[Doriana] Ready, Set, Go!

[Doriana]

Zoe (H/A/F) is reading a book. Suddenly, she pauses at the end of a paragraph, waits for two minutes, and reads the paragraph again. What's going on?

[KayleeArafinwiel]

Is the book paperback? Hardcover? Is it an e-book? On a Nook, Kindle or similar?

[JenBurdoo]

Has she been interrupted in her reading?

Has she been given a relevant instruction?

Is anyone else relevant? Is the language in which she's reading relevant? (if so, LTPF list of languages, please.)

[WiZ]

Is the book fiction? Non-fiction? Is it instructive in nature? Is the book designed to be read from start to finish in a linear fashion? Does she understand what she's read perfectly? Did she want to do what she did?

[Doriana]

Kaylee

Is the book paperback? Hardcover? Is it an e-book? On a Nook, Kindle or similar? irrel, assume paperback

Jen

Has she been interrupted in her reading? no

Has she been given a relevant instruction? no

Is anyone else relevant? no Is the language in which she's reading relevant? (if so, LTPF list of languages, please.) no

WiZ

Is the book fiction? yes Non-fiction? no Is it instructive in nature? no Is the book designed to be read from start to finish in a linear fashion? yes Does she understand what she's read perfectly? yes Did she want to do what she did? yes

[WiZ]

Does she do this more than once over the course of reading the book? Does she do this with any other book? Does something external happen that causes her to take pause? Is anyone else involved? Could Zoe be anywhere for the purposes of the puzzle?

Is the content of the paragraph relevant? Does her action add to her appreciation of the work as a whole? Her understanding? Does she specifically wait for 2 minutes, or just wait for a certain amount of time? Is she doing this for her own health? Is what follows the paragraph relevant?

[KayleeArafinwiel]

Is there anyone else present besides Zoe? Is Zoe perhaps a passenger in a friend/relative's car, and the friend/relative is going through the drive-thru line at their favorite burger place, so that she has to pause in her reading to place her order?

I wants my cheezburger maybe cheezburger soup, amirite?

[Doriana]

Wiz

Does she do this more than once over the course of reading the book? no Does she do this with any other book? She might do something similar with other books Does something external happen that causes her to take pause? DOYD of "external" Is anyone else involved? not directly Could Zoe be anywhere for the purposes of the puzzle? NO, good q

Is the content of the paragraph relevant? yes Does her action add to her appreciation of the work as a whole? possibly Her understanding? no Does she specifically wait for 2 minutes, or just wait for a certain amount of time? She waits for something to happen-ish which takes two minutes Is she doing this for her own health? Please rephrase, what do you mean by "health"? Is what follows the paragraph relevant? no

Kaylee

Is there anyone else present besides Zoe? yes Is Zoe perhaps a passenger yes in a friend/relative's car, and the friend/relative is going through the drive-thru line at their favorite burger place, so that she has to pause in her reading to place her order? but no :-P

[KayleeArafinwiel]

But she IS a passenger, yes? In a car? Train? Bus? Airplane? Ship?

[Doriana]

But she IS a passenger, yes? correct In a car? Train? a subway train, yes Bus? Airplane? Ship?

[Lynne]

Anything to do with stations? Or tunnels? The behaviour of other passengers?

[RedWine]

Was she able to read the book during the two minutes time, but chose not to? Does she feel uncomfortable with reading something in a moving vehicle?
If there had been other people reading books in the same subway train, would they have done the same thing as Zoe?

[Doriana]

Lynne
Anything to do with stations? yes, but not in an obvious way Or tunnels? no The behaviour of other passengers? no

RedWine
Was she able to read the book during the two minutes time, but chose not to? correct Does she feel uncomfortable with reading something in a moving vehicle? no
If there had been other people reading books in the same subway train, would they have done the same thing as Zoe? highly unlikely

[RedWine]

Did the events in the book somehow correspond to events in the train? Is the subject or content of the book at all relevant?
Did other relevant person enter the train at the station? Is more than one station a factor?

[Lynne]

Will she stop again for the same reason with the same book? Or just once per book? Is she thinking about what she's just read? Does she find it hard to believe what she's just read, thinks about it and then re reads in order to clarify what she's just been thinking about? Is there any emotion involved in her stopping? Surprise, delight, disbelief, new understanding of something?

[Doriana]

RedWine

Did the events in the book somehow correspond to events in the train? yope, OTRT Is the subject or content of the book at all relevant? The content of the paragraph is relevantish.
Did other relevant person enter the train at the station? Is more than one station a factor? No to these

Kalira

Will she stop again for the same reason with the same book? very unlikely Or just once per book? There are books where this might happen more than once, books where it might happen once and books where it might not happen at all (probably the majority). Is she thinking about what she's just read? noish Does she find it hard to believe what she's just read, thinks about it and then re reads in order to clarify what she's just been thinking about? no Is there any emotion involved in her stopping? yesish Surprise possibly , delight possibly, disbelief, new understanding of something? no to rest

[RedWine]

Did Zoe see something relevant in the train? Outside the train? Did she hear something relevant?
Does the relevant paragraph refer to train? Journey?
Did Zoe do something relevant through 2 minutes of not reading a book? Did she interact with someone? Did the book advise her to stop reading and do something?

[Lynne]

Was she checking out the accuracy of what the paragraph said compared to what she experienced in real life?

[Doriana]

RedWine
Did Zoe see something relevant in the train? no Outside the train? yesish Did she hear something relevant? no
Does the relevant paragraph refer to train? yes Journey? yope
Did Zoe do something relevant through 2 minutes of not reading a book? Did she interact with someone? Did the book advise her to stop reading and do something? no to all

Lynne
Was she checking out the accuracy of what the paragraph said compared to what she experienced in real life? noish

[Lynne]

Did she something relevant on a station? On the platform? Was the book about subway trains? Was she underground at the time? Or above ground? Did she see something extraordinary?

[Doriana]

Did she something relevant on a station? I assume you mean "see something"? Yesish On the platform? Yesish Was the book about subway trains? The paragraph was, yes Was she underground at the time? This Or above ground? Did she see something extraordinary? No

[Lynne]

Was she reading a book about the different stations of the subway? Did she see the name of the station on the wall and was thinking about the information she'd just read about that station?

[Doriana]

Lynne
Was she reading a book about the different stations of the subway? no Did she see the name of the station on the wall She did indeed see a station name on the wall and was thinking about the information she'd just read about that station? no

old_wombat
Was the paragraph about travelling on a train? yes
Was the paragraph in fact about the very trip she is making? yes!

Going out on a limb, is she living out the story she is reading? Either in whole or in part? no, although that would be interesting


Nice, this is almost done (I think).

[Lynne]

Did something dramatic happen at the station that she was at (in the book). Was she waiting to see if that would happen in real life? Or, maybe not dramatic, something commonplace but interesting enough to be included in the book? Was it a fiction book?

[Doriana]

Did something dramatic happen at the station that she was at (in the book). Was she waiting to see if that would happen in real life? Or, maybe not dramatic, something commonplace but interesting enough to be included in the book? Was it a fiction book?

Again going out on a limb, did she write the book that she is reading?

Is there some kind of SF / Twilight Zone / Outer Limits / Fantasy thing happening here, where she reads something and it "magically" happens?

Unfortunately, all of these are a no. The most important parts have been discovered, and the actual solution is not that spectacular, so I guess we have enough for the

********SPOILER********

Zoe is yours truly Doriana kitteh. I was reading Jeffrey Eugenides' The Marriage Plot on the subway the other day when I came to a paragraph in which one of the characters "took the 1 train to 79th Street". Realizing that I was on the 1 train, only a couple of stops away from 79th, I decided to wait and re-read the paragraph - hoping it would feel different. Spoiler within the spoiler: It didn't.

This has actually happened to me several times so far, mainly in big cities, but also when I didn't expect it: In 2012, I was spending the summer in rural France. Imagine my surprise when a character in the book I was reading found himself in the Alsatian countryside!

Has this ever happened to any of you?

Thanks for playing, everyone! :)