Some things about reading

[bzoppa]

1. One thing I really love about my nook is having multiple books wherever I go. Right now I'm re-reading C.S. Friedman's Coldfire Trilogy and nearing the end of the second book. I'm going to a wedding shower today but I don't need to pack a second book in my bag because I've got the third book lined up! That's a gigantic relief to someone who can'

Comments

[baleanoptera]

What switch is flipped when a book goes from words to story? Do some people do it while others don't, and is that why non-readers don't understand readers?

That's a very interesting question. I guess I'm realizing that for me the switch very seldom flips. The more I try to read fiction, the more I seem to struggle. It's as if the emotional response needed to carry me through a novel is severely lacking on my part. I guess that's why I largely read non-fiction.

The odd thing is that I do have an emotional response, but it's to film. I can sometimes be so affected by films that I have to turn them off, and return to them at a later date. But not with novels.

Btw - have you read The Shallows - how the internet is affecting our brain? I don't agree with everything in that book, but it does contain an interesting discussion about how we read and the various ways we read according to the medium. Basically he claims that reading a book and reading on the net are two different skills.