I woke up at the unholy hour of 6:30, and decided to read my birthday present from my brother (Wyrd Sisters). When I looked up again at 8:15, I had to run to the shower. After I got out, I pulled my still-wet hair up into a twist and dressed hurriedly.
Just now, I let my hair out of the barret and...oh dear.
If my instincts are correct, this is the crowd of whom to ask the following question:
Have you ever done anything somewhat dumb because you were lost in a book?
[ September 09, 2004, 04:38 PM: Message edited by: katharina ]
Posted by Telperion the Silver (Member # 6074) on :
Yup... like not go to bed till 5am...
Posted by BannaOj (Member # 3206) on :
Well I'm sure I have, but I don't remember... I was lost in a book. I bet my family has stories though.
AJ
[ September 09, 2004, 04:41 PM: Message edited by: BannaOj ]
Posted by Kama (Member # 3022) on :
I never do dumb things.
Posted by pooka (Member # 5003) on :
I forgot to rinse out conditioner once. I don't recall if I had a good excuse or not. Or even a dumb one.
Posted by PSI Teleport (Member # 5545) on :
When I was in middle school, the kids used to tease me because I would get so caught up I would smile, laugh, frown, and mouth words along with the characters in the stories.
Posted by newfoundlogic (Member # 3907) on :
Just answer yes to every question someone asks you because you just want them to leave as soon as possible so that you can return to your book.
[ September 09, 2004, 04:46 PM: Message edited by: newfoundlogic ]
Posted by katharina (Member # 827) on :
I once exited the plane in the wrong city because I was lost in a book. That's not the problem. The problem was that I didn't notice I was in the wrong city for over an hour.
There just has to be stories out there.
Posted by Dan_raven (Member # 3383) on :
When I was going to college I car pooled with, yikes, my parents. They worked in town and we all lived 40 miles out of town.
I would have an hour or so to kill after class, but before it was time to go and pick them up. I would spend that time checking out the books in the bookstore.
This was long before Barnes & NOble made it OK to read books you were not buying.
There were several occasions when, in the quiet store, I would burst out laughing at something in a Xanth book or a Robert Aspin book.
This was not appreciated by the bookstore staff, or the other customers.
Posted by Carrie (Member # 394) on :
Sorry, kat, nothing nearly so bad:
I get told I'm a facial person. I apparently use my face a lot in my daily life, especially my eyebrows. I'll talk to people and gesticulate, but I'll always always use my eyebrows. This happens when I read as well.
Example: I'm in Greece on a bus from Sparta to Pylos. It's not a short trip, so I have a book and am fairly engrossed. I'm sitting towards the back of the bus, and reading reading reading. I come across something disturbing and make a face. One of the girls in the very front of the bus just happens to catch that motion and bursts out laughing. I don't notice - I'm still reading. That night at dinner, I'm the subject of much mockery. Jerks. Posted by PSI Teleport (Member # 5545) on :
quote: I'll talk to people and gesticulate, but I'll always always use my eyebrows.
Good thing Banna cleared up "gesticulate" for me. >_>
Posted by BannaOj (Member # 3206) on :
Reading while walking with your nose in a book is an art form. I think I'm actually less klutzy while doing this than I am while walking normally. My mom would take me to the grocery store and I'd have to track the cart out of the corner of my eye while I read. Sometimes I started tracking the wrong cart, and would realize I had no idea where she was.
AJ
Posted by romanylass (Member # 6306) on :
I have missed my bus stop, but never got off in the wrong city.
I got in trouble in school a lot for having a book hiddden behind my text book. And most of my teachers thought SF was trash.
Posted by AmkaProblemka (Member # 6495) on :
I didn't wash out my conditioner once. I forgot I hadn't done it for half the day too, and kept on touching my hair and wondering why the heck it was so greasy.
I've pulled all nighters (reading fiction as opposed to studying), missed my stop on buses, and nodded absently to my kids when they asked me if they could paint the pumpkins now.
Posted by Annie (Member # 295) on :
Once I missed my turn because I was reading. In a car. Driving.
Posted by breyerchic04 (Member # 6423) on :
Last year during ISTEP (standardized test that only sophomores take) they had the bells shut off so not to interupt the sophomores, I was at lunch reading and didn't notice my whole table get up and go to 4th period, so I was there about another 20 minutes. I don't remember how I explained it to my english teacher, but she was pretty gullible so probably not too hard. Now all of my friends at lunch should be punished.
Posted by TomDavidson (Member # 124) on :
I too read while driving. In a very odd way, it IMPROVES my driving over long distances; I have a tendency to be hypnotized by boring stretches of road but absolutely energized by words.
Of course, this is probably small comfort to the people in the other lane. Posted by Yozhik (Member # 89) on :
::glad I moved out of Madison before Tom moved in::
Posted by Annie (Member # 295) on :
Well, you don't read and drive in town. You mostly only do it in Wyoming.
Posted by Katarain (Member # 6659) on :
You read and drive at the same time???
HOW?
Please explain this process to us in detail. I, for one, am fascinated... and terrified.
-Katarain Posted by katharina (Member # 827) on :
You prop the book up on the steering wheel.
Posted by rivka (Member # 4859) on :
I read notices my kids bring home from school and other such things while stopped at stoplights, but actually READING WHILE DRIVING? Posted by Katarain (Member # 6659) on :
Okay, but then what? The book is propped on the steering wheel, but how do you focus on the letters and keep track of the road?
I'm an avid reader... I know how it is when I read.. everything else fades out. There's NO way I could focus on my book and on the road. Perhaps it is a flaw of my eyes.
-Katarain
Posted by Synesthesia (Member # 4774) on :
I have burned and overcooked food on several occasions because of reading. Or I try to walk and read at the same time. Or, I read and eat at the same time and get FOOD on the books or I read and cook at the same time.
Posted by sarcasticmuppet (Member # 5035) on :
When the 4th Harry Potter book came out, I waited for my brother to come back from the midnight release party from B&N. As part of my birthday present the month before, I was promised first dibs. He came home at around 1:30 am, and I started it as soon as he put it in my hot little hands.
At around 5 am, I figured I might need some sleep. After all, I needed to mow the lawn and pack up for band camp.
At about 8:30, I wake up and start in on GoF full force. It wasn't till noon when I finally started mowing the lawn. At around 2, I get back to my book. I finished at exactly 6:10 that night, with barely enough time to pack up a few things.
The story of OotP isn't quite so exciting. I kinda sorta caused distrust as far as my driving skills were concerned (I popped two tires on a narrow road's curb) and nomatter how hard I tried, I couldn't use my parent's car for the midnight release. The best I could do was tail my parents to Sam's Club where they'd take advantage of my dad's business membership to do some early morning shopping. I got the first copy at 7:00 am and happily sat in the car while the 'rents shopped for an hour. I hardly stopped for the rest of the day. I finished at 10:00 that night, having eaten once the entire day.
It was sweet.
Posted by Ryuko (Member # 5125) on :
I'd read on the freeway for long stretches, but I usually drive at night.
Posted by DarkWizard (Member # 6186) on :
I developed quite a talent for memorizing my paths to school because I had my nose in a book. I also get less klutzy when i read and walk.
Posted by Lupus (Member # 6516) on :
I've missed my bus stop before...though that is not that huge of a deal, it can be a bit annoying
Posted by rivka (Member # 4859) on :
Could all the drive-while-reading (or is it read-while-driving?) types please reassure me that you only do this on very straight, lightly-trafficked stretches?
Y'all are giving me the collywobbles!
Posted by mr_porteiro_head (Member # 4644) on :
More than once I've stayed up all night reading and then had to go home sick during the next day. So I go home and go to bed.
And read some more. Posted by TMedina (Member # 6649) on :
Gee and you thought the other car swerving all over the road last night was drunk.
-Trevor
Posted by Little_Doctor (Member # 6635) on :
If I find a book that I really enjoy, I will not eat sleep or move until I am finished with that book. I went three days straight when I was reading Centennial. It doesn't realy count though because my mom made me a couple of sandwiches.
[ September 10, 2004, 12:02 AM: Message edited by: Little_Doctor ]
Posted by fiazko (Member # 5812) on :
Christmas 2000. My brother and sister-in-law bring their two kids from Virginia (I think) to PA to spend Christmas with my mom and me. Mom gets me Pastwatch for Christmas. I spend all day (10 hours) reading the book from cover to cover, completely oblivious to my brother and his family who I get to see maybe once a year if I'm lucky. Posted by Taberah (Member # 4014) on :
If you think reading while driving is bad, try reading while flying. A helicopter. Although to be fair, the reading material is rarely fiction. It's usually more along the lines of maps, regulations or approach charts.
Thank God for force trim.
Posted by Kama (Member # 3022) on :
Okay, I didn't miss my bus stop on the way to work today. I was saved by the traffic lights.
Posted by Speed 2: Cruise Control (Member # 6765) on :
Speaking of driving, I also have read behind the wheel when I've been into a good book. But that's not the dumbest thing I've ever done in a car.
Once when I was about 19 I got an Animaniacs activity calendar on a trip to Salt Lake. It had large mosaic color-by-numbers and connect-the-dots and all manner of other activities and games. I completed the entire calendar during the four hour trip back to St George, and I was the only one in the car.
19-year-olds can be a little brain damaged sometimes.
Posted by ak (Member # 90) on :
I started reading War and Peace during finals one quarter when I had one day with no exam. I so should have been studying for electrical engineering finals I had to take over the next few days, but instead I read for 24 hours in a single sitting and finished it. (I did skip a few of the battle scenes.) Wow that makes you feel so weird to do that. Don't remember how I did on finals that time but I guess I passed. Posted by Yozhik (Member # 89) on :
quote:(I did skip a few of the battle scenes.)
I skipped MOST of the battle scenes. Posted by IanO (Member # 186) on :
To read in the car (not that I recommend any of this. I shudder to think that I actually did this) you do this. You prop the book up on the steering wheel so that your head is pointed straight ahead and the only movement necessary to view the road is the that of your eyes. This should be done on only relatively straight roads without lights (highways are usually the best.) As you drive, your peripheral vision notes the painted markers in the road, to make sure that you are pretty much in the lane you are supposed to be (and if they have those things- what are they called?- on the right side of the road that cause your tires to vibrate if you veer too much the right, that helps.) Your top left cornor of your peripheral vision will also pickup anything ahead. Then you just read a line or two, look up, read a line or two, look up...If you note a car coming or a particularly curvy piece of road, then stop reading until you are in a good place to continue.
Again, I don't recommend this at all (though I used to do it alot). Books on tape are really best if you must listen to something interesting (me) while driving. But even then, if you're tired, they can start to make you drowsy.
Driving is really too dangerous to put less than your full attention on.
But the power of stories is undeniable.
Posted by Olivetta (Member # 6456) on :
Crap. Have you people never heard of books on tape? Though I admit to being a snob about abridged versions. I bought the new David Sedaris book on tape (read by the author, natch) while I was in Tennesse.
I may never get to finish it, because I rarely drive withouut the kids in the car and I'm fairly certain I don't want to explain somethings to the boys right now. Plus, some of the essays are depressing, despite being funny.
I've done the stayed-up-too-late-felt-ill-missed-apointments thing. Recently, I have broken down and bought some of the early Anita Blake, Vampire hunter novels, because my library system doesn't keep pulp fic around that long. Still haven't gotten to the ones everybody says are full of kinky sex. So far, they're mostly fun, if somewhat bloody, and she tends to re-use the same exact descriptive phrases over and over. That pisses me off, because if I was her editor, I'd make her fix it. But I guess stories about tough-as-nails gumshoe vampire killers don't exactly have to be tight.
So, the dumb thing those books have caused me to do is to actually spend money to get more of them.
The Harry Potter books have caused me to openly ridicule otherwise nice people who think HP is a Satanic Plot.
I'm sure I'll think of others.
[ September 10, 2004, 01:07 PM: Message edited by: Olivetta ]
Posted by TMedina (Member # 6649) on :
Heh, I'll give ya some free advice - all of the Anita Blake books and the Merry Gentry series end up as not-so-soft core porn. The early ones, not quite as bad - the second half of the Anita Blake and all of the Merry Gentry are just bad in that respect.
On the semi-bright side, Blake's success have inspired a number of magical-spooky authors in the same genre - Jim Butcher and Tanya Huff are two I can think of at the moment.
-Trevor
Edit: I should point out I stopped reading the Blake series three-quarters through and gave up entirely on Merry Gentry after one book because if I really wanted soft-core porn, I do have a dvd player.
[ September 10, 2004, 12:46 PM: Message edited by: TMedina ]
Posted by Synesthesia (Member # 4774) on :
Cool. I've been rereading those books. I think she puts opium between the words or something because I get SO SUCKED IN... I have two or three of them, but the library takes forever to get the earlier ones on ill so I might buy them from half.com. Now I am reading Kiss of Shadows... I get so distracted by books and music I forget I have to eat.
Posted by TMedina (Member # 6649) on :
Which apparently appeals to some readers, apparently.
-Trevor
Edit: I was going to remove the repetitive word choice, but after considering Olive's complaint about Blake series, I thought I'd just leave it in.
[ September 10, 2004, 12:49 PM: Message edited by: TMedina ]
Posted by dkw (Member # 3264) on :
Hmmm. There was this one author whose books were so good I checked his website, and then I started posting regularly and then I started actually meeting other people who posted there and then I fell in love with one of them and now I’m going to marry him.
But on reflection, that really isn’t a dumb thing at all. Posted by Olivetta (Member # 6456) on :
Wow, dkw! That's too wierd!
Posted by larisse (Member # 2221) on :
I don't think loss of sleep over reading a book is dumb. It better not be. I've done it so many times that I've lost count. In fact, at the risk of invoking Britney Spears, I did it again last night. This time the culprit was Songmaster. I had enough restraint not to read it all in one night. (It took three nights, actually.) Of course, I was sobbing like crazy at the end.
As for those who read and drive at the same time, there are chapter breaks for a reason. Stay safe.
Posted by TMedina (Member # 6649) on :
Ah yes, little Brit-brit.
Proof you can take the girl out of Louisiana, but you can't take the trailer park out of the girl.
-Trevor
Posted by plaid (Member # 2393) on :
quote:In a very odd way, it IMPROVES my driving over long distances; I have a tendency to be hypnotized by boring stretches of road but absolutely energized by words.
Ditto Tom on this. Well, I don't READ while I'm driving, but I do listen to stuff... if the car I'm in doesn't have a tape player, I'll use headphones and my walkman... to which some folks have sometimes said, hey, you shouldn't use headphones while you're driving... but I'm using in-ear headphones at low-volume, and I can hear better than someone in another car blaring music or holding a heated conversation...
With audiobooks, I don't think I've ever missed an exit or anything... but I've had friends tell me that they'll drive around a little bit longer, or sit in their car at the end of their commute for a little bit, in order to hear what happens next... Posted by IanO (Member # 186) on :
I'm exactly the same, Plaid. I've worn headphones quite a few times when I was driving a UHaul truck or something.
Posted by Annie (Member # 295) on :
Heh - when I moved here a few weeks ago I drove a U-haul that had only a radio and no tape deck. There are a few stretches on my drive that don't get any radio stations, and to avoid having to drive in utter silence, I had my laptop on next to me, playing iTunes. I got some weird looks, but totally enjoyed myself. I've been known in the past to put off leaving on a road trip until I'm done making a mixed tape to listen to. I think it may be bordering on the compulsive.
Posted by sarcasticmuppet (Member # 5035) on :
quote: The Harry Potter books have caused me to openly ridicule otherwise nice people who think HP is a Satanic Plot.
...and???
[ September 10, 2004, 04:26 PM: Message edited by: sarcasticmuppet ]
Posted by TMedina (Member # 6649) on :
Not really - one of my worst nights ever was working an 8 hour stocking gig at Kroger.
Which isn't bad in and of itself, but the radio was broken, so there was nothing to interrupt the silence punctuated by the clink of cans and jars hitting the shelf.
-Trevor
Posted by Olivetta (Member # 6456) on :
Point taken, sarcasticmuppet. However, entering into that sort of discussion with a person like that is sort of dumb, in that it's pointless and mildly cruel. Sometimes it's fun to make somebody feel like an idiot, but it's usually not fun to feel like one yourself.
I have enough empathy to suffer from Intellectual Elitist's Remorse.
[ September 10, 2004, 08:54 PM: Message edited by: Olivetta ]
Posted by Psycho Triad (Member # 3331) on :
even though the thread has strayed from where this post would most make sense:
I've boiled a pair of hot dogs for 3-4 hours because of a good book.. most the water had evaporated or absorbed into the then extremely waterlogged franks.
I know someone who litterally throw books when the book makes her think to hard, or ties in with other things she's read, or just plain frustrates her. She's violent.
Crazy as always, Psychotriad
Posted by Christy (Member # 4397) on :
*raises hand* I am also a book thrower. I threw one book clear across the room.
I also cry at the end of books. Its silly, but I do.
Posted by Synesthesia (Member # 4774) on :
I knew a girl who'd read stupid romance novels and then throw them across the room when they got dumb.
Posted by Shigosei (Member # 3831) on :
Christy, I don't usually cry, but I get sort of an...I don't know, an empty feeling when I come to the end of a good, long book. I don't want the story to end.
Posted by Elizabeth (Member # 5218) on :
Kat, Lately, when I am reading before bed, I have been falling asleep with the book still held up in the air. I think to myself, as I jolt awake from the book falling on me, "I must look pretty darned dumb for a book reader."
PS I have done the conditioner thing too. "Why is my hair not drying?" I ask myself in the bathroom at school. I am sure the children I teach have wondered if I took a bath that week.
[ September 11, 2004, 04:20 PM: Message edited by: Elizabeth ]
Posted by Olivetta (Member # 6456) on :
I am also a book thrower, though I usually pick them back up. Not always, but usually.
One of my college roommates decided I was crazy when she heard me laughing at something I was reading. Not because I had laughed at a joke, but because I was laughing at a joke in <I>Shakespeare</I>.
Posted by plaid (Member # 2393) on :
I fall asleep listening to audiobooks all the time... but that's the idea, they distract me from thinking about my day, and I get to sleep much faster.
Now, if I were to fall asleep while listening to audiobooks while I work, THAT would be a bad thing...
Posted by rivka (Member # 4859) on :
Christy, only at the end of books? I have been known to sob so hard while reading a book that I can't keep reading.
And I throw books too, although not often.
Posted by Elizabeth (Member # 5218) on :
The hardest I have cried over a book since Old Yeller when I was nine was "Gates of Fire," by Steven Pressfield, about the Battle at Thermopylae. I had to go out in the yard and hide so I could finish it, and I couldn't stop crying. Another book I sobbed over for about three days was "My Sweet-Orange Tree," which is an out-of -print story about a little Brazilian boy.
Posted by Synesthesia (Member # 4774) on :
Elfquest kept making me cry. It was driving me crazy. Wendy Pini is the best when it comes to expressive character expressions. I couldn't really help it.
Posted by katharina (Member # 827) on :
I have to say it - the first time I read Little Women, I bawled for days when Beth died.
Posted by Christy (Member # 4397) on :
Rivka -- No, not just at the end of books, and often serious bawling pre-empts the book throwing, such as Wizard and Glass and Corelli's Mandolin. Generally, I do keep reading, though, just with a hanky nearby (or Tom *grin*)
Posted by TomDavidson (Member # 124) on :
Just for the record, I have TRIED to explain to her the difference between a husband and a hanky, and have repeatedly pointed out that the presence of one does not necessarily preclude the need for another. Posted by dkw (Member # 3264) on :
Not necessarily, but wiping your nose on both would be a little redundant.
Posted by rivka (Member # 4859) on :
I suppose that depends on just how hard you were crying.
Posted by Elizabeth (Member # 5218) on :
Hmm. At least I know where the expression "hanky panky" came from, now. I never realized the connection before.
Posted by Olivetta (Member # 6456) on :
I remember being very near the end of A Tale of Two Cities when I was at a friend's house after school. I think my mother was there also, having some sort of meeting with my friend's mother. My friend was doing her homework, and I was reading.
Anyway, I started to get emotional and realized the last 50 pages were just going to have to wait until I was alone.
Nothing like blubbering over a book to ruin any street cred I may have ever had in Christian School.
Actually, I think I probably lost that when the principal took a picture of me reading Ivanhoe at the Fall Festival. But who could blame me? There was this really dumb/high guy trying to come on to me when I went outside, and none of the duck pond prizes could hold a candle to Knights and, you know, Robin Hood.
I should put THAT down so I could drink Orange Drink and make myself ill on cotton candy? Please.
[ September 12, 2004, 10:27 PM: Message edited by: Olivetta ]
Posted by Mabus (Member # 6320) on :
I don't actually read while driving....exactly. I do read at stoplights, and have occasionally been honked at if I got too distracted.
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