How To Read

[~]

So, given that this is a book club I was wondering whether or not you guys could tell me how to read, or more specifically how you read.

When I was younger I used to only see the words on the page subconciously, what my eyes would actually see were the images they depicted unfolding as if in a movie. Now that i'm older and think more about things like syntax, vocabulary and eloquence I tend to focus fifty/fifty, my mind split between this stream and the words themselves.

How about you guys? When you read are you one, the other or some kind of third option?

[Tassie Dave, S&L Historian]

I've never really thought about it.
It depends on how distracted I am. If I really get into a book, I lose myself and go into total "movie in my mind" mode.

If I am distracted by outside noise, or my mind is wandering between thoughts or I'm not into the book, I find I am noticing the words and sentence structures more.

As I have got older (I am almost 50) I am less forgiving of sloppy spelling, grammar and structure.

[~]

Yeah, I imagine that is a common enough answer to what I realise is a rather ridiculous question.

I tried to pay attention to how I was reading when I got into Elantris this afternoon, but it's one of those Schrodinger things where observing the incident changes it; if you're paying attention to how you read than you obviously aren't being swept up or immersed in what you are reading.


I guess that the quality of the prose could also effect this, if it's an exciting section of the story then the outside world would dissapear in a way similair to how the words on the page do. I guess it's akin to how when watching a really great movie on a real screen you sometimes forget that you are watching a movie, that there's a room around you and sometimes, if you're lucky, that you exist seperate to the story.

Probably a pointless ponderance, but I found it interesting to think on.

[Kate]

I have little in the way of visual imagination, so I usually read a book out loud in my head, delighting over interesting turns of phrase and give little mind to imagery and so forth. This means I have a hard time following action sequences and is probably contributes to why I'm much more interested in character interaction than plot.

I understand that one of the first things you do when learning to speed read is to stop reading out loud in your head, this is what's always put me off it, because 'hearing' the words is the whole point for me, but I do wonder if, given this, the fact that I talk so fast is what allows me to read so fast without actually speed reading.

[Kieran]

If I'm into a book I definitely kind of trance out, all of a sudden its 3 hours and 100 pages later. I could tell you what happened and how I felt, but not the words on the page.

As an aspiring author I am currently going back to some of my favourite books and trying to read them with an analytical eye, how the sentences and paragraphs are structured etc. But I don't enjoy the read when I do this, I don’t feel for the book the way I do when I read for pleasure.

[kvon]

I actually own

which includes reading for pleasure and analytical reading.

I hear everything in my own voice in my head. And I usually have a misty image in my head for fiction. The syntax et al only impinge when they're done badly.

[Tamahome]

I subscribe to the Scott Sigler philosophy of not noticing the words at all.

[JRush]

I love when I forget I am reading a book and almost see the story. To me this should be the goal of any author, and what I look for in a 'good' story. The more this happens the better the experience for me.

But this doesn't always translate to action sequences. There are some authors that thrive on amazing action, R A Salvatore, but I have been sucked into stories that don't thrive on bloody action. The Lord of the Rings comes to mind. Unlike many, I enjoy the council meetings and Tom Bombadil as much as any battle scene.

I don't know what that 'moment' translates into technically, but I read books for times like those.

[~]

Yeah, I agree with you on that Jonathan; technically peaceful scenes are often as gripping as any kind of action, especially when you we are talking about visualisations.

I guess a better metaphor for how I read might be that it is like painting a picture; each phrase of the text is another brush stroke and the best scenes to watch are those that go on building up layer after layer of colour and depth.

Action however never tends to take its time and so this method falls apart somewhat with each scene only ending up as a quick sketch before you've been moved along to the next. If anything I find myself having to slow down when a book reaches as action scene, rather than ramp up like you would expect, because otherwise I tend to fly over all of the details becasue of this very reason.