Spontaneous Musings

It's odd, reading never came easily for me. And when I read, I often automatically re-read. Do the same thing when I write. I re-read what I wrote and often re-write as I'm writing. Saves time in editing. Sometimes I'll have to re-read a sentence or paragraph three or four times. As a result, I don't tend to read that quickly. The fastest I can read a 200 page book, with no breaks. Is maybe a day or two. I remember reading Catch 22 in a weekend for a college course, but I did almost nothing else. It was painful. I will scan occasionally, depends on the reading material. But even when scanning, I re-read, because my eyes skip down and I've learned to automatically re-scan or re-read. I'm usually not even aware of doing it.
And, I will read out loud - it helps sometimes to hear the words or speak them in order for my brain to fully digest them.

You'd think I would hate reading? But I love it. More than anything in the world. I adore books. I collect them and love them to death. I am rather hard on my books, which is why the Kindle is a godsend. The only thing I love more than reading is writing, and then...drawing or sketching.

When I read...I visualize the action, characters and story - but more on an emotional level. Not quite as pictures. I feel the story. There's a soundtrack of sorts. The dialogue and narrative voice is in my head. Like thoughts. Reading a book is like having another person's thoughts inside your head - hearing their voice, seeing their dream, and interacting with that dream until you make it your own.

A book that resonates with me on a deep level - will become a part of me. It doesn't have to be "well-written" or critically acclaimed. In fact often it is the novels that aren't critically acclaimed, that are pulp and no scholarly sort would be caught dead admitting to reading - that resonate the most. Which is admittedly odd, but there it is. For me - it's not about the writing per se, although that does have an effect and certain writer's styles work for me while others really don't, but the story and the characters.

For example? I found the characters in George RR Martin's Song of Ice and Fire series captivating enough to struggle my way through four and a half of his insanely long novels. But his writing style is definitely not my cup of tea. Too wordy. Lots of long rambling sentences. Not enough humor. And often far too grim. So I gave up finally - for the story and the writing style didn't quite work for me. It depressed me and put me to sleep on the train.

Dorothy Dunnett's Chronicles of Lymond is an example of a series in which I despised the writing style (found it to be frustrating) but adored the characters and story so much that I was willing to push my way through it. And have re-read sections of it, specifically in Checkmate. Considering it took me three months to read each book - this is saying something. The style - made it difficult for me to get to the story and I wanted to strangle the writer throughout. This is a series I desperately wish would be made into a film.

Dunnett is a bit like GRRM, she's a language whore. More interested in the language than the story. She also has a formalistic and academic style - that borders on legalese. Reading her novels felt at times as if I was reading a legal decision or case study. I can actually write like that. I was taught. It's not hard. But it distances you from your reader. Lawyers write like that in part to be precise but to also provide themselves with lots of wiggle room. It works fine in scholary and legal text, but not so much in fiction. Mainly because I don't want a story to be precise. I like gaps. And I want the words to disappear as I'm reading...to not require constant contextual interpretation or a dictionary. (I never had to use a dictionary - I learned ages ago how to figure out what a word meant based on context and subtext. Or how it is used and the sentences around it. )

While the Illona Andrews' Kate Daniels series, which many would consider not nearly as well-written as Dunnett or GRRM, captivates me. I love the writing style (it's simple and minimalistic, with funny one-liners), the story and the characters (which are not simple at all and in some respects more complex than Dunnett or Martin's). This series is resonating for me on a deep psychological and metaphorical level. It speaks to my heart. And it is almost as if I am reading it through my heart and my brain. Books I read with my heart and brain - stay with me far longer. My heart will remember what my brain forgets. Although Dunnett's Lymond series spoke to my heart - because I have it more or less memorized. It spoke more to my heart than my brain. My brain kept wanting to kick the writer in the ass.

When people say something is not well-written or poorly written - this usually means that they do not like the writing style, which is a subjective thing. This is not to say that there are not any books that are poorly written. There are. I've read them. The characters are flat. The story paint-by-numbers. The book by committee. OR the plot just does not work. OR the characters are out of character or mere pawns of the plot. OR it contains an insane number of typos and grammatical errors - to the point that you think, damn, who was your editor? Did you even have one? I would not say that any of the book series that I listed above were poorly written or not well-written. I actually think all are fairly well written. Some have typos - but those are e-books, and for some reason e-books have typos. Not many, just a few here and there. I just don't like the writing styles of Dunnett and Martin. That's all.

How about you, dear readers?

Does writing style affect your reading choices? Do you have a preference? Are you like me and often find yourself leaning towards books or blogs that have a writing style similar to your own? Do you preferly scholarly such as Dorothy Dunnett, Ian Spears, or Hillary Mantel? Poetic prose - such as Margaret Atwood, James Joyce, William Faulkner, Fitzgerald, Cormac Mccarthy and Gabriel Garcia Marquez? Snarky dialogue found in Elmore Leonard, JK Rowling, Jim Butcher and Illona Andrews? Simple minimalistic prose such as Hemingway or Raymond Chandler?
OR are you moody like me - and well it depends? Do you only read one genre or jump around depending? Do you stick to one author or try several?

What makes you fall in love with a book? What makes you remember it?