Hi, BTTers! Don’t forget to check out my giveaway while you’re here.
This week’s question:
What is reading, anyway? Novels, comics, graphic novels, manga, e-books, audiobooks — which of these is reading these days? Are they all reading? Only some of them? What are your personal qualifications for something to be “reading” — why? If something isn’t reading, why not? Does it matter? Does it impact your desire to sample a source if you find out a premise you liked the sound of is in a format you don’t consider to be reading? Share your personal definition of reading, and how you came to have that stance.
BTT, sometimes I wonder. What is reading, indeed.
My personal* definition of reading would be something like this: the act of processing words or other textual matter with the eyes (/fingers, if you can’t see) and the brain in order to glean its meaning.
Can you read novels? Yes, because there are words in novels. Comics? Yes, same deal. Manga and e-books, sure thing. Audio books, not so much: you are not reading, you are listening to someone read aloud via a recorded medium. That doesn’t make it less worthwhile, it just makes it not-reading.
I suspect that this question is designed to reveal our prejudices about reading material. “E-books,” we’ll cry, “are not books! They have no pages! It’s not really reading! And don’t get us started about graphic novels!” But that’s silly. “Reading” is a physical and mental process by which we decipher words, sentences, paragraphs, and the meanings thereof. It’s not anything particularly elite or special, or limited in what it is or is not.
Reading = words + eyes + brain. What is being read is immaterial.
* Note: I, for one, reject the notion of giving a “personal” definition for every little concept (not limited to this specific BTT). What does fiction mean to me? What does reading mean to me? What does literature mean to me? Seriously, who cares?
Things have to mean to more people than just me, or no conversation or dialogue or even meaning will exist outside of my pointy little head. We’ll never get anywhere if “tricycle” means “three-wheeled pedal-powered vehicle” to one person but “purple begonia” to another. Definitions don’t exist in a vacuum inside of us, oblivious and irrelevant to popular and conventional meaning. The community definition is the one that’s important. (This is also why dictionaries are important: to give us the basic communal meanings of words. We can hash them out after that, but we need to start in the same place or, again, there’s no real dialogue).
Great post! I like your definition of reading, even if you don’t like definitions (and I am with you on that). Makes sense to me.
You’ve answered this exactly as I was going to.
I also think this is another question designed to elicit a certain bias towards The Book as Mighty Being. Like last week’s.
You got one good definition of reading. However, we all have different ways of understanding, retaining and knowing.
Here is my say!
Great answer!
I am definitely with you about the question of definitions and topics loaded to elicit a specific type of answer.
Hello, I’ve tagged you! Now you get to do one of these fun memes, lol, if you want to that is
http://kbookreviews.wordpress.com/2008/05/30/tagged-twice-more-about-me/
Totally agree with what you said about audio books i have the exact feeling!
I admit that I went straight to the dictionary when I first read this week’s question. I often do that when asked to define words. I tend to go with the accepted definition. It can be difficult for me to come up with my own outside of that. I did it in this case by separating out the definition of reading from what I mean when I call myself a reader. I think that can be looked at on a more individual basis.
Like you and Ann, I had a similar thought when reading the question this week. I’m drawing a blank about last week’s question. I don’t think I was paying attention to it since I was having computer problems.
I admit that I went straight to the dictionary when I first read this week’s question. I often do that when asked to define words. I tend to go with the accepted definition. It can be difficult for me to come up with my own outside of that. I did it in this case by separating out the definition of reading from what I mean when I call myself a reader. I think that can be looked at on a more individual basis.
Like you and Ann, I had a similar thought when reading the question this week. I’m drawing a blank about last week’s question. I don’t think I was paying attention to it since I was having computer problems.
I know what I like and call reading for me! It is having a book in my hand, whether it is brand new or a used book! Basically, I agree with you. The audio books are not reading, they are listening! It is much easier for me to reread a part of a book with pages, but not with audio books. Thanks,Cindi
I’m absolutely with you on ‘what is reading’. Audio books are not really reading, because they can’t help doing some of the interpreting for you – the person reading has to put feeling into the words and sentences and they have to be his or her feelings. Everything else which is written down somewhere can be reading. I’m so hooked on reading that I can’t sit for five minutes in a waiting room without my eyes travelling round the room to find something – anything – to read: posters, adverts, information brochures, something! Anything!
I’m with you on definitions, too, to a certain extent. There’s room for some flexibility though, and that’s what makes life interesting!