Reading Books
Recently had a conversation with a friend after she borrowed four books of mine and proceded to finish them all in one day!!! I was amazed... don't think I have ever managed to accomplish such a feat, and honestly, don't think I will ever have the capability or wish to do as such. My average reading speed? Two or three days a book... but I guess if I had a whole day to myself, would finish a novel in about 4 hours.
This conversation started me thinking... I actually think you can tell alot about a person from his / her reading "style". On one spectrum, you have readers who are just concerned with the broad picture "the storyline", and are not concerned with the details "the narration, the description", etc. These are the "skimmers". In life, they would be the ones that tend to be impatient, are oft concerned only with just getting the gist of things, and looking at things through a macro perspective, and will leave out the details. For example, this individual would know that he / she wants to go on a holiday to xx country, but would not know what he / she is going to do during the sojourn there. The details, or the planning, can best be left till the trip itself materialises. These individuals are fans of fast action thrillers like the Da Vinci Code, James Patterson, and for females... the romances.
On the other spectrum, you would have the readers who genuinely savours each written word. Thse are the "critics" or the "researchers". They firmly believe that the details in the book are the inspiration of the book, and would most probably be able to tell you the model of Harry Potter's broom in his first Quidditch match without blinking an eye. In life, they would be the ones who have all the details planned out... the "micros". Using the trip analogy as stated above, they would have planned out the exact itinerary for a trip to country xxx three months before departure date. These individuals would be fans of Charles Dickens (descriptive, descriptive, descriptive), a certain Mr Tolkein, and in modern day thrillers... more suspense authors like Patricia Cornwell or Greg Iles.
I think I fall somewhere in between the two categories. I do need to KNOW what is happening, plotwise, and therefore, do have a tendancy to skim past certain "boring" bits. However, I am a firm believer that the conversations, descriptions and details are what makes a novel throughly amazing and intriguing. Case in point would be fantasy novels. By and large the plot behind each novel is the same... an unlikely protaganist would come into power, and would have to battle and triump against the evil lord... there are no mysteries here. But what distinguishes the good authors are the attention to detail. For example, my all time favourites... Robert Jordan's average book runs 600 pages and up because of his multitudes of characters that somehow make the book more real; David Edding's books are always an enjoyable read as he takes the time to craft witty "speeches" for his characters. So yes, there are times wherby I re-read the book in detail just to milk the laughs, or enjoy the word play.
So what kind of person does that make me? Haha... well, I suppose I am a sucker for planning at times... and then there are others where I just literally "bo chap". One thing I do know... I need to rid myself of the habit of reading the end of the book before I finish it... and then again, maybe not.
This conversation started me thinking... I actually think you can tell alot about a person from his / her reading "style". On one spectrum, you have readers who are just concerned with the broad picture "the storyline", and are not concerned with the details "the narration, the description", etc. These are the "skimmers". In life, they would be the ones that tend to be impatient, are oft concerned only with just getting the gist of things, and looking at things through a macro perspective, and will leave out the details. For example, this individual would know that he / she wants to go on a holiday to xx country, but would not know what he / she is going to do during the sojourn there. The details, or the planning, can best be left till the trip itself materialises. These individuals are fans of fast action thrillers like the Da Vinci Code, James Patterson, and for females... the romances.
On the other spectrum, you would have the readers who genuinely savours each written word. Thse are the "critics" or the "researchers". They firmly believe that the details in the book are the inspiration of the book, and would most probably be able to tell you the model of Harry Potter's broom in his first Quidditch match without blinking an eye. In life, they would be the ones who have all the details planned out... the "micros". Using the trip analogy as stated above, they would have planned out the exact itinerary for a trip to country xxx three months before departure date. These individuals would be fans of Charles Dickens (descriptive, descriptive, descriptive), a certain Mr Tolkein, and in modern day thrillers... more suspense authors like Patricia Cornwell or Greg Iles.
I think I fall somewhere in between the two categories. I do need to KNOW what is happening, plotwise, and therefore, do have a tendancy to skim past certain "boring" bits. However, I am a firm believer that the conversations, descriptions and details are what makes a novel throughly amazing and intriguing. Case in point would be fantasy novels. By and large the plot behind each novel is the same... an unlikely protaganist would come into power, and would have to battle and triump against the evil lord... there are no mysteries here. But what distinguishes the good authors are the attention to detail. For example, my all time favourites... Robert Jordan's average book runs 600 pages and up because of his multitudes of characters that somehow make the book more real; David Edding's books are always an enjoyable read as he takes the time to craft witty "speeches" for his characters. So yes, there are times wherby I re-read the book in detail just to milk the laughs, or enjoy the word play.
So what kind of person does that make me? Haha... well, I suppose I am a sucker for planning at times... and then there are others where I just literally "bo chap". One thing I do know... I need to rid myself of the habit of reading the end of the book before I finish it... and then again, maybe not.
posted by chiarezza at
8:11 PM
2 Comments:
I would have to disagree with you. It certainly does not apply for me..hee
Different genres of books require different style of reading ... out of the 4 books, 3 belonged in the category of advanced skimming thru' the pages ... the last one was worth slowing down just a bit :)
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