Hatrack River Forum: How do you read books? And when and why?

This is topic How do you read books? And when and why? in forum Discussions About Orson Scott Card at Hatrack River Forum.

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Posted by Sid Meier (Member # 6965) on :

Ender's Game is the book that I fell in love with on sight. I saw it on my english teachers desk, borrowed it read it in 2 days and from there got thr whole book series for both ender and bean series. I used to read all the time everywhere esp. at school esp. during french class. I liked to read on my bed where I would push all of my pillows next to the wall to support my neck.

Now I consider the most effective way of reading is to imagine voices for each individual character. Now I dont know if thes eowuld be bizarre but here is how I casted them ( the "()" are for charactors from anime who I dont know the voice actors):
Graff: Patrick Stewart
Anderson: Johnathon Frakes
Ender: (whoever played Kaiba)
Bean: (Mokuba)
Crazy Tom: Kirby Morrow (or Merrow?)
Hot Soup: Jackie Chan (only asian voice I could remember mentally)
Dink: (Tristan)
Admiral Charajangar: (I have an Indian neabhor)
Petra: (Tea Gardner)
Mazer: (whoever played Gandalf from LOTR trilogy)

That pretty much it sorry if the post seems random. If anyone would like to exchange what they do when reading please go ahead.

Posted by Jay (Member # 5786) on :

Interesting. I’ve never really thought about the voices I put to characters. Mine don’t seem to be associated with anyone specific, but develop as I get to know the character better based on their personalities.

I also read before going to sleep. Which I sometimes wonder if it’s bad habit since that makes me sleepy when I read.

Posted by digging_holes (Member # 6237) on :

You know, I've often tried putting individual voices on characters in a book as I'm reading it, but I can never stick with it. I always end up concentrating more on remembering what so-and-so is supposed to sound like, rather than following the story, and then I abandon it.

Even when I'm reading a book that I previously saw as a movie, I don't pay attention to the voices. In that case I will sometimes have a somewhat-less-vague idea of what the character looks like, but not the voice. (For instance, I'm now reading Les Misérables, and Jean Valjean looks remarkably like Liam Neeson in my mind... but sometimes, he doesn't; it's all rather fluid.)

Posted by Sid Meier (Member # 6965) on :

For me its easy manly I watch enouth tv and movies often enough to make it stick.

Posted by Beanny (Member # 7109) on :

I like to imagine everything about the character, and I do so by combining many different characteristics of people I know or saw on TV.

For an example: Ender is a combination of my little cousin, a short guy in my physics class, and Eliot from ET.

Eliot could be a good Ender, the problem is he's probably in his twenties now... [Big Grin]

-Beanny

Posted by mr_porteiro_head (Member # 4644) on :

When I read a book, all the smart people sound like me. [Big Grin]

All the dumb people -- they sound like me to. [Monkeys]

Posted by Beanny (Member # 7109) on :

Talk about being self-centered... [Big Grin]

Posted by Vadon (Member # 4561) on :

I do too, but mine are fairly different, the three that come to mind on who I had play who's voice in my mind were... (Also what they looked like)

Mazer: Sean Connery
Graff: Dennis Quaid or Harrison Ford
Ender: I never really came up with one for him... I suppose me in my youger days? [Dont Know]

Dink: Meish with an authentic accent from the netherlands... (Which I can't do in reality.)
Peter: Truly me. I would so play peter in my mind. [Evil Laugh]

Posted by Beanny (Member # 7109) on :

Dink didn't need an accent, though...

Only the Frenchmen had a French accent, quote:
"He (Bernard) spoke his own name with a French accent, since the French, with their arrogant Seperatism, insisted that the teaching of Standard not begin until the age of four, when the French language patterns were already set."

However, our imagination usually doesn't go nit-picking.

-Beanny