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Reading in public, and subsequent encounters

Started by BJBMK2, October 04, 2017, 11:57:32 PM

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BJBMK2

Anyone, and by anyone I mean total strangers, ever comment on the book your reading? A guy once approached me at Victoria Station to comment on my reading of American Psycho.

"Great book, man. Fantastic book. Which bit are you up to?"
"The bit where he brutally slits a child's throat"
"Oh"
"Yeah"
"....."
".........."
"Well see ya!"


I also got approached by a guy in an Irish pub while I was reading a Kray Twins book, who started going on at length about how he "really knew em', back in the day, yeah", and proceeded to tell me anecdotes that while interesting, did have the effect of spoiling most of the book unfortunately.

Bhazor

I once had someone mumble cunt at me for reading a genetics text book on the train. Does that count?

Ray Travez

I've mentioned it before on here- I was lying on the grass in the park reading, and a kid shouted mockingly at me, "JACKANOOOORY!"

Fambo Number Mive

Bloke went up to me in E17 when I was standing outside a shop reading, saying he has a habit of always asking people what they read and what the book is like. Was reading a SF Masterworks book at the time.


Blue Jam

Quote from: BJBMK2 on October 04, 2017, 11:57:32 PM
I also got approached by a guy in an Irish pub while I was reading a Kray Twins book, who started going on at length about how he "really knew em', back in the day, yeah", and proceeded to tell me anecdotes that while interesting, did have the effect of spoiling most of the book unfortunately.

He had probably just read the same book...

madhair60

Nobody has ever bothered me while reading, as I read all my books in Kindle Form. As far as they know, I am simply browsing pornography.

ASFTSN

I'm the guy that does this to other people when I see them with a book I've read, with varying results.  Some examples:

Keep The Aspidistra Flying by George Orwell:  Nice brief chat with a bloke about how relevant the book seems to anyone under 30 today, how shit it is living in London and wishes of good luck for future endeavours exchanged.   

The Deluge by Adam Tooze:  Made myself look like an idiot by saying I couldn't understand it when I tried to read it.

Escher, Godel Bach by Douglas Hofstader:  As above.

Collected Ghost Stories by MR James:  Lady reading it smiled said 'Yes, it's really scary' in one of the highest pitced, most doll-like voices I have ever heard.

ASFTSN

Quote from: Ray Travez on October 05, 2017, 12:58:39 AM
I've mentioned it before on here- I was lying on the grass in the park reading, and a kid shouted mockingly at me, "JACKANOOOORY!"

That's good. I have had a small boy ride his bike past me and say in what I'm sure no child nowadays calls a "s*****c" voice:  Uuuh I like reading BOOKS.  Interesting on many levels.

Icehaven

Quote from: BJBMK2 on October 04, 2017, 11:57:32 PM
Anyone, and by anyone I mean total strangers, ever comment on the book your reading? A guy once approached me at Victoria Station to comment on my reading of American Psycho.

"Great book, man. Fantastic book. Which bit are you up to?"
"The bit where he brutally slits a child's throat"
"Oh"
"Yeah"
"....."
".........."
"Well see ya!"


Similar thing happened to me and it was also a Bret Easton Ellis book (Glamorama). On a bus, bloke approached and asked if I was enjoying it, said it was his favourite book etc. I was only a bit of the way through it so didn't have much to say really.   

MoonDust

Victoria Coach station London. An old man sat next to me reading an Alexander Dumas book in French, but he was clearly English (I heard him talk to someone briefly). I had just finished reading 'The Count of Monte Cristo' at the time, so thought I'd pipe up.

Very friendly man, said he was reading the Three Musketeers. Ended up telling me his life story. He fought in WW2, fell in love with a French woman whilst over there, and married her after the war. Lived in France until the 80s (hence him being able to read French, he was fluent). Then moved back to England with his wife.

the ouch cube

I honestly can't recall what the book was, but it was in a mostly deserted pub, and my ears pricked up to hear the landlady in the back room saying stuff along the lines of "he's reading away, thinks he's SO clever, better than us lot, I bet..." and the usual inverted snob shite.

I finished my pint and left. The pub went into administration three months later.

mothman

[tag]And then the waitress asked "What y'all reading FOR?[/tag]

Serge

I was once waiting for a friend in a cafe in Clapham, so pulled out the Pete McCarthy book I'd just started reading, ('The Road To McCarthy'), and a man at a nearby table said, "Oh dear, you're probably going to start laughing a lot now!" - in a friendly way, he wasn't having a go. He'd read it a few days previously and had apparently got stick from his family for laughing so much.

Brundle-Fly

By the poolside on holiday, my girlfriend was reading How To Be Happy by Shannon Wheeler (A Too Much Coffee Man comic shorts collection) and she said this rather suave older man crouched down by her lounger and winsomely offered that maybe he could her make her happy and then enigmatically strolled off before she could answer.

As I obliviously splashed around a few feet away like a drunk Homer Simpson.

marquis_de_sad

A bloke at a bus stop once said to me, "Are you reading poetry?" He looked disgusted.

Lisa Jesusandmarychain

Somebody once tried talking to me in a bar while I was reading a Martin Amis book by saying " Oh,  you like Martin Amis, then? " wasn't in the mood for glib chat, so just said " No, he's a cunt", which is actually not that far off what I think about the snobby Corbyn's A Level results- dissing , Islamism and Stalinist Russia-obsessed Frankenstein 's Monster lookalike fucker nowadays,  anyway. No more conversation ensued.

thraxx


I saw some bloke reading the bible the other day and asked him if he preferred luke or paul. Rude cunts kicked me out the church they did.

Serge

Quote from: marquis_de_sad on October 06, 2017, 01:04:52 PM
A bloke at a bus stop once said to me, "Are you reading poetry?" He looked disgusted.

That was probably me.

marquis_de_sad

Quote from: Serge on October 06, 2017, 08:27:12 PM
That was probably me.

Well, as I explained at the time, it wasn't poetry, but avant garde fiction. Spitting in my face afterwards was unnecessary.

Serge