How do you read?

[SPECTRE120]

I was looking at WoBs and I found this one:

Quote

Questioner

A lot of people probably ask you how to write better. Do you have any advice for people who want to read better?

Brandon Sanderson

What an interesting question. So I don't know if you can read the wrong way? Upside down, if it works for you, man. One of my speeches previous year, the little things I get up, where I go professor on you. One of those things was where I talked about "there is no wrong way to read my books." And you have the power as a reader, I feel, to have, like, line-item veto. If I describe a certain person a certain way, and you're like, "Nope." You are allowed to change that in your version of the book. I have a good friend, he's still in my writing group, actually, he's Leyten from Bridge Four. 'Cause all my friends ended up in Bridge Four. Except for Dan, who I killed horribly in the Mistborn books. He survived the first time. I let him survive, and then he died. All of my friends ended up in Bridge Four. So Leyten, he was reading The Wheel of Time back when he was a teenager, and we got to the part where Thom Merrilin has a mustache. Have you read these books? He's a guy that has this really awesome mustache. And Alan's said, "Nope. No mustache. He doesn't match my--" When he told me this, I was horrified! I'm like, "That is, like, a central feature of what Thom Merrilin looks like, he has a big, drooping mustache!" Alan's like, "Nope. Not in my version." And I'm okay with that, when you do that on my book. You can pronounce the names the way you want. You can-- like, I give you a script, and you direct it. And you can change whatever you want in your head. So, I don't know if there's a right or a wrong way to read, if that makes sense.

I did take a speed-reading class for, like, three days. No, it was just, like, one day, where they started teaching how to speed-read. And I realized, when I was speed-reading, I was missing kind of the music of the writing for me. Like, one of the tactics of speed-reading is to stop hearing it in your head, the sounds while you're reading. Which is great for getting through something fast, but I was like, "No! This doesn't work. It makes the books-- less musical?" if that makes any sense. And so I immediately dropped out of that class. But that was for me, I need to savor the story a little bit more. If you want to speed-read it, and that works for you, go. It's an interesting question that I just basically refused to answer, I'm sorry.

When Brandon talked about speed-reading and not hearing it in your head I got a little confused, because that's just how I read books normally. I just kind of... think the book as I read it; I don't really hear the individual words in my head if that makes sense. I still can read the other way, I just don't when I read most books. I didn't know it wasn't the normal way people read. Does anyone else read like this?

Edited August 21, 2024 by SPECTRE120

[Guest Ψιτιsτηε Βεsτ]

1 hour ago, SPECTRE120 said:

I was looking at WoBs and I found this one:

When Brandon talked about speed-reading and not hearing it in your head I got a little confused, because that's just how I read books normally. I just kind of... think the book as I read it; I don't really read the words in my head if that makes sense. I still can read the other way, I just don't when I read books. I didn't know it wasn't the normal way people read. Does anyone else read like this?

 

hmmm…I think often when I read Brandon Sanderson I actually do find myself internally hearing them. Thinking the thoughts not only the notions. I understand what he is saying.

[Ookla she/her]

I don't think I've ever thought about this before. I just... read.

I do know that I dislike audiobooks, because audiobook narrators (even the greats like Michael Kramer and Kate Reading) never get the characters' voices right, like I have them in my head. For example, I hate Kate Reading's interpretation of Lift, not because it's bad, but because the Lift I imagine sounds way less whiny and way more me. Often, if I can see myself in a character's position, or really like a character, it's because that character's voice in my head sounds very similar to my own voice. The rest of the time, the characters don't really have voices (love ya, Dalinar, but you're basically just words on a page to me, unlike Lift, Shallan, and Jasnah, who have my voice in my head, but with different intonations).

I do read quite fast, which does mean I occasionally miss details of the story, but I feel like it's the sort of fast that is like eating a bowl of your favorite dessert. Some people savor it, I chow it down as fast as I can because I want to get as much as I can as fast as possible. Ice cream doesn't linger in my bowl, it disappears within a few minutes. Maybe I'm missing part of the experience, but I'm usually so excited to consume the story that I don't care--anything I miss the first time 'round, I can pick up on the rereads.

[Quantus he/him]

When Im reading just...words, like this thread, I do hear the sounds as I go and now that you/he pointed it out that does pretty much set the pace of my basic reading.  But when Im reading a novel I fall into it more and my internal representation goes from audio to a full technicolor imagining of the events, and being able to hit that sort of immersion without constantly breaking it is the main bar I use for a good vs bad book.  If I cant get to that point I'll most likely stop reading (and after high school Ive never had to trudge through that).  But doing that I do sometimes get in a hurry and unintentionally skip lines (chasing dialogue and missing descriptive text, for example) and my mind just fills in the gaps.  But Ive also sort of trained myself to be able to jump back and reread the lines I skip without really breaking my rhythm or immersion.  Which sounds weird as I write it out, but that's always been my experience.