Quote:
Originally Posted by CWatkinsNash
I read the words, but I'm rarely conscious of the words on the page while reading fiction. Instead, I see the story, hear the dialog, played out in my mind. I feel and see the character's thoughts, expressed on their faces. Tension or joy in their movements. Murderous intent or relief in their eyes.
This happens even with crappy writing, and sometimes with non-fiction, if the writing lends itself to imagery. History books, for example, often describe people and their lives, places and I start to process the text the same way as fiction.
I've always read this way, for as long as I can remember. It's the reason I am bothered when fiction writers drop in a dry infodump that is all data with no context - it's like running into a white wall with nothing to look at, nothing to feel.
Edit to add - It's not a conscious thing, it just happens. The only time I have to work at it is if there are other distractions in the room, my mind, my life.
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I'm a bit like this too. However, it doesn't always happen immediately and it's not always successful.
For example, last night while I was reading
A Town Like Alice, I started the chapter knowing there was about 50 minutes of reading ahead of me. If the story visualisation is not going well, I'll notice the 49m, the 48m, the 47m and so on. Last night, there was this blur in my memory where I was reading the words, but I don't really remember them. I do remember a conversation between two people, a recounting of events from one character to another. I saw them both sitting in a flat doing this. Then I noticed the screen at one point and saw that I had 2m of reading left.
I find that even in a book I'm really enjoying, not every chapter will be like this. For some, I notice the reading every step of the way. At other times I'm not really sure what happens, but one or two chapters have just passed and I "experienced" whatever happened rather than read it. I consider this experience to be reading "nirvana".
To the OP though, I do appreciate the sentiment of reading quickly to get through more books because they are so available. I actually feel under stress to read more because there's so much to get through. My excitement in experiencing a whole new range of authors that I couldn't find in my local bookstores has almost being replaced by the horror that I can't read them all. Amazon, eLibraries, independent authors. It's amazing - and tragic at the same time. The most shocking is that I'm having trouble to committing to books I really want to read just because of the size. 1200 pages? That's 4 books in one!
I can see this coming to a head - and at that point I'm likely to change my priorities. Not sure when that will be though.
