Writer Kia Abdullah had the idea for this post, which is something we may lose in the e-book era: seeing what strangers are reading and possibly striking up a conversation.
Kia writes:
…So I saw a person reading Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides on the train and I just had to talk to them about the book (something I’ve never done before). If you haven’t done something like this already, it might make a good You Tell Me (i.e. what book would make you talk to a stranger). I don’t think it’s always necessarily your favourite book, but one that you may have read recently or that is largely unread by your circle of friends and acquaintances.
Is there a book you’re so passionate about that you’d strike up a conversation with someone you saw reading it?
Hilary says
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
The Red Angel says
Hmmm….Harry Potter, Little Women, A Wrinkle in Time. Though it would also depend on what the stranger looked like. If he/she looked sketchy I probably wouldn't talk to him/her at all. xD
~TRA
https://xtheredangelx.blogspot.com
Margie says
The other day I was at the B&N cafe reading the first chapter of The Secret of Lost Things by Sheridan Hay and some kid came by and told me what a great book it was. His recommendation made me buy it π
For me, I remember talking to strangers who read "The DaVinci Code", Harry Potter, and anything by Sarah Addison Allen.
A Paperback Writer says
If I were anywhere in the US (not in Scotland or elsewhere in the UK) and I saw someone reading anything by Edwin Morgan (on whom I wrote my dissertation), I would most certainly stop and speak to that person.
Lillian Grant says
Anything by Hunter S. Thompson. Anyone who reads Hunter is worth knowing.
Courtney says
OUTLANDER SERIES!!! DIANA GABALDON!!!
I spent half a year in Scotland because of these books. Went on a tour of the Highlands. Discovered about five other people on the tour who also suffered from an Outlander fetish.
Some of my dearest friendships blossomed from the time spent in Scotland.
Books bring people together. I don't think/am fervently hoping that eBooks won't diminish this affect.
Silicon Valley Diva says
OKAY, I was always under the Impression that it is perfectly normal to walk up to complete strangers and discuss the book they're holding???
I do this ALL the time π
Yamile says
I've talked to strangers everywhere when it's about books. Once I saw someone at Costco not sure about the Mortal Instruments series, and I could not recommend it enough to them. In the library, a lady wasn't sure what middle grade book to take for her grandson, and I told her about Gregor the Overlander. I hope some mother out there doesn't hate me. I've given away tons of copies of The Shadow of the Wind, in fact, I don't have my own at the moment.
I've read Atlas Shrugged and all of Ayn Rand's books, and if I see someone with it, I sometimes say something. You might think I'm this annoying person who always intrudes into people's quiet time with books, but I'm actually kind of shy. With books I make an exception.
Steve Bradley says
Being extremely introverted, I'm not likely to strike up a conversation with anyone. However, if the person appeared approachable, I may have to comment to someone who was reading White Noise by Don DeLillo. I can't begin to describe how much I loved that book, and how much it influenced my own writing.
Caitlin R. O'Connell says
I pounced on a complete stranger at a bus stop because they were reading Mockingjay and I hadn't bought a copy yet.
Granted, she was talking to someone I knew, but still.
Nicole Zoltack says
Les Miserables, Gone with the Wind, the Harry Potter series, the Outlander series.
KSB says
Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese. I finished it a month ago and I still think about it daily. I would willingly accost any stranger who was reading it, even though I'm on the shy side. Incredible writing, characters beautifully drawn, unusual setting, and a captivating storyline. Stunning and well worth any initially awkward conversation.
Parisa says
Probably Foxfire (Joyce Carol Oates) or Persepolis (Marjane Satrapi)
Uninvoked says
Any of the Harry Dresden series at the minute. Something like a breathless, "Do you like it??" as I hope to meet another fan.
Steph says
I have stopped several times in the book store when I see people standing in the aisle with blank stares, not knowing what to pick. When I was there a few days ago, a grandmother was in the YA aisle with me and asked if I knew any good "Twilighty" books for her grand daughter. I picked up Hush, Hush for her.
I also recommend Megan McCafferty's books to everyone I see looking for something new to read. Or for non-fiction, I always suggest Jen Lancaster.
I have bought everyone I know a copy of Looking for Alaska. π
nancylicious says
I *have* struck conversations with strangers reading Walter Benjamin and Benjamin Kunkel's Indecision. Both conversations led to Craigslist Missed Connections with guys named David that ended unsuccessfully.
Hillsy says
I'm English – so the concept of interrupting someone while they are reading, even to comment on what they are reading, is pretty much a hanging offence.
Even if I didn't die of embarrassment, the combined mortification of all the commuters would probably derail the train.
The furthest, the ABSOLUTE furthest, I've gone is when I leaned to one side to confirm that the man next to me on the tube was indeed reading "The Gathering Storm" (the newest Wheel Of Time book for all you empty lifed fools who haven't read it yet). He looked at me, I looked up from the cover and just gave him a knowing nod of approval. I still feel ashamed to this day.
Janalyn says
I can't stop recommending World War Z by Max Brooks. I'd definitely talk to someone reading it, since I talk to all the people who aren't reading it at the moment about it already. It's global in scope, creepy, political, and tongue-in-cheek.
KareeniaRN says
"Left Behind" by Tim Lahay and Jerry B. Jenkins is probably the only book that has produced the effect that made me ask, "What are you reading?β A book held tightly in a young manβs hands (who I am guessing was approximately in his middle twenties) bringing him to tears outside the hospital. It was early February and the book look worn as if a thousand people had already read what he held in his hands. I had stepped out for a break and a smoke (something I quit nine years ago, thank God) and there he sat, tears rolling down his face. He looked up at me with huge brown weepy eyes and said, "A book that is changing my life rapidly," and handed it to me as he wiped his face. I read that particular book when he was finished and so have many more people past me in the hospital where I worked and all throughout our town. I own it and the entire series, but I don't particularly keep it. It is passed along and shared with all who want to read it. Many had come up to me where ever I may have been reading it, as well as the rest of the series (all twelve) and ask, βWhat it is you are reading that is bringing you to tears or elation or anger…β
Anonymous says
Stacia Kane or Brian Keene
Hillsy says
Oh, and also I wouldn't want someone to strike up a conversation with the person next to me, either.
I'm reading. The last thing I want is the constant irritation and distraction of a conversation going on in my left ear between two people squeeing over how brilliant Cormac McCarthy is.
See this is the problem with civilisation: people!
Laura Drake says
South of Broad by Pat Conroy.
Or anything by him, for that matter.
Sarah says
Just now I've got "Smile or Die" on the table next to me and would love to talk to someone else who's reading it. I wouldn't bother anyone while they were reading though – I've been engrossed in a book and had people interrupt me, not about the book but because they wanted to talk and thought that reading = doing nothing.
I might well smile at a reader, though, especially if it's a book I know and like.
I was once on a boat trip in the Panama Canal surrounded by a group of people who all knew each other and were all discussing The Da Vinci Code, which hadn't then been published in my country. I understood enough from what I overheard to know that a) it would be a massive best-seller and b) I would hate it.
RK says
Easy! Hunger Games…I've already been talking to stranger and non-strangers about this π
Karen Carr says
Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson
'nuff said.
Heather says
Lachlan's War by Michael Cannon or Sweetness in the Belly by Camilla Gibb
wonderactivist says
I work part-time in a bookstore–kinda gets it out of my system–so I rarely talk about books with strangers elsewhere. If I saw someone reading Slapstick by Vonnegut or anything by Chandler, well, I would HAVE to talk to them.
Debbie says
Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. I read it the first time when I was 15 and have read it twice since. Each time, I got something different from it.
You know who says
"Insomnia" by Stephen King. I don't know anyone who has read it. I'm making my boyfriend read it just so I can talk to him about it.
R. A. Mare says
anything by Ayn Rand.
Malia Sutton says
Lady Chatterly's Lover
RealMuse says
I would talk to some one reading 'Stranger in a Strange Land'
I read this book when I was eight years old and was deeply impressed.
Tart and Soul says
"Seven Types of Ambiguity" by Eliot Perlman, an Australian writer/barister. The book is sexy, brilliant, heartbreaking. I fell in love with the protagonist, when the book was over, it felt like a divorce. No one's ever heard of it, thus, I would be friends forever for anyone who had.
Art Rosch says
This comments section is a fantastic book list. As to the question, if I see anyone reading a book on a train,
and I can determine that it's not trash, I'm likely to strike up a conversation purely on the basis of
reading itself. There are SO many books! A book by Don DeLillo, Jack Vance, Philip K. Dick, a copy of Infinite Jest, those will get me talking.
Hart Johnson says
I have VERY close friends from all over the world because of Harry Potter. I STILL talk to people I see reading those books. A Potter head is a Potter head is a Potter head, and I love them all.
Scooter Carlyle says
Anything by Jim Butcher!
Anonymous says
The first time I did it was for The Color Purple, by Alice Walker. Saw a woman in the bookstore dithering, and I told her she should buy it and read it, because all women needed to.
helen cho says
Seven types of ambiguity WAS AWESOME!
Also, loved Zero History, and would definitely speak with anyone who was caught reading Tuck Everlasting or Odd John.
There's also a really strange Peter Carey book I liked.The Unusual Life of Tristan Smith.
Lastly, Lolly Willowes and Jakob von Guten. also, anyone reading cees nooteboom. Or…Logan's Run.
It's actually a fantastic read.
There are many other books I love – I'm just talking about the ones that would compel me to speak to someone because they're unusual or not well known (besides Zero History).
Maria Kenney says
Middlesex would definitely be one of them, but the most conversation-worthy of them all for me would probably be some recent teen book. The Carrie Diaries comes to mind. Good question!
Sierra Godfrey says
Full on — anything by Gerald Durrell would stop me in my tracks. Especially his early Greek ones.
An Observer Of Souls says
Dance of a Discident Daughter by Sue Kidd Monk would definitely prompt me to disturb the reader.
A Good Son…wow, what did you think of the psychology of cultures?
But anytime I see someone reading and they laugh outloud I want to ask them to read it to me.
J.M. Lacey says
"The Forgotten Garden" by Kate Morton. Also, almost any classic literature, and a couple of non-fiction books I really enjoyed – "The Soloist" by Steve Lopez and "The City of Falling Angels" by John Berendt. All of these books to me were interesting subjects and I could spend loads of time talking about them.
I feel kind of bad for the stranger now.
Anonymous says
Mein Kampf. With your recent discussion on banned books, that one (while not banned) is a pretty hot-button book, and I'd be interested to hear why someone would be reading it.
Mizz Murphy says
Kindred by Octavia Butler, The Time Traveler's Wife, anything by Margaret Atwood. People don't really know what to do when I lean in and blurt, "You are just SO lucky!"
Bree D says
If you're holding a book, and it doesn't have a ripped bodice on the front, you're fair game. Books are my second favorite topic–after music, but it's much harder to check out someone's ipod.
Rebecca @ The Book Lady's Blog says
Anything by John Irving. The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon. The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell.
S.A.Hussey says
Songmaster by Orson Scott Card (or any book by him).
Lorelei says
I'd talk to anyone reading The Brief, Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao about their take on fuku and I'd talk with anyone reading White Tiger about blame or no blame for this murderous mischievous guy.
Anonymous says
Hunger Games.
A stranger just spoke to me yesterday about it.
ericka @ alabaster cow says
Woolf's Three Guineas.