I can usually tell what people are reading with a glance.
rebelaessedai Send a noteboard - 15/09/2011 01:49:06 AM
But I do agree that if I was in NYC I'd probably not talk to a stranger like that.
If they're reading the book is open so the cover isn't visible. It just seems to be rude to go out of your way to find out information about a stranger. It's probably because when I'm in this situation it's on a NYC subway and just striking up conversation with a stranger in the middle of your commute is kind of weird. Well, I have made small talk if the situation calls for it but I wouldn't interrupt someone reading.
Ok there was one time I was sitting down in a subway car that's only half full (most seats were taken, but almost no one was standing) and I noticed that a man was reading a really fat paperback. I found myself thinking, wow, that's a big book, that looks like it could be a wheel of time paperback. Then I got a glimpse of the cover/binding, and it was! [I didn't say anything]
or is it just weird?
i was on holiday and saw a guy reading well worn copies of shadows rising and then fires of heaven, so obviously a fan of wheel of time that i could probably have made a passing "oh i like that book too" but i didn't because in the back of my head i was thinking that he would think, what a weirdo
now if it was the other way around i'd probably embrace it, i come on a book forum i enjoy discussing the finer details of fantasy epic, but would he be of a similar disposition? it wasn't worth the risk of him forcing a smile, humouring me with small talk and then dismissing me with a slight air of embarrassment and then enduring a week of passing each other around the pool and doing that raised eyebrow nod of acknowledgment to each other
and yet and yet
so what's your opinion? ever made an obvious attempt at conversation with a person you see reading something you've read? and this isn't like when you're both in a book shop or a similar established ground for literary discourse. this is where you've crossed the expanse of a park or made for someone where they've noticed your approach and regarded you with wary anxiety as you've out of nowhere made an uninvited beeline for their reading solitude. were you stone walled or did you make a new friend? or do you have a more subtle tactic of perhaps edging closer, leaning over and being like...don't you just hate <insert character name> too?
similarly have you ever been received such attentions, how was the experience?
oh and if you're recently back from oludeniz in turkey, stayed at the belcahan hotel and read robert jordan i'm talking about you, i was reading robin hobb
on a tangent, the farseer and liveship trilogies still might be my favourite six fantasy books of all time. i reread them after maybe 6 or 8 years and i did think that my favourable memory of them may have been tinged by nostalgia, but they really weren't they truly are a great piece of work
Atheism is a religion like abstinence is a sex position. - Bill Maher
does seeing someone reading a book you like justify striking up a conversation
10/09/2011 08:21:28 PM
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Only if you fancy them and are using it as an excuse to chat them up. *NM*
10/09/2011 11:44:07 PM
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I wouldn't interuppt someone while they are reading.
11/09/2011 03:16:50 AM
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it is pretty easy tell if they would rather just be reading
12/09/2011 03:13:30 PM
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I guess my thing is I just hate to be interrupted and don't want to do it to someone else
12/09/2011 04:28:30 PM
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you get that immersed even in public area?
12/09/2011 06:52:54 PM
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Usually. If it's not a situation where I CAN, I just won't read.
12/09/2011 07:23:48 PM
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I used to be timid. Now I don't care and will happily interrupt.
11/09/2011 07:42:35 AM
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it's the "i will probably never see again" i can't get my head around
11/09/2011 10:21:45 AM
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Answers to questions asked.
11/09/2011 03:34:32 PM
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i asked because i wondered how many people would welcome it or view it as an intrusion
13/09/2011 02:25:32 PM
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I have just gone up to someone and said "good choice in book"
11/09/2011 04:49:21 PM
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did he reply or did you back away...staring and pointing at the book?
13/09/2011 02:27:45 PM
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I can't resist that. I will always say something. Many people have done the same with me
11/09/2011 06:10:36 PM
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How do you even figure out what they're reading?
12/09/2011 05:44:30 AM
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i look at the cover, i very rarely see someone reading a book bent back on itself *NM*
13/09/2011 02:31:52 PM
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I can usually tell what people are reading with a glance.
15/09/2011 01:49:06 AM
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Thats just irritating when it happens to me...I never would do that to another human. *NM*
12/09/2011 08:54:06 AM
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i love the farseer books too! and yeah a little weird, but not that weird *NM*
13/09/2011 10:37:53 PM
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