Where I'm Reading From Quotes

“What wonderful minds we have, even though they don’t seem to get us anywhere, or make us happy.”
― Tim Parks, Where I'm Reading From: The Changing World of Books

“It seems obvious that any serious reader will have learned long
ago how much time to give a book before choosing to shut it.
It’s only the young, still attached to that sense of achievement
inculcated by anxious parents, who hang on doggedly when
there is no enjoyment.”
― Tim Parks, Where I'm Reading From: The Changing World of Books

“E-kitap, elimizde tuttuğumuz somut nesnenin görüntü ve ağırlığındaki bütün farklılıkları ortadan kaldırmasıyla, kelime dizisinin neresinde olduğumuzdan başka herhangi bir şeye yoğunlaşmamızı teşvik etmeyişiyle (okuduğumuz sayfa yok olur, ilerideki sayfa henüz görünmemiştir) diyebiliriz ki bizi edebiyat deneyiminin özüne kağıt kitaptan daha fazla yaklaştırır. Hiç şüphesiz, geleneksel kağıt kitaba kıyasla, önümüzde belirip arkamızda kaybolan kelimelerle daha ciddi ve doğrudan bir ilişki sunar; duvarlarımızı ünlü adlarla kaplamanın fetişist tatmini sağlamaz. Metni çevreleyen bütün dışsal ve dikkat dağıtıcı unsurlardan arınır, kelimelerin kendilerinden aldığımız zevke yoğunlaşırız adeta. Bu bakımdan kağıt kitaptan e-kitaba geçiş, resimli çocuk kitaplarından sadece metni içeren yetişkin sayfalarına geçişe benzetilebilir. E-kitap yetişkinler için bir mecradır.”
― Tim Parks, Where I'm Reading From: The Changing World of Books

“No one is treated with more patronizing condescension than the unpublished author or, in general, the would-be artist. At best he is commiserated. At worst mocked. He has presumed to rise above others and failed. I still recall a conversation around my father’s deathbed when the visiting doctor asked him what his three children were doing. When he arrived at the last and said young Timothy was writing a novel and wanted to become a writer, the good lady, unaware that I was entering the room, told my father not to worry, I would soon change my mind and find something sensible to do. Many years later, the same woman shook my hand with genuine respect and congratulated me on my career. She had not read my books.”
― Tim Parks, Where I'm Reading From: The Changing World of Books

“The desire to convince oneself that writing is at least as alive as life itself, was recently reflected by a New York Times report on brain-scan research which claims that as we read about action in novels the areas of the brain that would be responsible for such action in real life—those that respond to sound, smell, texture, movement, etc.—are activated by words. 'The brain, it seems,' writes the journalist, 'does not make much distinction between reading about an experience and encountering it in real life: in each case, the same neurological regions are stimulated.'


What nonsense! As if reading about sex or violence in any way prepared us for the experience of its intensity.”
― Tim Parks, Where I'm Reading From: The Changing World of Books