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Why is Luna Lovegood reading this book upside-down?

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    If I recall correctly, in the books there's a part explaining she's reading it upside down because of a specific article that had to be read upside down.
    – IloneSP
    Sep 26, 2021 at 14:08
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    Not having read the books, I just assumed she was just pretending to be reading as a "cover" while she was actually observing the people and events playing out and listening to the conversations around her. The magazine was therefore upside down in error because her full attention was on her surroundings, not what was in her hands.
    – Anthony X
    Sep 26, 2021 at 18:54
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    FWIW, in the Heinlein juvenile novel The Rolling Stones (aka Space Family Stone), the twins Castor and Pollux are adept at reading upside-down, due to their habit of reading books together in zero gee. (I can't remember why they prefer that geometry, rather than side by side).
    – PM 2Ring
    Sep 27, 2021 at 7:55
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    Have you seen the newspapers as depicted in the movies? Their page layout is insane, some articles sideways, upside-down, etc. One could reasonably assume that magazines (that isn't a book she's holding) in the wizarding world would use similar crazy layout.
    – Darrel Hoffman
    Sep 27, 2021 at 14:08

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He flicked through the rest of the magazine. Pausing every few pages he read an accusation that the Tutshill Tornados were winning the Quidditch League by a combination of blackmail, illegal broom-tampering, and torture; an interview with a wizard who claimed to have flown to the moon on a Cleansweep Six and brought back a bag of moon frogs to prove it; and an article on ancient runes, which at least explained why Luna had been reading The Quibbler upside down. According to the magazine, if you turned the runes on their heads they revealed a spell to make your enemy’s ears turn into kumquats. In fact, compared to the rest of the articles in The Quibbler, the suggestion that Sirius might really be the lead singer of The Hobgoblins was quite sensible.
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, chapter 10: "Luna Lovegood" (emphasis added)

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    This answer might be improved by mentioning the first impression of "because she's a bit weird" as the assumed reason. It's certainly consistent with her character.
    – Rand al'Thor ♦
    Sep 27, 2021 at 6:56
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    @Randal'Thor Perhaps instead of "weird", one might say "radically open minded"
    – tjd
    Sep 27, 2021 at 19:55
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    @Randal'Thor That impression would be somewhat dulled at least in the movies by the fact that all wizarding newspapers (and presumably magazines) are depicted with sideways/upside-down articles, so she's no more weird (in that respect anyhow) than anyone else.
    – Darrel Hoffman
    Sep 28, 2021 at 13:44

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