Last year I reached out to some friends via Facebook and asked them a fun bookish question. I have the answers to share with you today. Please feel free to answer for yourself in the comments, and if I get enough, I’ll make a new post! I’ll include my own answer at the end.
What is the weirdest/most random reason you read a book?
- To impress a guy
- The title was just too weird not to pick up, but I still haven’t actually read it
- I liked the picture on the cover
- My ethics professor recommended it – Krysten from Why Girls Are Weird
- Out of spite
- A guy I liked in high school was reading it
- I got bored at a sleepover in grade school waiting for a friend to wake up so I picked a book off her shelf and read most of it before she got up ?
- I had a computer software outage at work for four hours. My office building had a mini-branch of the DC public library (like 87% just returning books and picking up requests from other branches), so I just browsed the slim pickings and went back upstairs and read until the system came back up. It was a truly terrible book (and was apparently the third in a series lol)
- So I don’t have to talk to people, lol
- Because I paid $9 for it. Even though I absolutely hated it a third of the way through, I finished it out of principle. Or cheapness. ?
- I think mine would be because I found it at a bus stop. It was called Vox by Nicholson Baker and it was 100% not OK for a 16 year old girl to read it. ? I still have it on my shelf because it felt like contraband and I didn’t know what to do with it. – Sara from Stranded in Chaos
- Found it on the slide at a park lol
- Because the book’s show was coming out soon
- While living in Oklahoma we lost power for 2 weeks during an ice storm so we stayed with my aunt. My cousin and I would share the one lamp and read The Lost Symbol together
- Pass the time away
- Top two: first, I had a teacher tell me it was too hard to read (in grade school). Also in grade school got mad that I didn’t know the definitions of some words so I read the dictionary.
- I like to escape the real world!❤️
- To prove I could do it?
- To escape the real world!
- Heard about a set of books in a movie and wanted to know if they really existed. They did and were great to read.
I know most people didn’t actually say what book they read, so if you want to share your story in the comments, feel free to give us the title. You don’t have to though!
My Story: At the end of my freshman year of high school, my sister was a junior. She was already enrolled in a new school for her senior year and they had a summer reading list (my high school did not). I looked at her list to see what incoming sophomores were supposed to read and chose one of the books and read it (just for fun obviously). The book was Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton. It’s been years now but I remember enjoying it!
#9 for the win! Reading to not talk to people is always a good reason!
I don’t know if I have a weird reason I’ve read a book. But I totally looked up what Vox was, and yeah, 100% not ok for a 16 year old. haha
I don’t think it’s weird, but yeah, to avoid engaging with people is one of the reasons I never put my Kindle away during my commute.
I definitely read on transit to avoid having to converse with strangers! I always have a book of some form or another ready to go. 😉
This is fun! I have definitely picked books off a friend’s shelf when bored and just read while hanging out.
Oh my goodness, some of these are just priceless. Reading a book out of spite?? I’d love to know the story behind that one. 🙂 And I can totally relate to reading so I can avoid talking to people. That’s pretty much my life. Ha!
Out of spite lol. I would love to know more of that story.
I think it’s weird when I’ve read a book for a challenge I’ve set out for myself. I do research into these books and then basically force myself to read them so I can write about them. Otherwise, I just read for fun.
The # 7 reason is similar to a couple I have. One, when I was probably around 12 or 13 maybe, I was with my aunt for the day for some reason and she was over at her grandmother-in-law?’s house and I was bored so I picked up a book I saw, called Pride of the Peacock, and got lost in it. It is still one of my favorite books today! Another time was in college when I was visiting my roommate’s home and I saw a book on her mom’s shelves while my roommate was getting something from her room I think, and I asked if I could borrow it, I think it was A Time to Kill by John Grisham. Fun post!
How funny, some of these were so entertaining! I love that someone read a book to spite someone. I read my (now) husband’s short story textbook in college for fun 🙂
If I’m on a train or plane or at a restaurant (you know, before Covid did away with such things!) I totally read to avoid talking to people, lol!
Love number 9. That one is all too relatable, lol.
I am a visual person, so the cover pic usually is something that has grabbed my attention in the past for a weird reason to read a book or want to read a book 🙂
I relate very much to reading so I can avoiding talking to other people. Has the same effect as wearing earphones in public.
Omg this list was so much fun, I can’t think of any random reasons why I’ve picked up a book. I’ve definitely lied about reading a book but I haven’t read a book because of a guy. Hmmm. I usually pick up based on cover and I’ve definitely made myself read a book because I paid good money for it!
I have been known to read books that just sound weird. This is how I ended up reading The Cowboy and His Elephant, The Cowboy and the Vampire, and Dead Drunk: Surviving the Zombie Apocalypse. One Beer at a Time.
To spite someone? Oh, some of these are just hilarious!!
Out of spite? To spite who 🙂 Also that’s a YES to number 9. I think the weirdest thing? Because the movie was good LOL!
This is awesome! I have two. Once, when I was a teenager, I got stranded at the library for an entire day. When I found out my mom couldn’t pick me up for hours and hours, I grabbed a random book off the nearest shelf and started reading. I don’t remember the title or author, but the book was a medical romance/thriller/drama thing. I didn’t hate it!
The other time, a giant box of books showed up at my house. They came from Amazon, but I had no idea who sent them or why. I kept most of the books in the box because I thought someone might turn up and solve the mystery, but I reread The Great Gatsby and JD Salinger’s 9 Stories because they were in the box. About a week after I got the box, my neighbor showed up to claim it. They were his college textbooks. He sent them to me because he was on vacation. He didn’t tell me that!
This list is fab! I definitely would buy a book for a pretty cover and also to read so I can avoid to talking to people!
In high school I picked up a random book at a friend’s house and started reading it. It was the first day I ever met my husband and he says that he thought it was hilarious and awesome that I just randomly started reading one of my friend’s books. It was one of the things that made him like me. LOL!
[…] Lauren @ Shooting Stars Mag asks WHAT IS THE WEIRDEST/MOST RANDOM REASON YOU’VE READ A BOOK? […]
Out of spite sounds awesome, lol.
I only started reading Harry Potter because I’d had a massive fight with my boyfriend (at the time) and I didn’t want to talk to him but had time to kill before my mum picked me up. So, I grabbed the book off his shelf and sat reading it. He was a smart lad and left me to it and when I got picked up told me I could borrow it if I wanted to finish, lol. (I totally borrowed the book and he got back in my good books. 😉 )