What makes a reader?

[sartorias]

Catholic Bibliophagist asks here "What makes a reader?" She refers to a Times article, and discusses it. (She also has some great posts before it, but alas on one of the blog formats my machine hates, and won't recognize the links for comments about half the time.)

personal experience below

Comments

[sam_t]

Does your son like audiobooks? The brother of a friend, who does have diagnosed learning difficulties, had assumed that he didn't like 'written' fiction at all until he discovered books on CD.

[sartorias]

That's a very good question. I will approach him about that, and see if I can get him to try one. (Just because he hated being read to when he was small doesn't mean he would now, I hope.)

[telophase]

It might require the right audiobook, of course. :D I discovered that despite loving SF in books, I can't listen to it. There's something about the transition from page to spoken word that keeps me from being able to envision it. Other genres: perfectly fine, even fantasy, which requires just as much, if not more, mental worldbuilding.

I love audiobooks because I can do art or clean house or drive while listening. My mom loves them, too, but can't do anything else or she gets distracted from the story, so she listens to them while lying on the bed. We share (probably against their rules XD) an Audible.com account and tend to buy about 24 audiobooks a year between us from them. That rate may slow down a bit as I've gone through most of Pratchett's backlist on audio.

[sartorias]

This is interesting. I do know that people process story differently in all media (like in film, some get utterly sucked in, others keep at all times the consciousness of watching something) so I don't know how it'll work, but it is worth a try.

[telophase]

Something interesting in that vein: Richard Feynman's autobiography, whose title has temporarily escaped me, comes across on the page (to my mother always, and to me as I got older and re-read it) as him being annoyingly full of himself and telling people how awesome he is, but when listened to, its genre is instantly clear: bar stories. And bar stories are great to listen to. :)

[sartorias]

Interesting! Yes, his autobio irritated me so much I skipped tons of it. Hmmm!

[elisem]

Fascinating indeed. Mike read it aloud to me, and it was really good that way. Now when I reread it, I hear Mike's voice.

[sartorias]

Oh, what a lovely thought, to hear a good book in his voice.

[ursule]

I personally find audiobooks frustratingly slow-- but I love the nonfiction storytelling of radio programs like This American Life.

[sartorias]

Yes--I only like audiobooks on a very long drive. Then I love them.