Do you ask strangers about books they're reading?

Divia · Post by **Divia** » Fri September 12th, 2008, 9:01 pm

I sometimes ask, but rarely. Although when a teen is lost and confused in a bookstore the librarian in me wants to take over and say "can I help you find something? What are you interested in?"

Amanda · Post by **Amanda** » Fri September 12th, 2008, 9:54 pm

When my little boy (now almost 9 months..hard to believe!), was born it was an emergancy c section. So I've had a quick glimpse of him, and he was rushed off to the special care nursery (he was severly anaemic and needed transfusions). They fixed me up and rolled my off to recovering.

Then they told me I had to be there for about an hour. And I think "What!!! I don't have a book! What am I going to do laying here for an hour?" All I had to think of was which of the names we had chosen I liked best for the new little boy, and hoping that everything was alright with him. Then a nurse came back from a break with a very big book tucked under her arm, and I could tell it was a fiction one too. She stopped at her assigned patients to check on them, and I was trying to get a look at her book! But I couldn't see it. My nurse came to check me and when she was finished I asked her what book the other nurse was reading, and she looked at me kind of strangely and said that she didn't know. I never did find out!

Then a few days later, I was up in the middle of the night in the special care nursery expressing milk with the breast pump, and one of the nurses came in from her break with Cross Stitch/Outlander, and we chattered about that series for a while with the other nurses, until they scuttled me off to bed because it was 2am and I had to get back up again for more expressing at 4am. But I wanted to stay and chat!

EC2 · Post by **EC2** » Fri September 12th, 2008, 10:04 pm

Oh my goodness Amanda, what a story!
And what books get you through eh?

MLE (Emily Cotton) · Post by **MLE (Emily Cotton)** » Sat September 13th, 2008, 3:19 am

I love to talk books! I don't interrupt someone who is reading or doing something else, but if they are just waiting in the same line at Costco and they are buying a book, I ask about it, what they read, why they picked up that one. I've had some of the most lively conversations over books.

pat · Post by **pat** » Sat September 13th, 2008, 11:29 am

I do, and have been talked to about what I am reading, but I also use intuition as to discuss or not!

Madeleine · Post by **Madeleine** » Sat September 13th, 2008, 4:37 pm

I love looking at what books everyone else is reading, but wouldn't have the nerve to talk them about it. However I was on the train once reading Gormenghast, and the man next to me asked what I thought of it.

JaneConsumer · Post by **JaneConsumer** » Sun September 14th, 2008, 12:43 pm

I commute 4 hours every weekday. It's a great icebreaker - a way to get to know someone. I made a very good friend this way. I've always considered myself knowledgeable about fiction generally. But I very quickly learned she knew much more than I did. It lead to a great friendship.

I only once asked someone and then discovered I really didn't want to know. While it didn't seem to bother the person to answer my question, the topic was a sensitive one. I suppose this is the risk.

Divia · Post by **Divia** » Sun September 14th, 2008, 1:14 pm

To be honest though I only ask this question when I am in a bookstore becuase most of the tiem I have found out people aren't reading anything.

Tanzanite · Post by **Tanzanite** » Sun September 14th, 2008, 10:20 pm

I do sometimes. Recently during a flight I asked the person sitting next to me about her book and at the end of the flight, she had finished it and gave it to me! I thought that was awfully nice of her.

Kailana · Post by **Kailana** » Mon September 15th, 2008, 5:53 am

Yep, I ask everyone! I talk a lot to begin with, so it just makes things even easier. I have a lot of people ask me about the book I am reading too. Even if I am not reading it and it is just sitting on the table near me, people ask.