I was in need of moving about 2-3 books to the garage, so I was looking for books I didn't like or that were crappy, so I could make space for Folio's two-volume The Scramble for Africa, a jaunty narrative of the delightful process that we know as colonialism.

I noticed a book by Grigory Pomeranz that my ex-wife left about 10 years ago, filled with various philosophical treatises. The book had this very non-descript look and I had never actually bothered to read any of it, but I had kept it because she didn't want it and I generally like to keep books on philosophy.

It was called "Coming out of the Trance" and I thought, "You know, this might not be the sort of book to keep upstairs, wasting space. Let me see the Table of Contents and find the most interesting article, read the first paragraph and figure out that way."

The article was "The Problem of Woland", a direct reference to Bulgakov's classic, The Master and Margarita. I opened up the article and started reading. Ten pages later, I realized I didn't have the time to finish the article today (I still have work to do) but I took a bookmark and threw it in the book, then put the book back on the shelf with the knowledge that hundreds of other books would precede this one in the process of taking crap down to the garage.

The writing was lucid and engaging, the examples and references were witty and fresh and the ideas were brilliant.

I therefore want to ask, simply:

Have you ever found a book at random (in your house, your parents' house, a store, a library - it doesn't matter) that looked like a waste of time for one reason or another, that you picked up out of curiosity, expecting to find complete Dreck, only to be enthralled? If so, please elaborate with details.