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.

[silent_ic_river]

Wow. Interesting. Now both of mine have taken to books like ducks to water, even my daughter, who is dyslexic. I started reading to them from day one and they cannot go to bed without being read to.
But then, we come from a long line of readers.
Interesting subject.

[sartorias]

I don't come from readers. Tho my dad would read a short chapter a book before bedtime, but it seemed more of a relaxer or duty--he could make a slim Sidney Sheldon book last several months. I had a great-uncle who read--and went to college. No one else.

[telophase]

My mom says I learned to read when I was three, from watching The Electric Company, but I suspect that it also had a lot to do with my parents both being readers, them reading to me, and a house filled with books. And then two years in the Serengeti National Park, from 4 to 6, with no TV, radio, or movies, and only a couple of neighborhood kids anywhere near my age also lent itself to amusing myself with reading

[sartorias]

Wow, that's interesting.

Another topic is the subject of manga and graphic novels--the delivery of story by image and word.

[rosefox]

I think a prerequisite for being a fiction reader is being able to turn words into vibrant pictures in your head. I have no idea whether that's something that can be taught.

[sartorias]

And yet there are readers who say they don't see images, just 'hear' the words. I find that fascinating.

[sartorias]

Good question--do ask her.

I see and also hear. When I hit unpronounceable words, I just give it a new sound in my mind, and rush on. Like, when I was very young, Penelope and Hermione were Penn-eh-lope [rhyme with dope] and Herm--mee--yoan. But as soon as someone said them aloud, I repeated them a few times, and snap! I heard it right in that inner voice.

I also hear people's voices reading their stuff, whether books or posts, once I've heard their voice. My daughter is the same. She tried to read one of my books once, but said that though she liked the story, hearing Mom's voice reading it was too distracting.

[emmaco]

Yeah that trigger theory doesn't sound like it holds water to me.

My mother thinks that, although she read aloud/took me to the library etc as a child, that she couldn't have impeded me in becoming a reader. She said it was just always obvious that I loved reading and stories. My middle sister, on the other hand, received the same supportive parental treatment (I also remember reading to her and buying her books I thought she'd like - and buying books new wasn't something I got to do much) but she didn't really read until she left school. Now she likes non-fiction books about people, such as I Was Trapped In a Taiwanese Prison and Rats Chewed My Ears Off :) My youngest sister lies somewhere in between us both (ie reads fiction and non-fiction but not voraciously).

So yeah, I don't really know either.

[sartorias]

Yep! This resonates with my own experience.

[windsong5]

Maybe it is a matter of taste in part. Some people like their world with magic carpets and dragons while others like it to be a world like our own. Others like living in space or as animals for a time. There are still others who embrace them all so long as they're between two covers and have pages in the middle. I think it's discovering that there are a lot of different types of worlds out there and finding the ones that answer the need to explore inside. For some that may mean watching or listening to their world unfold rather than reading it.