Why We Love Books That Surprise Us

There is something wonderfully unpredictable about browsing second-hand books.

A shelf doesn't necessarily contain this month's releases or whatever happens to be trending online.

It might contain a bestseller from last year beside a forgotten novel from 1987.

A memoir you've never encountered.

A beautiful old edition of a classic.

A peculiar little book about a subject you didn't know existed.

Something that was hugely popular twenty years ago and has quietly disappeared from conversation.

You don't know what will be there.

And that's precisely the point.

Second-hand book browsing leaves room for chance.

The book you nearly didn't buy

These are often the best stories.

The book you picked up.

Put back.

Picked up again.

Walked away from.

Then returned to five minutes later because something about it kept nagging at you.

Maybe the cover wasn't particularly exciting.

Perhaps you'd never heard of the author.

Maybe it wasn't even the kind of book you normally read.

But eventually you thought:

Oh, go on then.

And took it home.

There should probably be an official literary term for these books.

The Oh-Go-On-Then Book seems as good as any.

They are frequently responsible for some excellent reading.

Surprise can change what we think we like

One unexpected book can completely alter a reading habit.

Someone who insists they don't like historical fiction discovers a historical novel they can't put down.

A committed fiction reader picks up a memoir and suddenly wants another.

Someone who hasn't read fantasy since childhood discovers an entirely new world of authors.

A reader who normally avoids anything remotely frightening finds themselves enjoying a gothic ghost story.

We create little boundaries around our reading without necessarily noticing.

I don't read romance.

I don't like biographies.

Science fiction isn't really my thing.

And then the right book comes along and cheerfully ignores the rules.

Sometimes it isn't even the story you expected

A book can surprise us from the inside too.

Perhaps we expect something light and discover far more depth than we anticipated.

A thriller becomes unexpectedly moving.

A serious novel turns out to be very funny.

A character we disliked at the beginning becomes the one we care about most.

Or a story takes a turn we genuinely didn't see coming.

Those moments are part of what makes reading so satisfying.

For a while, another person is controlling what we know.

We can guess.

We can speculate.

We can confidently announce that we've worked everything out.

And occasionally the author gets to say:

Nope.

There is something rather enjoyable about being completely wrong.

Recommendations can't do everything

We live in a world that's very good at recommending things.

Read this because you liked that.

People who bought this also bought this.

Because you watched this, perhaps you'll enjoy that.

And recommendations can be genuinely useful.

But if we only ever choose things based on what we've already enjoyed, our reading world can gradually become smaller.

Sometimes we need something that doesn't quite fit.

Something nobody recommended.

Something we found ourselves.

That's where discovery lives.

Take a chance on the strange one

So next time you're browsing books, perhaps don't immediately reach for the one you recognise.

Look a little further along the shelf.

Pick up the odd one.

The unfamiliar one.

The book with the title that makes you wonder what on earth it's about.

Read the back.

Try the first page.

You don't have to buy it.

You don't even have to like it.

But every so often you'll discover something wonderful simply because you gave curiosity a chance.

And that's one of the things we love most about second-hand books.

They remind us that reading doesn't always need a plan.

Sometimes the best books arrive unexpectedly.

A little worn.

Completely unplanned.

And exactly when we needed them.

So here's to the books we weren't looking for.

The authors we'd never heard of.

The stories we nearly left behind.

And, of course, the wonderful Oh-Go-On-Then Book.

May we keep finding them.

Wherever today finds you, I hope you find a story worth getting lost in.

The BookBuddies Team