# Moments when you knew a book had gotten its hooks into your soul (minor spoilers) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 14, 2012, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moments-when-you-knew-a-book-had-gotten-its-hooks-into-your-soul-minor-spoilers/615758 "2012-03-14T18:01:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Lakai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/9de0a6/32.png) [@Lakai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lakai)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2012, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moments-when-you-knew-a-book-had-gotten-its-hooks-into-your-soul-minor-spoilers/615758/21 "2012-03-17T13:52:17Z")
> [@Eutychus](#): > > Sorry if I’m obsessing, but … > > “A Game of Thrones.” I won’t spoiler it, but if you’ve read it, you know the surprise that comes about halfway through. It was the point that I knew that Martin wasn’t going to pull any punches with his characters. > > And a similar event about three quarters of the way through the second book just solidified it for me. I watched the TV show before I read all the books, but I was hooked by the same moments that I think you’re talking about. One of the things I hate the most about books and movies is that naive characters almost never face any consequences for their reliance on ideals and failure to think those ideas through. That lead-with-your-gut style leadership that always works in story land almost never works in real life. I love GRRM for swinging a greatsword right through that trope. ---
**Author:** ![Dendarii\_Dame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbce88/32.png) [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2012, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moments-when-you-knew-a-book-had-gotten-its-hooks-into-your-soul-minor-spoilers/615758/22 "2012-03-17T14:46:57Z")
The first Miles Vorkosigan story I read was _The Mountains of Mourning._ Miles has gone to the back country to investigate a murder, which someone is trying to convince him never happened. Miles listens intently to what the man says. “I begin to see,” Miles’ voice was mild, encouraging. Karal brightened slightly…and then Miles lets him have it. " I begin to see why Harra Csurik found it necessary to walk four days to get an unbiased hearing. ‘You think.’ ‘You believe.’ ‘Who knows what?’ Not you, it appears." This story takes place on another planet, in the Dendarii mountains. It’s why I’m Dendarii Dame. ---
**Author:** ![MsWhatsit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eb8c5e/32.png) [@MsWhatsit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsWhatsit)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2012, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moments-when-you-knew-a-book-had-gotten-its-hooks-into-your-soul-minor-spoilers/615758/23 "2012-03-17T15:04:29Z")
> [@lisacurl](#): > > I was a little uncommitted to _The Hunger Games_, since Twilightmania has made me very dubious of any young adult book phenomenon, but this passage did it for me: In my opinion, nothing else in _The Hunger Games_ matched the brilliance of that passage. It actually left me somewhat disappointed in the rest of the book. My contribution to the thread is Stephen King’s _IT_. I read it at what was probably an inappropriately young age, when I was 9 or so years old. There’s a part in it when King talks about how kids exist below the sightline of adults, and as long as you’re below that line, you can get away with pretty much anything, because adults just aren’t _aware_ of you in the same way they’re aware of other grownups. I remember so clearly thinking, “this guy _gets_ what it’s like to be a kid.” ---
**Author:** ![Boulter\_s\_Canary](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e79b87/32.png) [@Boulter\_s\_Canary](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boulter_s_Canary)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2012, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moments-when-you-knew-a-book-had-gotten-its-hooks-into-your-soul-minor-spoilers/615758/24 "2012-03-17T20:41:43Z")
> [@Barrett\_Bonden](#): > > the exact moment for me. I didn’t read them in order, so for me it was: “Jack you have debauched my sloth!” ---
**Author:** ![Dendarii\_Dame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbce88/32.png) [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2012, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moments-when-you-knew-a-book-had-gotten-its-hooks-into-your-soul-minor-spoilers/615758/25 "2012-03-18T18:53:27Z")
“But geography is only physics slowed down and with a few trees stuck on it…” Terry Pratchett’s _Feet of Clay_, the first Discworld novel I read. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/moments-when-you-knew-a-book-had-gotten-its-hooks-into-your-soul-minor-spoilers/615758.md?page=1)