I kept seeing people talk about The Fourth Wing everywhere, and I decided that if I came across it at some point that I’d just see what all the fuss was about.
I was browsing Libby recently for audiobooks available now, and I saw what I thought I had remembered was the title. What I ended up checking out was called The Four Winds. I thought, great, this will be fine to listen to while I do chores and I can evaluate it for myself.
A couple hours in, I was like, wait a minute? Weren’t there supposed to be dragons in this? I don’t see how dragons will show up in Dust Bowl-era Texas. I realized my mistake, but I was invested at this point and ended up really liking the book.
Has something like this happened to you? What were the books and the outcome?
by enjoyfoodagain
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*The Invisible Man* by Ralph Ellison is a very different book than *Invisible Man* by H.G. Wells lol.
A year or two ago I was looking for an old sci-fi series I enjoyed about a future war being fought where, due to relativistic speeds, the soldiers ended up fighting in wars while entire generations passed on Earth. Technologies leap-frogged as units crossed space-time. Veterans were subjectively slowly aging, but centuries were passing on earth and they could be ‘hundreds’ of years older than newer recruites. I ended up reading John Scalzi’s Old Man’s War. It was similar but I kept thinking I rally had forgotten a lot of the original story. Eventually I realized that the series I was originally thinking of was Joe Haldeman’s The Forever War. But I enjoyed Scalzi’s work and discovered a new author to follow. 10/10, would recommend accidental finds like this.
I really wanted to read Before I Fall and knew it was about a girl who keeps reliving the day she dies, so I didn’t even notice that I’d actually picked up Before I Die, which is about a girl dying of cancer and wants to do a load of things before she dies.
I tried to read it anyway but it was horrible, the main character was such a spoiled brat and was really mean to her dad because he kept wanting to do family stuff and she was only interested in losing her virginity asap.
It’s actually how I discovered that you can return and exchange books at bookshops. I thought I would have to absolutely grovel at Waterstones to exchange it but they didn’t really care about my mistake.
I belong to a horror group and a few people have made confused posts because they read The Penpal after seeing it recommended as a gripping psychological horror novel, but it was actually a smutty romance novel. Same title, different book. I’m not sure how someone gets through a whole book without noticing that but some people read fast I guess.
Not quite the same but when the movie *Brotherhood of the Wolf* was out in the theater, I came across David Farland’s *Brotherhood of the Wolf* book in the public library. I thought the movie was based on this book. After I read the book and really enjoyed it, I begged my older sister to take me to the theater to watch the movie. Boy, was I not only confused, but also disappointed.
Not quite the same.
When The Office was first on the air, I checked out the first two seasons at the library and watched them. It took many weeks to realize everyone is watching the US version and I watched the UK version. While the character names were different, the gags and plot were similar enough that we thought we were talking about the same show but either “didn’t see that episode yet” or didn’t quite remember it all.
Recently had to read the employees by Olga Ravn for uni. I happen to be fluent in Danish, so I thought it would be cool to read it in the original language while all my classmates read it in English. Looked it up online to find the Danish title (so I could buy it as an ebook), first thing that popped up was the wiki for the book and it had a picture of the Danish cover… except it was the cover of another of her books called Mit Arbejde, which translates to My Work.
I figure they had just changed the title for the translated book, it was certainly similar enough that it didn’t raise red flags for me. Got at least halfway through the book before I realised. I was even going to make a whole discussion point out of how odd it was that they changed the title, and how that could impact how we understood the novel itself.
So glad I figured out my mistake before class. One is a sci-fi novel about people working on a spaceship and the other is about pregnancy and motherhood. I would probably have really confused people and embarrassed myself if I had gone to class ready to rant passionately about the wrong book.
Edit: both were excellent, highly recommend.
I was pretty baked one day and accidentally bought City of Bones instead of Children of Blood and Bone. They were both in the popular/new YA section, they both said Bone in them, and- I must stress- I’d smoked a lot of pot.
Didn’t really get past the first couple chapters of City of Bones, but eventually got the one I wanted and liked it a lot lol
This reminds me of one of my favorite comments:
[https://www.reddit.com/r/RomanceBooks/comments/n8s19r/comment/gxkmogy/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3](https://www.reddit.com/r/RomanceBooks/comments/n8s19r/comment/gxkmogy/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3)
One of my hobbies is to read every book I come across with the same or similar title blind – I have had some WILD times, once I was reading what I thought was a police procedural but about 10 pages from the end I was like ‘oh no this guy is like the ACTUAL devil’ and it was a supernatural story. but it makes a really fun kind of thread through my reading.
Back in the early 90s I had The Vampire Diaries on my wishlist for Christmas. My mom picked up The Vampire Chronicles instead.
I never did read the Vampire Diaries.
I initially read ‘The 7 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle’ instead of ‘The 7 Husbands of Evelyn Hugo’ – I was confused for a while, and I don’t usually read murder mystery type books, but ended up enjoying both books.
Similar, but part of Robin McKinley’s success as an author was because people would be looking for Patricia C McKillip’s books… and grab Robin’s by mistake. Then of course, they would realize they had found a great author and look for more of her works.
Several years ago I went looking for a new book I heard about by an author I like: Jasper Fforde. The worker told me “oh its on the discount table” which was odd because it was new.
I picked up “Shades Of Grey” and realized how tired they must be of horny people buying and returning this book thinking it was 50 Shades Of Grey and getting a bizarre alternate history dystopia story about a people who are mostly colorblind.
I was trying to find a book about a computer virus and accidentally stumbled across an incredible web serial, Worm, instead. I knew it wasn’t the right book but decided to read a chapter for fun… and then when I looked up from the page, months had passed and I’d finished the entire thing.
Not quite the same thing but *Shades of Grey* by Jasper Fforde was one of my favorite novels to recommend for about 2 years until *Fifty Shades of Grey* got popular
I once read Norwegian Wood after hearing a lot of buzz around it only to pick up a copy by a guy called Lars Mytting. Turns out his book was actually about chopping, stacking and burning different types of wood for home heating in Norway.
I enjoyed it but thought the hype was odd.
It was years later before I discovered Murakami.
I am a reference blood banker. I recommended a book called Blood Will Tell to my boss about the theory that King Henry VIII’s infertility problems stemmed from him having the Kell antigen and HDFN (very related to what we do). She ended up listening to at least 3 murder mysteries with the same name. She enjoyed them but it wasn’t the book I had recommended. She’s still trying to find the right one.
I don’t know if this counts but I bought a book once and turns out the publisher messed up and the first chapter was a completely different novel than the cover said. I went back to the bookstore and they were like, “oh, you want to exchange this one for the book on the cover?” I said, “no because I started reading this one and want to finish THIS story now”. Anyway, it got super complicated after that. I never did find the rest of that mystery novel. I can barely remember the title of the original. Something something winter? If anyone figures it out let me know.
Buddy of mine was really pushing me to read Fountainhead, but had been pushing it off. I had forgotten the name of the actual book, and somehow got it in my head that it was called Foundation instead.
Pulled up Foundation for audio book, got the Isaac Asimov book. Didnt pay attention to the author, was confused as to why the book was so controversial. Was several hours in until we talked, realized we were talking about two different books. Finished Foundation, need to find the sequels when I’m done with WoT.
I accidentally read The Cloud Atlas by Liam Callahan, instead of Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell. I’m actually not mad about it, since Callahan’s book covers some lesser-known stuff from WWII.
Still haven’t gotten around to reading Cloud Atlas though…
Not book related but my mom and I had a very confusing conversation about the show Firefly until she realized that the show she was watching was actually called Firefly Lane.
Yeah, I wanted to read My Struggle by Karl Ove Knausgard.
I did this with a book called Felidae. I wanted to join a book group, found one online and they were reading Felidae this month. Meeting in two days.
I deliberately didn’t look up anything about the book other than the first couple of lines of the synopsis. Was supposedly a classic told from the perspective of a cat. I knew nothing else whatsoever.
Went on the Kobo store and found it.
Started reading and it starts in ancient Egypt with cats and gods. With somehow people given the ability to turn into cats (or cats into humans, can’t remember exactly now).
Cut to modern day and we meet the same cat people.
What did they use their powers for? Sneaking into people’s bedrooms and fucking.
It was nothing but badly written cat people porn. I stuck with it for a little while but it was really badly written cat people porn, nothing else and I just couldn’t continue.
Went back to the website for the book group. Turns out I’d bought the wrong book. Same title different author.
I never went to the group but to this day I wish I’d persevered with it, taking notes, then going to the group and discussing it as if it was serious literature without letting on I’d read the wrong book.
The only other book I’d bought from the Kobo store at this point was a book of political essays. I got really strange recommendations from there on in.
Back in middle school we were required to select from a list of titles for a book report. I thought “The Little Prince” by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry would be a fun option. Unfortunately I signed up for “The Prince” by Niccolò Machiavelli. Not so much fun after all.
This isn’t exactly what you’re asking, but my wife read two books in very close proximity to each other. One was Wild by Cheryl Strayed and one was Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn. She told me about these books as she was reading them. We went to the movies to see Gone Girl, and a little more than halfway through, I became very confused and I turned to my wife and said, “I don’t think this is a true story.” She was like, “Of course it’s not. Wtf are you talking about?” Turns out I conflated the two books she read.
Not exactly this situation, but my college once had a library book sale and I found a book called “The Coaching Life,” for $1. I thought “Sure, someday I might coach youth sports for my future kids,” and bought it. Little did I know that I would be schooled in the art of running stagecoaches in the American west…
I found my experience of The Beach (Alex Garland) was actually greatly enhanced by my belief that it was about to turn into apocalyptic novel On the Beach (Nevil Shute). I was impressed by the small interpersonal dramas that were building up and I kept expecting an interesting analysis of how the sudden twist of impending nuclear doom would impact on group dynamics. It didn’t happen, but it kept me sticking with The Beach and I still enjoyed the ride, so… worth it?
I think I remember reading a story on here about somebody who was recommended Flowers for Algernon by a friend but accidentally picked up Flowers in the Attic instead…
I somehow confused John Green’s Looking for Alaska with Jon Krakauer’s Into the Wild. I was halfway through the Green book before I realized we were literally never going to Alaska. 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
I didn’t much like either book, though for very different reasons. Krakauer is more in my normal wheelhouse, but I wasn’t particularly impressed with his arguments about McCandless in his book. I can see why people like Green’s books, but they’re just not my thing.
I posted the same prompt 17 days ago! It didn’t get as much attention, I could have phrased the title better.
The top comment from /u/eogreen was pretty funny:
>My therapist recommended a book for me to read, so I went home and dutifully purchased Things Fall Apart. I immediately read it and spent the whole weekend pondering why this book? What message was I missing? I just couldn’t see how the horrors of colonial Nigeria was going to help me with my CPTSD. I read it again to try to sort it out.
>
>Got to therapy the next week with my copy and she looked at me with horror. The recommended book was When Things Fall Apart by Pema Chödrön. VERY different book recommendation.
>
>We laughed, but … oof.