# When you read a book do you...

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-read-a-book-do-you/122778>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [August 7, 2002, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-read-a-book-do-you/122778 "2002-08-07T14:16:22Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\
**Post date:** [August 9, 2002, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-read-a-book-do-you/122778/21 "2002-08-09T01:01:06Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> I usually imagine myself as a seperate character interacting with the ones in the book. Not myself but a different character that I think would be ‘helpful’.

I thought I was the only one who did this!!!

I always imagine myself as another character, and “I” deal with things that annoy me. Like “I” would tell off an annoying character that everyone else is afraid of.

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**Author:** ![WV\_Woman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e95f7d/32.png) [@WV\_Woman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WV_Woman)\
**Post date:** [August 9, 2002, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-read-a-book-do-you/122778/22 "2002-08-09T01:09:08Z")

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I don’t imagine myself in the story at all. I just read it.

Ok, ok, I’ll admit it. I think Mordecai in the book of Esther was a total badass and I’ve pictured myself sitting at the city gates staring down Haman …

But that’s the only time. Honest.

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**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\
**Post date:** [August 9, 2002, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-read-a-book-do-you/122778/23 "2002-08-09T03:34:10Z")

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> [@](#):
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> \*Originally posted by Guinastasia \*  
> \*\*
> 
> I thought I was the only one who did this!!!
> 
> \*\*

I’m so glad that I’m not the only one. I took me some time to work up the nerve to post this thread but then I thought, “no, surely there are some dopers who do this too.”

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**Author:** ![Lyllyan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/b2d939/32.png) [@Lyllyan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lyllyan)\
**Post date:** [August 9, 2002, 4:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-read-a-book-do-you/122778/24 "2002-08-09T04:59:31Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Alto \*  
> \*\*I usually identify like mad with the narrator or point-of-view-character–so much so that as I child I remember getting very snappy with my sweet, inoffensive mother because I was reading a book where the main character had a very prickly relationship with her mother.\<snip\> \*\*

Do you ever get so lost in a character that you find yourself thinking “Hmm, you know, so-n-so was looking for something like this”, then realize you a shopping for an imaginary person? Or telling a RL friend, “A friend told me something about X”, only to realize that you are referring to a book.

I _do_ have a life, I really do. I’m just really empathetic.

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