Are you an imaginative reader?
Last week on Friday Coffee Chat we talked about whether or not big name reviews were important to us and most of us get our book recommendations from people we trust rather than a nameless person that doesn’t know anything about us. However, some of us felt that the big name review often trickled down to our reading lists because the books that are reviewed by big name media outlets are often heavily marketed.
Make sure you check out Jennifer at Girls Gone Reading for this week’s Friday Coffee Chat and last week’s chat on the books that turned you into a reader.
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This week on Friday Coffee Chat I wanted to ask how many of us are imaginative readers. What do I mean by this? I am a slow reader. Why? I’m slow because I often imagine EVERYTHING about a book—the setting, the characters, their accents, what clothes they are wearing, and how they wear their hair among other things. It’s so bad that I even sometimes read out loud to myself trying to imitate whatever accent I think the character speaks. If there isn’t a lot of dialogue, I imagine the narration to be by some fabulous actor or actress with a wonderful voice that just fits the book perfectly. I even do this with non-fiction books no matter what they are.
I think that classifies me as an imaginative reader (this is a term I just made up—who knows what it’s really called…probably GOOFY!). I know people that tend to speed read and they don’t necessarily create the entire world in their head. To me, the concept of this is completely foreign. I wouldn’t comprehend anything, but all these people have excellent reading comprehension and often remember just as much or more than I do once they are done with the book.
I also have a tendency to change the “look” of the character if I don’t like the way they are described. I am not a fan of flowing, long, man hair so whenever there is a character written with long hair, I usually change it in my mind to short and some actor I think is handsome. Is that weird?!!! Probably! I do the same thing for girls. There is such a shortage of female characters that are minorities in the books I read that I never feel like I could ever put myself in their shoes since I could never look like them. Is that weird?! Probably! Either way, they get switched to Asian or Hispanic or Black or any other minority in my head sometimes just for variety and to know that yes, I could be a character in a book!
So my questions for you readers this week are:
- Are you an imaginative reader? Do you build the world and characters in your head?
- Are you a speed reader and you don’t imagine anything while reading—you just comprehend it all and move on?
- Could you ever fathom trying the opposite of what you do when you read?
Logging you in...
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leeswammes 78p · 752 weeks ago
The setting I tend to imagine something that I'm familiar with so I don't have to make everything up from scratch. That doesn't always work, for instance, with a house, when the house that I imagine does not have a door where the book says it has. Then it gets a bit messy. :-)
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Misha · 752 weeks ago
As a kid, my imagination created a lot of trouble for me. I used to read a looott and then imagine. At times, it became difficult for me to differentiate between whats real and whats not . (I am not kidding!) . It used to worry my parents quite a bit. But thankfully I outgrew that phase.
winstonsdad 43p · 752 weeks ago
bokunosekai 49p · 752 weeks ago
In some books, I love some of the characters because I feel like seing them in front of my eyes, I have written my favorite characters here> http://t.co/D7xtG8Q if you like to know :)
Beside scenes in my head, I often come out with a soundtrack because the song I am listening to while reading is perfect for the story.
Example: Radiohead's album called In Rainbow was in perfect harmony with IT by Stephen King. Hyde's album Faith was right music for The DaVinci Code. Those album clicked perfectly with the book, and everytime I listen to those album, scenes from the book are being repeated in my head
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Bella · 752 weeks ago
gone202 16p · 752 weeks ago
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classicvasilly 60p · 752 weeks ago
Ellie M · 752 weeks ago
Rikki 49p · 752 weeks ago
I also imagine everything in my head. I don't pause to think about it, but just do it while reading. I am ALWAYS changing the characters' looks if the description doesn't suit me. The hair I don't care about. Well, not true, I do care about it, but long, short or bald, I like them all as long as the rest is good. But as soon as even the slightest hint of a beard, for example, is mentioned I just make it go away as quickly as possible, lol.
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scrabblequeen 40p · 752 weeks ago
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amymckie 73p · 752 weeks ago
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Sarah · 752 weeks ago
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@ratsinabag · 752 weeks ago
In the book I've just finished by Tad Williams, Otherland - there were a couple of parts I skimmed as I was just wanted to get back to this other set of characters and the part I was on at the time was getting tiresome.
When I was reading Pillars of the Earth, which I did enjoy very much, I skimmed past many paragraphs... simply because Ken Follett isn't the world's best author and had a tendency to summarise what you have just read, just in case you were too stupid to comprehend what had just happened. I skipped those parts and just enjoyed the story.
I like to try and imagine everything... not quite in the detail you do Carin, just in my head. I'm not that good with faces however. I tend to imagine people from the neck downwards and their face is sometimes a blur unless I can replace it with an actor's face. I do do that sometimes, but I might alter features.
I will also... sometimes alter how they're described in books. I hate it when you get an over detailed description of each character, unless their features are important or it's from someone else's POV it feels kinda irritating, as if the author is imposing upon me. I like a few little hinters, but not too much.
I do try to read with the 'accents' in my head. Again, this is easier with some then others, because some authors just get accents down to a tea so they sound natural. After reading The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver I was thinking in a south american type accent for ages! It was quite annoying! It was written in first person with a rather thick drawl to it and it sounded so right in my head.
I do sometimes find myself, in my head, thinking in a Liverpudlian accent. I am from the south coast and nowhere near Liverpool... for some reason my inner voice picks up accents. My tongue however cannot do accents which is a shame.
I like to get the feel of my surroundings in a book. I love authors which seem to be able to... not write much, or not say much or describe much and yet just gets you somehow to be able to imagine so vividly as if it is second nature. I think some books that have too much description of things, forget that readers have their own imagination.
Sometimes, I also end up day dreaming about the books I have read, the characters and things. I love that about some books, they leave a mark I just can't stop imagining them. Often when I'm reading of course I'll think about the book when I'm not reading it, imagine something again that I've read etc but not always will this carry on till much, much later.
lrpresley 92p · 752 weeks ago
But that is how I am in life as well. I don't daydream, never fantasize. I have a hard time coming up with a unique story, but love listening to or reading one. There are some books that I slow down while reading, but I never imagine the world still... it just isn't how my mind has worked. I do, however, get certain feelings while reading books. A warmth inside of me when I read something heartfelt, a chill when I read a book like. say.. Jane Eyre, and goosebumps when I read something so good, so intriguing, that all I want to do is curl up under some covers and read until I fall asleep.
chachic 47p · 752 weeks ago
LOL at the long, blond hair reference.
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Kim U. · 752 weeks ago
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sabina · 748 weeks ago