A few questions from a new reader

quote:

---

Yes, because the words allow you to create the story mentally. Movies don’t give you that same opportunity.

---

Obviously this is a big advantage of reading over watching, but also the amount of detail and information is probably 3x to 5x (or more) in a novel than would be possible to film. Obviously, in some instances images can convey more information than text, but overall you're talking about a film script is roughly 1 page per minute of screen time. Think of how little information is on one page of film script versus a page of a novel. Then, figure that a feature script is going to be 90 to 140 pages.

To see what it takes to even attempt translate a long novel to screen, take Season 1 of Game of Thrones and compare that to the first ASOIAF novel, also titled Game of Thrones. The novel is just shy of 700 pages and Season 1 with credits (and admittedly, quite a bit of fluff/non-source material) ran for roughly 10 hours (600 minutes). Even that seems to short the source material to a degree.

quote:

---

New Reader

---

Dont get discouraged. Eventually you'll find what you love to read. Experiment with many different authors and genres. Dont be afraid to stop if you dont like it and try out another book. Reading should be enjoyable, not a slog.


Reading allows you to be a part of the story and crafter of the world you're reading in. You can bring in your own background and ideas and life experiences to the characters and the world you create while you read. A movie is someone else's story and craft.

Reading is more personal IMHO. For an imperfect but comparative hypothetical:

Reading is like exploring a forest by yourself on foot where someone else has marked some trails and sights for you to see as you explore. Watching a movie is taking a commercialized guided tour of that same forest where you dont leave the Jeep.

I am currently obsessed with Brandon Sanderson. Reading his novels you get an in detail account of what is going in each character's head and how they feel both emotionally and spiritually about current situations and events. You also get an explanation of the atmosphere that you get to imagine instead of watching it you get to create it. It is almost impossible to convey that same amount of intimate and in depth information in a movie.

For another quick example:

In a movie: you watch a man look angrily at another man that walks into a bar.

In a book:
The lights are too low and the music too loud as John sits against the wall in his favorite booth. He gives a slight wink as he nods his weary head to Deb. She has known for years not let his glass get empty. It rarely has time to get warm. The familiar cracks in the leather under his legs and vulgar messages scratched into the wood under his hands are comforting friends. The dingy bar is his only solace. An island he desperately clings to in the sea of anger where his mind floats adrift.

As the door creaks open, his island is flooded and his mind races to grasp the sudden storm. The face that crosses the threshold hits him like a lightening bolt. He has spent years desperately occupying his mind with anything but the memories of that day. He has not felt at peace since before he found his son face down in their living room. He can feel the splintered and worn wood grain on the table scratch across his finger tips as he balls his hands into a fist. The familiar sounds of the local drunks and the piano in the corner have been welcome distractions for his restless mind.

The blood rushing past his ears on the way to his brain from his heart drowns out the noises and his vision forms a narrow tunnel. He can taste the anticipation. As the man scans the room, John has a slight smile slowly crease along his cracked lips. The man doesnt seem to recognize him. But John has seen that face in his nightmares everyday. He has been haunted and driven by it. He got away once. He will not have that chance again.



1. Has your imagination/ability to produce images in your mind improved as you've progressed in reading?
yes absolutely.
2. Do you read with an internal voice?
yes
3. Do you instantly see beyond the words and straight to the concepts that they symbolize?
no
Have you improved in this way?
yes


Strangest thing, vocabulary/spelling have always been strengths while comprehension has been a weakness.
This just comes with time spent reading.

I'll sporadically generate a mental image, but I can't sit here right now and choose to conjure an image of, say, an apple. When images do come, though, I feel like a superhero!
Reading is a gateway to another mental realm.

quote:

---

1. Has your imagination/ability to produce images in your mind improved as you've progressed in reading?

---

Yes. It helps if the writing/writer is good. I love when Murakami for example describes what his characters are eating.

quote:

---

2. Do you read with an internal voice?

---

Sometimes with dialogue depending on what im reading

quote:

---

3. Do you instantly see beyond the words and straight to the concepts that they symbolize? Have you improved in this way?

---

Pretty much

quote:

---

4. If you've claimed that books are more enjoyable than the movies they inspire, can you tell me why?

---

I think reading a story is more fulfilling but some movies or shows are better than the books they’re based on

vocabulary/spelling have always been strengths while comprehension has been a weakness.

I know what you mean. I found that was sometimes an issue for me when i was younger and my mind wandered a little more which could affect things like comprehension.

I read as if I am reading it out loud. One of my professors told me that was not a problem. I am 66 years old, and it has never been a problem.

From Buckey06:

quote:

---

My biggest problem with books to movies is that once I see a movie, i never can see the characters as I saw them in the book originally. Perfect example is the dwarf in GOT. I imagined him much more hideous than he was in the show but now I can't unsee him

---

Great point. I'm the same. I read The Stand before the original mini-series came out and I had a picture in my mind for all of the characters. Now I can only envision Gary Sinese as Stu, Laura San Giacomo as Nadine, etc. I can't even remember how I had originally pictured them (except for some reason I pictured Larry as Tony Danza).

From ev247:

quote:

---

I don't know about a genre, but I'm leaning towards something where the characters are poor or just from a different time period where they'd seem poor by any 2023 American's standards. Preferably without vulgar language. Cheers!

---

Try something like The Old Man and the Sea. It's short, well written, about a poor old fisherman and set probably in the 50's or earlier. Another possibility is try out some short stories. A "Clean Well-Lighted Place" is very good but most major authors who wrote novels also wrote short stories. There used to be an annual compilation called something like "The Best Short Stories of (insert year)" I don't know if they still publish that but that could give you a start. Another good novel to start with might be "On the Road" by Jack Kerouac.

quote:

---

1. Has your imagination/ability to produce images in your mind improved as you've progressed in reading?

I don't know that it's improved, but maybe. I've ready a lot my whole life, so I think I started doing this when I was in elementary school.

2. Do you read with an internal voice?

Sometimes, but not always. Sometimes I have to reread portions because my mind was drifting so far into what I was reading that I was imagining it in my head.

3. Do you instantly see beyond the words and straight to the concepts that they symbolize? Have you improved in this way?

I don't instantly see the concepts at all beyond the words. It's hard to explain, but I feel the words. I'm often sort of "in" the book, just experiencing what the character is feeling. I'm caught up in not and not really worried about the concepts, etc.

4. If you've claimed that books are more enjoyable than the movies they inspire, can you tell me why?

Books are almost always much, much better. The level of detail in a book is so far beyond that of a movie. Additionally, we just see what is happening to a character in a scene, etc. The actor has to try to convey the emotion. In the book, you get so much more detail about the way the character is feeling in the situation and the why of it all.

Strangest thing, vocabulary/spelling have always been strengths while comprehension has been a weakness.

---

I think it gets better with practice.