Has reading changed?

[karen_w_newton]

Obviously, tastes in literature change. You have only to pick up a novel by Dickens or Trollope or Thackeray to see that. Which is not to say that those writers aren't still being read. If the story and the characterizations are strong enough, a book can stay in print long after the author is dust in his or her grave. But that doesn't change the

Comments

[marshallpayne1]

Personally, I'm not eager for either the reading or writing experience to change.

Me neither. Well said.

Fwiw, I can't and don't listen to podcast. My main enjoyment is hearing the music on the page for myself.

[karen_w_newton]

Music on the page-- Interesting analogy. I am the least musical person I know, so I never thought of it like that, but I can see it.

[marshallpayne1]

I think of the rhythm of the words as the beat and the word choice as the notes. This is really a big deal to me and I love when I read prose that flows or the sentence rhythms work to create music on the page appropriate to the mood of the story. :-)

[karen_w_newton]

Hmm. I don't think if even think of music that way. I must truly be missing a gene.

But I can actually understand it more with words. They do have their own rhythm.

[marshallpayne1]

I've also seen it described as the use of long vowels and soft consonants, as compared to short vowels and hard consonants. A tranquil love scene would use the first and an action fight scene the second. Sometimes when deciding on the right word I try to weigh the shades of meaning against the sound of the word, too. "Begin" and "start" often mean the same thing, but they have a different sound that can affect the emotion timbre of sentence. My two cents. *g*

Sorry it took me so long to chime in on one of your posts. I just don't know much about Kindle/e-books. I'm more of a writing/reading topic kinda guy. ;-)

[karen_w_newton]

Not a problem. To me, it's many facets of the same topic. The reason I am so enthusiastic about eReaders is I think they make it possible to read more.