What type of reader are you?

I saw the question, and I wondered. What sort of reader am I?

That means breaking it down into the different purposes I have for reading. You see, I read for pleasure; I read for entertainment (they’re not the same); I read for intellectual stimulation; I read to learn; I read to disappear. What sort of reader does that make me?

I often read seven or more books a week (health willing, job willing, books available, etc.). I read fiction, non-fiction, pre-published, first-second-third drafts, technical, children’s pieces, poetry, maps, star-systems. I read anything that has the potential to dream within its pages.

This is how I responded to the question that asked what I considered to be my strengths as a reader:

When I’m reading (a finished story written by someone else) I read for immersion. I like to become, to feel the journey on the page. I like to imagine within the bounds of the setting of the story. I read to live within the world that’s beyond the printed page. Yes, I read to escape.

When I read a piece for the purpose of editing, critiquing or shaping into a story, I read to find the places where the Reader-Me would fail or fall out of the story. I look for the potential for this story to become the best it can be, and to assist/advise how to get around the quick-sand or mire or missteps that are always in existence in first drafts.

When I read my own work as I try to shape it into a story, I read to find the balance between the reader-me and the storyteller-me. I don’t write a story to be read; I write a story to be lived. As I get to the second draft, I don’t rewrite or revise, I relive the story.

I don’t want to settle for a story where the reader says, ‘I liked it. It was a good story.’ What I want is this: ‘That was great! I laughed, I cried, I fell into the pits of despair, but then …’ That’s what I want my stories to do, both for me as i create them, and for the reader.

I don’t really know if the question was answered, but I can’t find another way to say it. Even in the dry-as-dust technical tome, I’ll find something to be excited about. I can imagine it.

I don’t really read to find mistakes or errors. I don’t care about the odd wobbly bit unless it takes me out of the picture. If that happens more than once or twice, I put the work down. It’s disappointing. Even if it’s beautifully written, stylish, poetic. Those things are nice, a bonus mostly, but they’re not the story. I read for the story.

I read for the story. There is nothing more important to me. The story. Whether fact or fiction, it is the representation of the story, and while I’m in it, I don’t want things that disturb that flow of fantasy, the journey I’m on.

I am a reader for story.

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Searching for Inspiration

And now that I can string a sentence together again, I may have to get back to work tomorrow and start writing my own stories back into their world again. I wonder if they missed me … I certainly missed them.

Have a wonderful day, and enjoy every story you encounter.