Robert Carlyle, why do you Hate Books?

[rayvah]

Robert Carlyle has done a few live Q&A sessions on Twitter in the past, and I was fortunate enough to have my question answered.

I had several questions. (What kind of books do you read? Which of your characters are you most similar to? Will you marry me?) But I had to pick one. I’m a big book person, so I really wanted to know his literary habits, and I went with that one.

I sent the question exactly 25 times during that hour. LOTS of people were tweeting him, so I just kept trying and trying. Twitter doesn’t let you send exactly the same message within a certain period, so I had to recompose each time. I was worried that when/if he finally saw it, I’d have run out of words and he would think English wasn’t my first language. (“BOOKS. READ. WHAT?”)

Finally, just as his session was about to end, he answered.

“i read mostly scripts nowadays..”

I was Unsatisfied, though not surprised. I’d been following a few of his Q&A’s and he’s not a verbose man. Twitter allows for 140 characters, but he could get by with 50 on average. The first few days I tried to forget about it and just revel in the fact that Robert Carlyle had actually interacted with me. It wasn’t too hard, but soon it boiled down to my own personal quest… vendetta if you will to spot him reading a Book, or admit he liked them. It was prompted by this incident, related via conversation I had with a friend.

“I’m watching this show where Robert Carlyle’s character is reading a book. I tried to see what it was, and couldn’t!”
“Haha. Take a screen cap, put it on Twitter and demand to know what it is.”
“It’s me again, Carlyle. What the hell is this?”

And a week or so later, another thing. I was watching “28 Weeks Later” with a friend. In the opening scene, RC is building a fire in a stove with his wife in this boarded up house. The first thing he does is grab this paperback book and toss it straight into the fire. My jaw dropped. All I could think was, “Curse You, Robert Carlyle!”. (in slightly more colorful language)

AND, in an episode of Hamish Macbeth, the town starts to get really into books The local pub becomes the local poetry beat, with volumes stacked on every surface and nobody buying drinks. Carlyle’s character is particularly blaise about the whole thing and he ends up helping to end the threat to the business. (Of course he does. Of course he does.) (“This is the only show I’ve ever seen depict reading like it’s a bad thing. I bet Robert Carlyle wrote this episode!”)

(But in all seriousness, Hamish Macbeth is brilliant. Watch It.)

So there. Sorry to go on and all, but I had to share.

One day, Robert Carlyle. One day.

[cruel_fortuna]

Thank you for this topic, it really made me laugh.
Although, I’m sure you’re quite serious but it’s always interesting to see what other people latch-onto in terms of celebs or characters.

Perhaps you should expand your quest & start watching Stargate: Universe, I’m sure Carlyle’s character ( Rush ) probably reads or at least glances at a book without burning it. …although, … I think SGU has plasma-guns, … so he might just shoot up some books Old-West style.

Anyways good luck with your vendetta, … er that is … quest.

[rayvah]

I did see SGU. And there was one time Dr. Rush was reading a book. It was when they all thought they were about to die. He mentioned earlier that it was not a good book.

It was probably a pretty good book, he just hated the act of reading it.

[rayvah]

And cruel_fortuna, I’d like to clarify- just so you don’t think I’m a crazy person – I’m am being a bit tongue-in-cheek about this. But I would still honestly love a straight answer about what Carlyle’s reading habits are (“Did you read when you were a kid? Do you even like books? Come on., let’s not play 20 questions.”)

I posted this in the dream thread, but I feel it applies here. I work in a bookstore and I had a dream our manager got Robert Carlyle to come be the main guest at an event. I was really excited but woke up before he even showed up.

So the lesson here is Robert Carlyle + books = disappointment always

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