Reader-y Topics of Discussion

*image from http://davidajacobs.com/

First of all, I gotta say that we Erins really stick together! I recently gained ANOTHER follower named Erin! That makes three of us Erins all together, woot woot! Having the same name must make us some kind of kindred spirits, huh? Exactly.

So, A and I had this conversation recently (right after the movie "Shutter Island" to be exact) about how he and I receive stories differently. There were multiple points during the movie when A thought, Something's wrong here, and so started questioning characters' reliability, figuring how certain plot events could be otherwise explained. He basically thought outside the given narrative. I, however, was completely wrapped up in the movie, never once leaving its side. I was unquestioning, trusting, and thoroughly blinded to what might lay outside the four corners of the theater screen.

This isn't the first time we've noticed this difference between us. There are a lot of movies that A figures out before me. He's always thinking with that scientific brain of his--What are the possible scenarios? What particulars don't add up? And he's got the best memory, recalling exactly what was said and when it was said and how those words could imply multiple things. I mean, this kid is good at beating the story to the punch, let me tell you. Ugh, overachieving doctors (jk, I love you, A).

Which got me wondering about myself. See, I loooooove reading, and because I mostly read fiction, I'm used to operating my imagination--suspending my disbelief, so to speak. I'm used to walking hand in hand with the story, letting the story make itself known to me page by page. I willingly and without thinking let the story reveal its "big picture" at the very end, in one glorious coming together. Rather than figure out the story for myself, I go where I'm told to go. Which pretty much makes me a passive reader, doesn't it? Haha. Well, not all stories allow such passivity (I'm thinking of Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury), so perhaps I just read passively when I have to? Once again, another passive sentence! HA! Let me defend myself though...

While it sounds pathetic that I let the story dictate how I should read it, passive reading is actually quite entertaining! I mean, hanging on the every word of a writer really makes it easy to deeply connect with the story. Take the characters, for instance. It's like I am the writer, who intimately knows the character's ins and outs. I feel more for them as if I'm experiencing the story as them. Or traveling to different settings. I just finished a fabulous western fiction called The Work of Wolves, whose setting I can still see in my mind's eye--the dark, worn wood of cabin-like houses, the open land with rolling hills, the dry grass shimmering white-gold in the sunlight, the smell arid, earthy, warm. I don't just see that rural land. I walk on it. Live on it. Until, of course, I pick up another book or watch another movie and am led to some other land, some other place.

Interesting though, isn't it? How small conversations lead you to find things out about yourself? Part of me thinks that because I've read so many stories, I've trained myself to put more weight on them than in my own faculties. Reading has never been about me. It's been about the story and what's inside it. But for A, whose read mostly scientific papers and text books, reading is about getting something out of it, understanding and walking away with that understanding. Reading is just a way to get information or to figure out a solution to something. For A, reading is about him, and how he might benefit from the effort.

And therein lies the difference between how we receive stories!
But tell me, what sort of reader are YOU?
And what are y'all reading, mm?

* While you're hypothesizing what "reader-type" you may be and recalling the titles of the books on your nightstand, I'll entertain you with a Daily Dose of Dillies! Head on over to my new page to see the most recent addition! I'll give you a hint: it has something to do with inspirational/uplifting readings!