Way back when I was babysitting at a neighbor's house (about 40 years ago) I was desperate for something to read, after the kids had gone to bed and I'd finished my homework. The only things that were available were the newspaper (already read it at home), two novels (a C.J. Cherryh fantasy and The Hobbit), and a set of Encyclopedia Britannica.
Let's just say that I wasn't into C.J. Cherryh at that point (she's one of my favorite space opera/hard SF authors now), and after two pages of The Hobbit, I ended up reading the encyclopedia.