
and am drawn in by the first few sentences. Older books often don’t have dust jackets and there’s nothing
inside to tell you what you might be in for. It’s not always great literature but it may have been popular in it’s time
and, you never know, you might actually like it.

I do the exact same thing! I have found a few gems that way, but you do have to kiss a lot of frogs though :lol:
Starting a book without knowing what it's about creates a completely different 'atmosphere', it makes the book exciting since you have no clue what could happen next.

[Dark Muse]

I like to collect books and can’t resist it when I find some old book by a long forgotten author
and am drawn in by the first few sentences. Older books often don’t have dust jackets and there’s nothing
inside to tell you what you might be in for. It’s not always great literature but it may have been popular in it’s time
and, you never know, you might actually like it.

I have done the same thing, there is this annual book give away at this library around here, and they usually have these old hardcover books, that usually are just a solid color or have some retro looking design but tell you nothing about the book. Usually I just go by if they have interesting sounding titles and check the copyright date to see how old they are. It is like the book version of the grab bag don't know just what you are going to get.

[Granny5]

My husband was working in radio and when we were dating I read a book on the history of radio so I'd be able to discuss his work with him. We really never talked about radio when we were together so it was a waste. LOL

[JBI]

So now you're immortal?


Getting there; not enough mercury in my diet. The Dragon Flaps his Wings cured my fever up nicely though.

[escapologist]

Not the strangest, but certainly the most stupid- to seem clever and impress people. I had this boyfriend who judged people on the basis of the books they've read (among other things) and since I subscribe to the same sort of awful snobbery, I started reading books I knew he'd like. I'm glad that's over. :banana:

[Return Journey]

...they usually have these old hardcover books, that usually are just a solid color or have some retro looking design but tell you nothing about the book. Usually I just go by if they have interesting sounding titles and check the copyright date to see how old they are. It is like the book version of the grab bag don't know just what you are going to get.

That’s exactly it…adventures in reading.

[Veva]

Not the strangest, but certainly the most stupid- to seem clever and impress people. I had this boyfriend who judged people on the basis of the books they've read (among other things) and since I subscribe to the same sort of awful snobbery, I started reading books I knew he'd like. I'm glad that's over. :banana:

we should form a support group for that. I know exactly what u mean..:brickwall

[Lightfoot Roads]

Can curiosity be strange? Sometimes I will read a book from either another book or some quote attributed to such-a-person, because of either his or her grasp of the language or to watch the development and fleshing out an idea. Sometimes I will go through all of their works, to appreciate the evolution of the writer, the evolution of the writer's world, if it does evolve, and from there infer his worldview, although that's sort of dishonest, since reading is not about slavishly copying what is supposed to be unique. Some writers, surely unacknowledged scientists, were attempting to record and explain peculiarities in both man and societies, others merely to record them for posterity. So my weird reason for reading a book will usually consist of grabbing a name off the shelf, 'bookending' the first and last chapters, and, if anything seems to indicate growth, change, or fatality, read or not read accordingly. If weirdness is the motivation, then is usually involves science fiction, and the bookending HAS to indicate change or fatality before I go any further - it can't just be about a bigger zapper and a faster horse - but there must be some indication that an attempt at learning, wrestling with change, or grappling with limitations has taken place.

LR


For me it could be anything...
Book reviews, best seller lists, old Top 100 lists, something I heard about on t.v, a movie trailer, or the movie itself. Sometimes I 'research' a book on Amazon, and notice something in the Customers Also Bought section. That can sometimes get out of hand...I end up clicking on stuff all over the place and then buy a book that's not even remotely like the one I was originally looking at.

It seems that I am also finding a lot of books that way - like one giant wikipedia link - so that by the time I put the book down I have, if not a different point of view, less reason to put my foot in it about someone else's...:blush: But what a way to kick off a hundred more ideas! Go, Go, Go!

[Taliesin]

One day I had a dream about a strange room with perverse, non-euclidean dimensions, filled with a putrid, inhuman smell, reminding my subconscious inherited from the depths of my genealogy, when humans had just begun to learn to fashion tools from stone, the fear and terror of the strange Gods that had come from the realms in the center of Milky Way and had ruled over Earth for long aeons before falling asleep in their strange and abnormal houses under the sea. In the center of the room was a strange post, carved with terrifying and horrible patterns that disturbed my mind, since the acts depicted there were so obscene, disgusting and perverse that a human could but only begin to comprehend the true terror of it; and on the top of the post was the book, the book which I shall not name here.
For the following days I kept having the dream again and again, once more locked into that terrible and inhuman room, but during the days, around between three and four o'clock, my attention - and I cannot tell you the reason since I myself can not understand why I would behave so - was absolutely drawn to a point in the ceiling of my room. I both wanted to reach the point, yet some strange instinct kept me from rising from my bed, making me feel nauseous even thinking about reaching it, yet my eyes were fixed on the dreaded point. But on last Friday, I rose up, as in a hypnotic sleep, went upstairs where I saw that the door of the room just above my room was open - I did not pay any notice not think what could have been the fate of the owner of the room, and on the table in the middle of the room was the cursed book that I had dreamt of, filling me with the same unnamable terror as it did in my feverish dreams, yet I had no control of my body. I sat behind the table and started reading the book and couldn't put it away until I had finished, now knowing much more than man is supposed to, and what shreds of sanity I had left from these obscene dreams were torn to pieces by the perverse and ancient knowledge I learnt from that book. I know now the fate that befell on the previous owner of the book and since it belongs to me now, I also know that such is also the fate of me, that the same things will soon take me with them to their strange houses in places that man, to his great fortune, hasn't yet set foot on. But me, I shall never be the same, after reading the book.



I guess that's a pretty strange reason for reading a book, no? I think I should maybe lay off the wine for a while, although you can get a drinkable bottle of it for an unbelievable price here.

[Abdiel]

Ever read those long lists of recommended books near the back of a novel?

These are especially prominent at the ends of classic novels where they'll list other classic works, and for some reason I like to be able to turn to those and say I've read this book or that.

So, sometimes I use those recommended books to read because they do have a list of great authors and works.

[FleurDeMal]

Read "The Bell Jar", because I was wondering if there was any fault I could see in what Sylvia Plath did to her self, flaws in her arguments, that is. Well, I connected completely, and found myself somewhat depressed, but to any significant degree, since at least I knew there was AT LEAST ONE person who knew how I felt, but I was also somewhat relieved, because it meant that I wasn't going to have to wait for her to die anymore; as if she was alive still, and I was her sorry excuse for a lifeline; and it also meant that I could let go of something, although I'm not completely sure of what it is I am letting go of. Maybe I'll know when I'm out of the Bell Jar myself. Sorry for the soap-box. ^^

[TurquoiseSunset]

It seems that I am also finding a lot of books that way - like one giant wikipedia link - so that by the time I put the book down I have, if not a different point of view, less reason to put my foot in it about someone else's...:blush: But what a way to kick off a hundred more ideas! Go, Go, Go!

That's a good way of describing it: "like one giant wikipedia link". Everything I do on the Internet end up like that, not just when I'm looking for books :D And I love it...you learn so much.

I would like to add, that when I get a book list, I don't care if it's from Oprah (or Richard & Judy) or a Harvard reading list. I give all lists an equal chance...

[JuniperWoolf]

I read Catcher in the Rye because I wanted to impress a boy and it was his favorite book.

[Veva]

I read Catcher in the Rye because I wanted to impress a boy and it was his favorite book.

I read Clockwork Orange for the same reason.... reading that book should have taught me something about that guy... but no....:sick:

[IceM]

My girlfriend read Pride and Prejudice. I wanted to make her a shirt of her favorite character (Elizabeth, not suprisingly).

I'm not reading that book again. (Didn't foreshadow anything)

[dig_thestreet]

I first read Chuck Palahniuk's Invisible Monsters because it is referenced in a Panic at the Disco song. Chuck is now one of my favorite authors and I've read all his stuff.

Come to think of it, I also read On the Road since it was in a Panic song...

[kelby_lake]

I read Crime and Punishment on a dare (well, challenge, really)
Read Lady Chatterley's Lover in order to shock fellow schoolmates (and ended up disrupting lessons)
Read Lolita because a weird boy (nice, but strange) was reading it so I thought it might be a bit of a wacky thing to do.

:D

[spookymulder93]

The subject of this thread might sound a bit strange in itself, but there is a bit of a background story on how it all came about, and I wonder if other people have had moments like this, or I am just crazy (ok I know, I am probably still crazy anyway)

I am a huge fan of the T.V. show Lost, and for anyone not familiar with Lost, it is this really out there, awesome but totally strange and complex show, but it is one of those shows that does make you think, and gets people talking about it after word in trying to figure out what is going on and speculating. So all throughout the show there are these subtle little hints to try and piece together like a puzzle, and so if they make a point of focusing on something odds are it does have some greater significance within the show and what is really going on.

In one of the episodes last season, they made a point of zooming on one of the characters who was sitting on a bench reading a book, and it was done so the audience could clearly see the title and author of the book. So I thought, that is probably important in someway, and the book was "Everything that Rises Must Converge" by Flannery O' Conner.

So I instantly googled the book, and wrote it done in one of me TBR notebooks. But since than I got caught up in other things and forgot about it, until just recently one of my Goodreads groups is going to be reading the book in December and when I saw it, I thought, that sounds really familiar, and I looked it up and was like oh yes that is the "Lost" book.

So basically it comes down to, I want to read this book primarily because it was on an episode of the T.V. show Lost.
A fellow LOST fan. LOST inspired me to get several books. Watership Down, The Brothers Karamazov, Everything that Rises must Converge, The Invention of Morel, A Separate Reality, and most importantly The Stand by Stephen King. That novel played a HUGE role in the way LOST was told.

[mona amon]

If I ever read The Mysteries of Udolpho (and that's a big if) it will be because the heroine of Northanger Abbey was reading it.

I read the Da Vinci Code because there was a notice on our church noticeboard asking us to join a protest against it. :rolleyes5:

[Veho]

I read 'The Bell Jar' partly because Julia Stiles is reading it in the film '10 Things I Hate About You'. It's not a very strange reason but the strangest for me.

[dfloyd]

in Catcher in the Rye. One he makes is about Thomas Hardy's Return of the Native. I read Catcher in my early youth, and at that time, I had never heard of Hardy. Holden's allusion prompted me to read Hardy. After Return of the Native, I read a long list of Hardy's novels.

[cgrillo]

The subject of this thread might sound a bit strange in itself, but there is a bit of a background story on how it all came about, and I wonder if other people have had moments like this, or I am just crazy (ok I know, I am probably still crazy anyway)

I am a huge fan of the T.V. show Lost, and for anyone not familiar with Lost, it is this really out there, awesome but totally strange and complex show, but it is one of those shows that does make you think, and gets people talking about it after word in trying to figure out what is going on and speculating. So all throughout the show there are these subtle little hints to try and piece together like a puzzle, and so if they make a point of focusing on something odds are it does have some greater significance within the show and what is really going on.

In one of the episodes last season, they made a point of zooming on one of the characters who was sitting on a bench reading a book, and it was done so the audience could clearly see the title and author of the book. So I thought, that is probably important in someway, and the book was "Everything that Rises Must Converge" by Flannery O' Conner.

So I instantly googled the book, and wrote it done in one of me TBR notebooks. But since than I got caught up in other things and forgot about it, until just recently one of my Goodreads groups is going to be reading the book in December and when I saw it, I thought, that sounds really familiar, and I looked it up and was like oh yes that is the "Lost" book.

So basically it comes down to, I want to read this book primarily because it was on an episode of the T.V. show Lost.

I've done the same thing, only the book I saw on lost was "The Survivors of the Chancellor" by Jules Verne. I knew that Verne was a great writer, and since it had been on Lost, it had to be awesome. It was - it's a shame it isn't as widely known as some of his other books.

Just in case your wondering, that book was the one Regina was reading, which Minkowski pointed out was upside down. :p

EDIT: I don't know if this the the strangest reason, but it's one of them.

[brave new tony]

I read a series of short stories by Mark Twain just because I decided that as a Missourian I should pay homage to him.

[stlukesguild]

I read a series of short stories by Mark Twain just because I decided that as a Missourian I should pay homage to him.

Certainly not all that unusual. I'll admit to having consciously sought out any number of German writers... and even forced my way through Goethe in the original with my very limited grasp of German... because of an interest in my German heritage.

[Jazz_]

I have read a few different things because I have noticed people reading them on the train - it just made me curious.

I have also read things because I didn't like something else by the same author - and for some reason thought - "That has to be the worst thing they've written :eek:... I'll try another"

[Tallon]

Tv shows have inspired me to read books several times. The Bridge Of San Luis Rey springs to mind, i saw it in an episode of Monk where Monk's assistant is dating a guy who steals the plot as his idea and of course Monk instantly knows where it is from.

[JuniperWoolf]

I want to read The Fountainhead because Neil Peart wrote an album about it.

[spookymulder93]

I want to read The Fountainhead because Neil Peart wrote an album about it.

It ain't easy bein cheesy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWaLM-h5BrM

[PrimordialBeast]

I tend to find a lot of books based upon my heroes; figures and authors I look up to, our paralell thoughts, feelings and even lives. Who and what influenced them other than their own personal beliefs, etc. What they read, and why. Then I usually research and if it sounds up my alley I give it a shot, and more times than not I end up loving whatever it is I find, whether it be a piece of fictional literature, philosophy, history, art. Anything and everything that I can relate to, or genuiniely sparks my interest, I'll give it a read. I geuss that's why my own reading range is so vast.

[JuniperWoolf]

It ain't easy bein cheesy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWaLM-h5BrM

:lol: Classic.

[iamnobody]

I read Meditations by Marcus Aurelius beacuse it was mentioned by a character in East of Eden. I'm very glad I did.

[OrphanPip]

There's a Simpsons version of The Fountainhead too. Maggie was Howard Roark.

[Dekarto]

The strangest reason I can find for wanting to read a book is when I once bought a book in the bookstore afraid that if I didn't someone else would buy it and then when I eventually returned, it would be too late. So I bought the book and read it because of that.

[Scheherazade]

Read he Sound and the Fury to satisfy my curiousity as it was "so me" according to this quiz:

http://www.online-literature.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3603

[bpearson]

I was given a copy of The Communist Manifesto by my second grade teacher when I was in grade five. I read it. I think that's quite strange in itself.

[MrsPeterson]

My Brother in Law is a Biochemist and at one time had one of the highest IQs in the country. I found it hard to talk with him about literature, so did a quick review of some of the types of things he would like as 'relaxation' reading but couldn't find in his extensive library.

Ended up reading Guns, Germs and Steel by Dr. Diamond - passed it along to my BIL. Actually got a Thank you note from him because he enjoyed it so much. I went back to my Stephen Kings, Harry Potters for several months before I could pick up a serious book again.

[Pensive]

Catcher in the Rye because I got its protagonist in an online personality quiz! :)

[laymonite]

Quite often I will read a book or an author because of another author's allusion.

[Clover_K]

I read a few of Byron's poems because I think he's hot. The same goes for Shelley and Keats. <3

[JuniperWoolf]

I started reading Rimbaud at fifteen because he was my age when he wrote them.

I read Cat's Eye becaues it was written the year that I was born (oddly, it's the novel which most resembles my life).