Children's/ YA/ Adult? fiction. Character (with memory issues? not dyslexic) learns to read and thinks letters are alive, moving and playing musical chairs while unobserved (move when book is closed). Book related to a movie viewed around 2000-2010.

[Андрій]

The protagonist learns to read and assumes that the letters in the book move and dance while nobody looks at them, but freeze the moment one opens the book, possibly each time forming a new sentence or story. As if the letters were playing musical chairs. ('Quantum observer effect for words and letters', as described by some readers.)

At first I posted this on FB and got lots of references to books about dyslexia, but I don't think the protagonist is dyslexic - because dyslexic people (at least as shown in Taare Zameen Par movie) see letters 'dancing' while they actually look at them. Contrary, here the letters move in the closed book, which is more like indicating memory issues, not dyslexia (or it's simply a childish interpretation of large amount of text contained in a single book).

Not sure if the protagonist is a child, a mentally challenged person (checked Flowers for Algernon - nope, not that one) or a feral person getting educated to integrate into civilization (like Tarzan).

I think I saw this in a movie somewhere around 2000-2010, but also heard that the movie is based on a book.

[Kris]

Андрій, is this a children's chapter book/novel, not a picture book? Are there illustrations inside the book?

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[Андрій]

Kris wrote: "Андрій, is this a children's chapter book/novel, not a picture book? Are there illustrations inside the book?"

I don't think it's a picture book, it could even be quite an adult novel, and the movie details are very uncertain, that's why I didn't add it to the title. Specifically, I don't remember a single scene from the movie, but what I do remember is this theme of moving letters reverberated between people who also watched/read this, as a meme and a metaphor to the infinity of possible plots and infinite ways to read the same book