Welcome to another TTT! These week’s topic was submitted by Astilbe at Long and Short Reviews and is “Weird or Funny Things I’ve Googled Thanks to a Book”. I thought this sounded like a really fun topic, but now that I’m sitting here trying to write it up my mind is drawing a complete blank! So I know a lot of these are going to be vague and not about one specific book or experience. But I’m going to make this work for me, and that’s what I want you to do too! If this is as tricky for you as it is for me, you’re going to want to get creative. Embrace that want and have fun!
1. I’ve read many books, namely historical fiction ones, that made me Google the historical event to learn more about it. The first thing that comes to mind is when I googled barrage balloons that were used in London during the Blitz because I read about them in a Madeline Martin book. I wanted to know what they looked like and if they were really effective.
2. I love looking up the places books are set in, especially if they’re places I’ve never been to before. If I read about a beach in a rom-com about people on vacation, I will definitely look up pictures to see what it looks like!
3. This makes me blush a little, but sometimes I’ll read a steamy scene and be completely unconvinced that a certain… thing is even possible. lol. Like, how did they even do that? Are people that flexible? What even is that?
4. I will almost always look up pictures of animal breeds that characters have as pets. I know what a tabby cat or a Corgi dog looks like, but sometimes it’s a breed I haven’t heard of and I’ll want to know what it looks like!
5. I read a lot of historical romance, so I will sometime google terms I’m not familiar with. I remember wondering why the characters always mentioned “the ton” and had to google to find out what that meant.
6. This kind of goes hand in hand with the first one, but I also like looking up real people who make cameos or are mentioned in books. I’ll look up historical figures to learn more about them, or I’ll look up actors/musicians mentioned so I can see who they are.
7. I will never not google songs mentioned in books so I can listen to them. Although, I’ll usually ask Alexa to play them for me but that’s almost the same thing!
8. I will google translate anything in another language if context clues don’t indicate that’s being said.
9. If a dog or cat or other beloved pet comes into the picture, and it’s in a book where the possibility is there that that animal might not be ok I will ALWAYS google to see if I can find out if the pet ends up happy and healthy. And if I can’t find the answer, I stop reading and write to the author. lol. I have to know if it’s safe to continue!
10. This is stretching it a bit, but I like googling the narrators of audiobooks I enjoy so I can put a face to the voice and see what else they’ve read that I might like!
What kinds of things have you googled because of a book?
You probably already know this, but just in case, there’s a website: https://www.doesthedogdie.com/ where you can find out if the dog/cat/animal dies in the book/movie/tv show. I’m not sure how much media it covers, but it seems to have a good catalog.
I don’t think I’ve ever searched something I’ve read about in a book… but it’s possible I’m just forgetting! Either way, I do think this is a super fun topic and it’ll be fun to visit the lists today to see what everyone has been inspired to search. :)
Ha, glad it wasn’t just me getting creative this week. Funnily enough, I also mention something like #3… 😂 You’re not alone there!
I think I take these things too literally sometimes! Lol. I’ve had to look up certain words before because they might be new to me…I just didn’t think it was “weird” per se! Lol. I can’t always remember when I look things up because they are pretty random times. But language barriers are another…at least when I know the language is real! Sometimes I get some that are made up, so who knows what’s being said!
Here’s my Tuesday Post
Have a GREAT day!
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I’d never thought to google the narrator of an audiobook before! Pretty cool.
A great list. I need to up my Google search game 😂
Have a great week!
Great list Jana. I also google a lot of those same things. My list was a bit more specific.
It’s actually kind of logic to Google historical facts from historical fiction novels even though I don’t do it myself.
My TTT: https://laurieisreading.com/2024/03/05/top-ten-tuesday-did-i-read-my-winter-tbr/
This is a great list! I also thought it was a great topic but kind of hard to remember. Your list made me remember that I had to look up kelpie for a realistic fiction book once, because I knew kelpies as mythological sea creatures, but I learned they are also a common dog breed in Australia!
Oh yes, I will use Google to translate unfamiliar words in books, too! (And I love that it’s so easy to do that in ebooks.)
This is a great way to handle this topic! I’ve definitely looked up historical places/people/events because of books before.
This is such a fun topic! I didn’t do it because I have a terrible memory and I don’t remember everything books have made me google but going through your categories, a lot of them are ones I look up too! :)