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What We See When We Read
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A gorgeously unique, fully illustrated exploration into the phenomenology of reading-how we visualize images from reading works of literature, from one of our very best book jacket designers, himself a passionate reader. A VINTAGE ORIGINAL.
What do we see when we read? Did Tolstoy really describe Anna Karenina? Did Melville ever really tell us what, exactly, Ishmael looked ...more
What do we see when we read? Did Tolstoy really describe Anna Karenina? Did Melville ever really tell us what, exactly, Ishmael looked ...more
Paperback, 425 pages
Published
August 5th 2014
by Vintage
(first published August 2014)
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Cheryl
I don't think so. There's really not any science here at all. It's self-referential philosophy.
Community Reviews
Showing 31-60
Peter Mendelsund çok yeni bir şey söylememiş ama okuma durumunu grafik tasarım boyutunda yorumlaması teorik olabilecek kitabı masalsılaştırmış, keyifli de olmuş. ''Görmek'' ile ''bakmak'' arasındaki ilişki bu sayede daha kuvvetli ayrımsanmış.
May 28, 2014
Elizabeth A
rated it
really liked it
Recommended to Elizabeth by:
Bookrageous
Shelves:
2015,
non-fiction
Book blurb: A gorgeously unique, fully illustrated exploration into the phenomenology of reading - how we visualize images from reading works of literature. What do we see when we read? Did Tolstoy really describe Anna Karenina? Did Melville ever really tell us what, exactly, Ishmael looked like?
This book clocks in at 425 pages, but don't let that scare you away, and is a must read for anyone who loves to read. It explores what happens in our brains when we read novels, especially as it relates ...more
This book clocks in at 425 pages, but don't let that scare you away, and is a must read for anyone who loves to read. It explores what happens in our brains when we read novels, especially as it relates ...more
This was fantastic and I tore through it. It's designed to be read quickly, though, but that doesn't hinder it. The only thing keeping this from a 5 star rating is I feel there could've been even more material explored; it really only scratches the surface. It's not a shallow examination of this concept, though, and what it covers, it covers very well. This one passage in particular grabbed me and demanded rereading:
"River, the word, contains within it all rivers, which flow like tributaries in ...more
"River, the word, contains within it all rivers, which flow like tributaries in ...more
This was an excellent book on the visual image provoked by good writing. It was interesting to me because I typically don't see images when I read. I see the words on the page. My daughter thinks I am very strange as she sees things like a movie in her head when she reads. I would love to be able to do that. After reading this book, I am wondering if perhaps I am just not a careful reader and that is part of the problem.
This wasn't what I wanted or expected it to be, and that doesn't make it bad, but it does make me like it less than I might have if I had read it with different expectations. Or no expectations. I just didn't think it was going to mess around so much with style and formatting and thought it would be a bit more cut and dry about its topic.
I thought this would be a scientific explanation of how the brain processes words into images, but it's really a showcase of graphic design. Sure, there is an essay about reading, but it's tedious, not illuminating.
So I do not normally read nonfiction, but I read this on the recommendation of my friend Ellie and WOWZA as both a reader and a writer this blew my mind just a little bit.
A lot of things definitely went a bit over my head and also some of the points seemed to contradict each other a bit, but honestly I think I just need to re-read this some point so that I can just delve into it more.
Honestly, this felt like an amazingly well-written essay that has just been packaged in this amazing visual gra ...more
A lot of things definitely went a bit over my head and also some of the points seemed to contradict each other a bit, but honestly I think I just need to re-read this some point so that I can just delve into it more.
Honestly, this felt like an amazingly well-written essay that has just been packaged in this amazing visual gra ...more
Absolutely brilliant. Peter Mendelsund is one of my favourite book designers. Here he turns his creative and keen eye to the visual elements of reading. It’s so complexly crafted while still being a really quick read. I loved the visual components and it was quite funny at times. Highly recommend.
I'm so grateful to Peter Mendelsund for creating this book. And doing it so masterfully with his design mind.
His is a unique perspective, influenced by the central challenge of his life's work-- designing book covers. The problem he is tasked with solving, or the way of seeing he is tasked with understanding, is how to encapsulate the reading experience visually?
In this book he runs down the underlying assumptions, preconceptions and misconceptions we all bring to our attempts to answer such a ...more
His is a unique perspective, influenced by the central challenge of his life's work-- designing book covers. The problem he is tasked with solving, or the way of seeing he is tasked with understanding, is how to encapsulate the reading experience visually?
In this book he runs down the underlying assumptions, preconceptions and misconceptions we all bring to our attempts to answer such a ...more
Like physics, reading is an experience we don't really think about until someone points it out. The laws of gravity are taken for granted by those who adhere to the Earth's surface, and so is the act of imagery the reader experiences during the consummation of reader and book.
Mendelsund picks apart the solipsistic existence that is the reader's immersion in an author's carefully crafted universe. What do we see when we read? Definitely not what we think we see. He pieces out the process in this ...more
Mendelsund picks apart the solipsistic existence that is the reader's immersion in an author's carefully crafted universe. What do we see when we read? Definitely not what we think we see. He pieces out the process in this ...more
Reading is an exercise in imagination, yet we rarely imagine the reading act itself.
Mendelsund contemplates this strange phenomenon, this beautiful action by asking questions about the authenticity, the likeness, the passivity, the fragmentation, the synesthesia of reading.
It will make you nod, smile, wonder, but most of all - read, read even more.
Mendelsund contemplates this strange phenomenon, this beautiful action by asking questions about the authenticity, the likeness, the passivity, the fragmentation, the synesthesia of reading.
It will make you nod, smile, wonder, but most of all - read, read even more.
A very fascinating piece of work! It definitely made me think about the act of reading in a different way, and it proposed some really interesting ideas. I also loved how the book had so many visual aspects to it.
I wanted to read this book. I expected to love it, and I didn't. While there were some interesting discussions about reading and what we visualize, a lot of it seemed excessive to me. Of course, we don't see the same Anna Karenina when we read. For that, I am thankful.
10% signal, 90% noise.
Visually beautiful, but it did become a bit tiresome. Seemed more gimmicky than insightful at times.
So fascinating. Definitely recommend for anyone who loves to read. Full review to come.
Even the best self-help, pop psych, and literary analysis books rarely offer any revelatory truth; their power comes from the way their authors take an easy-to-stumble-upon observation and expound upon it in unique and insightful ways.
This is different. The author here - obviously a genius in at least 3 different ways - starts with an idea I’d never even considered, or at least never had presented to me in such clarity and detail. The idea is this: that the very process by which we read written ...more
This is different. The author here - obviously a genius in at least 3 different ways - starts with an idea I’d never even considered, or at least never had presented to me in such clarity and detail. The idea is this: that the very process by which we read written ...more
”The story of reading is a remembered story. When we read, we are immersed. And the more we are immersed, the less we are able, in the moment, to bring our analytic minds to bear upon the experience in which we are absorbed. Thus, when we discuss the feeling of reading we are really talking about the memory of having read.
And this memory of reading is a false memory.”
“One should watch a film adaptation of a favorite book only after considering, very carefully, the fact that the casting of the fi ...more
And this memory of reading is a false memory.”
“One should watch a film adaptation of a favorite book only after considering, very carefully, the fact that the casting of the fi ...more
I liked the idea of this book more than I liked the actual book.
There were hints of ideas that could have been fascinating (like reading as colonialism, or the use of math/neuroscience/music to gain insights into reading). But the book used its graphics to gloss over these ideas, rather than to enhance them (like Scott McCloud is able to do in "Understanding Comics").
Even though the book acknowledges the interactive nature of reading, I often felt disengaged, like I was being lectured to rather ...more
There were hints of ideas that could have been fascinating (like reading as colonialism, or the use of math/neuroscience/music to gain insights into reading). But the book used its graphics to gloss over these ideas, rather than to enhance them (like Scott McCloud is able to do in "Understanding Comics").
Even though the book acknowledges the interactive nature of reading, I often felt disengaged, like I was being lectured to rather ...more
This book is a concise and cleverly-illustrated investigation of the interplay between language, storytelling, and imagination. Or maybe it would be better to say that it's about the process of reading itself: the act of taking in words, creating and reshaping sensory experiences, and then remembering (accurately or not) what that experience was like. Reading is emphasized as an active, co-creative process. My only criticism is that, since the focus is on the author's own imagination and reading
...more
I can't believe this wasn't already on my radar, and I don't even remember how I came across it now, but it's so interesting - and so me! What makes this the most interesting is that I read it on a same day I did a homework help tutor training that talks about how to support kids just learning to read, and this put that training - which focus on the mechanics of reading, the divining of meaning from sounds represented by symbols in various configurations - is totally different than this book's a
...more
Muito, muito bom. Este livro abre novas perspetivas, para os leitores comuns, mesmo aqueles que não têm estudos em literatura, em relação ao ato de leitura, aos processos mentais relacionados com a leitura e, nomeadamente, à parte mais importante: a memória que nos fica após a leitura desse livro.
É um livro para ler, reler e manter carinhosamente na estante.
Mais detalhes em:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7urM...
É um livro para ler, reler e manter carinhosamente na estante.
Mais detalhes em:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7urM...
3-4 stars
At times this was repetitive and some portions went over my head, but this book is beautifully presented, and as I believe one of my Goodreads friends has commented in her review, would make an excellent gift for a bibliophile. It took me a while to read but only because I have so much on the go- it could actually be read in one or two sittings, I think.
At times this was repetitive and some portions went over my head, but this book is beautifully presented, and as I believe one of my Goodreads friends has commented in her review, would make an excellent gift for a bibliophile. It took me a while to read but only because I have so much on the go- it could actually be read in one or two sittings, I think.
This book was really fascinating! It reads very quickly and is more of a collage than a book-length essay, if that makes sense (it will once you've seen inside it, anyway).
What We See When We Read, more aptly titled What I See When I Read, is a collection of Peter Mendelsund’s musings over the imagery and consciousness conjured by some of his favorite writing, mainly the canon.
The book is divided into a series of themes (Picturing “Picturing”, Co-Creation, Synesthesia, etc). Each theme starts off with an excerpt followed by exposition about the writing’s significance and a few illustrations. Mendelsund’s insights are incredibly thoughtful and beg for more in-depth ...more
The book is divided into a series of themes (Picturing “Picturing”, Co-Creation, Synesthesia, etc). Each theme starts off with an excerpt followed by exposition about the writing’s significance and a few illustrations. Mendelsund’s insights are incredibly thoughtful and beg for more in-depth ...more
161016: there is a potential distraction with unbounded, generalized, readerly-typical use of 'we', in this book from title to conclusion. but then this 'we' is probably very close to someone who would read this sort of book. i suggest it may be profitably read with this critical 'we' sort of fiction: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...
visualizing, or thinking in retrospect we have, is clearly not the only way in which readers feel they 'know' characters, locales, events- though given the d ...more
visualizing, or thinking in retrospect we have, is clearly not the only way in which readers feel they 'know' characters, locales, events- though given the d ...more
I really wish there were more books like this.
Interestingly, this does for reading something like what David Byrne does for music in his How Music Works, which is to say, make you think about the act of reading in ways that have perhaps not been closely examined before. I know that I for one am guilty of comparing the act of reading to watching a film - but in many ways, despite narrative arcs and universal dramatic themes, they are quite dissimilar. Mendelsund explores what actually happens wh ...more
Interestingly, this does for reading something like what David Byrne does for music in his How Music Works, which is to say, make you think about the act of reading in ways that have perhaps not been closely examined before. I know that I for one am guilty of comparing the act of reading to watching a film - but in many ways, despite narrative arcs and universal dramatic themes, they are quite dissimilar. Mendelsund explores what actually happens wh ...more
What We See When We Read is Peter Mendelsund’s written and pictorial meditation on the act of reading. It asks the question, aside from words on a page what do you see when you read? How clearly can you picture the character or the setting you read about? Sure you know the character has big brown eyes because it says so in the book, but what does the nose look like? After reading this book I think the answer to the question of what I see when I read is both more and less than I thought.
If you as ...more
If you as ...more
I am a Reader. I have been a Reader from so young an age that I can't even remember a time when I wasn't a Reader. It's arguably one of my most defining characteristics. Hence my interest in this book.
The book is intriguing, at least theoretically. Understanding what my brain sees or how it processes as I read is fascinating. It is also something that I've never really thought about while reading, because I'm too busy being immersed in the book. Once I stop reading, I can try to go back and proc ...more
The book is intriguing, at least theoretically. Understanding what my brain sees or how it processes as I read is fascinating. It is also something that I've never really thought about while reading, because I'm too busy being immersed in the book. Once I stop reading, I can try to go back and proc ...more
Oh, my Book Riot Quarterly Box always has the power to derail me. Even when I've just reorganized my to-read shelves, prioritized according to my progress on my various 2014 reading challenges. Who can resist the allure of shiny new surprise books? One of them I slipped into its proper place in the queue, but this one won me over immediately.
This book is about something I've thought a lot about lately. Well, it's about many things. It's about the experience of reading, about how that experience ...more
This book is about something I've thought a lot about lately. Well, it's about many things. It's about the experience of reading, about how that experience ...more
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“If books were roads, some would be made for driving quickly - details are scant, and what details there are appear drab - but the velocity and torque of the narrative is exhilarating. Some books, if seen as roads, would be make for walking - the trajectory of the road mattering far less than the vistas these roads might afford. The best book for me: I drive through it quickly but am forced to stop on occasion, to pull over and marvel.”
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19 likes
“Once a reading of a book is under way, and we sink into the experience, a performance of a sort begins...
We perform a book-we perform a reading of a book. We perform a book, and we attend the performance.
(As readers, we are both the conductor and the orchestra, as well as the audience.)”
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More quotes…
We perform a book-we perform a reading of a book. We perform a book, and we attend the performance.
(As readers, we are both the conductor and the orchestra, as well as the audience.)”
