Around the Year in 52 Books discussion

This topic from a Book Riot article elicited a lot of discussion in the Play Book Tag group. It is about whether a reader sees visuals in their mind while reading. I was surprised how many people have different experiences while reading.

https://bookriot.com/books-arent-ment...

Do you visualize? (PBT members, feel free to comment here even if you did in the other group.)

I’ve noticed that I visualize directional things that have not been explicitly stated — when a character turns, do they turn left or right?; which side of a hallway an apartment, that is the setting, is located; when someone is walking by water is it on their left or right?... It really messes me up when the author later states the previously vague direction!

The first time I remember noticing this was in Fredrik Backman’s Anxious People. I pictured the apartment where most of the action took place at the top of the stairs to the left. Eventually he indicated that it was at the top of the stairs to the right. It all felt wrong to me after that.

Not really, unless the writer is specifically describing something in a detailed way that clearly wants you to visualize it. As the article says, it's about the ideas and language. I think that's why I prefer reading to watching movies, I love words not pictures. I think that's alap why I don't prefer science fiction/fantasy, they try to create new and different worlds to inhabit and I just don't inhabit them because I cannot see them. I definitely don't associate characters with actors.

No, I don’t visualize. I think that’s why I like books with illustrations and don’t like overly descriptive writing. I’ve recently started reading descriptions more closely and thinking about the details (e.g. to have a sense of place) but don’t picture it in my head. When people say they see a movie in their head, I can’t relate to that. I wish I could, though. Sometimes when I see a movie or TV adaptation I might say “that’s not how I pictured it/him/her” but it’s not a visual picture but rather more of an idea.

I visualize everything. I love rich descriptions that put a picture in the reader's mind. For me, reading a book is like watching a movie in my head. Especially if the book is well-written, I get transported to the world I am reading about. When I was reading "Rebecca" I was so into the scenery, that at one point I started smelling the flowers, even though I was sitting on a plane while reading it, lol. That's how good a job Daphne DuMaurier had done describing the path down the beach. I felt like I was walking the same path and I could vividly envision what it looked like.
This is the case with every book I read, I see the visuals while reading the words.

Yep, I'm a visualiser a lot of the time: especially scenery and locations. Sometimes, if I can't visualise the scene, I actually find it way harder to read the book. Like Kaltra, I love good descriptions.

I can't imagine not visualising when I am reading. I don't think it consciously. However, I have such bad spatial awareness, that whether something is to the left or right wouldn't bother me as it does Tracy:)

I visualize as well. I don't like over description, though. It is distracting and screws up my ability to imagine the world or characters. I also hate the blow by blow fight scenes and skip those.

I don't imagine real people as the characters. Occasionally, when I have seen the movie or TV show first I will see them as the actors then.

@Tracy, I have noticed the same thing. I have learned to either ignore the authors correction or just go with it. It is similar to cutting to the next scene without showing how the characters walked up the stairs.

I definitely visualize. I can’t imagine not visualizing! I still have clear visual memories of scenes from books my mom read to me as a kid, so this is how it has always been for me.

LeahS wrote: "I can't imagine not visualising when I am reading. I don't think it consciously. However, I have such bad spatial awareness, that whether something is to the left or right wouldn't bother me as it ..."

That is me, I have bad visualization skills in real life - like it's hard for me to picture a place I have been when I'm not actually looking at it. I can stay in a hotel room for a week and still turn the wrong way out of the room to get to the elevator. But I do visualize when I read, a lot. I think this is why I like audiobooks as well as print, and why I don't enjoy modern poetry - too abstract.

However, there are some books where I just love the sound of the words or the emotions evoked. And of course in nonfiction, there isn't as much to "see.". Maybe this is why I read very little hard science, the subjects that interest me are psychology, education, women's issues, which have more of a human component.

I also visualize when listening to songs, that's why it drives me crazy when I can't understand the words.

Anastasia wrote: "I visualize as well. I don't like over description, though. It is distracting and screws up my ability to imagine the world or characters. I also hate the blow by blow fight scenes and skip those. ..."

This too! I find fight scenes in books and movies boring (also car chases). But in a Regency romance, I eagerly follow all the dialogue and it is a huge deal when - gasp! - he touched her hand!

I like fantasy and sci-fi but get disgusted when the story ends with a big fight scene, maybe they have new weapons but it's still the same old thing.

I’m also in the “fight, war, car chase scenes are boring” club!

Not normally, but I do if I'm really into a book. I tend to skim overly descriptive stuff so that probably doesn't help.

If there is nothing but description, I get bored. I have easily read long historical fiction and fantasy books, but I could not get beyond about page 30 of Pilgrim at Tinker Creek. Pages and pages just describing a tree! Maybe if I knew and appreciated the natural world more, I would have been enjoyed it more.

Oh yea - full on movie in my head. Honestly, I didn't realize some people don't see pictures in their head until only about two years ago. I had no idea, and it feels so strange to me because my brain creates incredibly vivid pictures. Nothing on screen can ever compare to what my brain creates from the story. :)

visualising is important to me but it's not at all like watching a movie in my head. I don't understand how lots of readers dismiss films as lesser when they're a different form of art with their own techniques and strengths. They're not just a moving image.

For me I don't tend to see what the author doesn't mention e.g. characters often don't have a defined face but I'll have a general impression of them in regards their age or whatever. It's combined with other senses like Kaltra smelling flowers. I enjoy feeling the damp setting or how the scene gets dark but feel restricted by too much or too precise description.

Definitely agree with Tracy in wanting to place things in a direction. And with everyone who doesn't like detailed fight scenes. This is directly connected to visualisation in that I need to position a character's fist to the left of the other's chin and then they lean to a particular angle etc. which gets tiring. That kind of writing doesn't enhance the story for me, neither is it usually beautiful to enjoy the words. Interestingly I'm the same with films and tire of fight scenes fairly quickly.

The article interested me in how snobby the author was and how eager in trying to tell others how words should be read. Words are never just words, when they're put into a piece of writing they have a purpose. Even with that purpose the reader has a great deal of freedom into how they interpret and understand things. The handful of people in the thread so far experience reading very differently and I find that fascinating.

Now, what I have problem with is my internal voice. Does anyone else struggle with the limitations of their own accent etc.? My voice is female, English, and middle-class so it does sometimes get in the way when reading a range of books, and is maybe why I find British and American characters easiest as I'm most familiar with their accents.

Sorry I wrote so much. Have been thinking about this question all day.

I visualise everything, and I even get audio too. But that means I get board with overly descriptive writing - I already know what it looks like, I don't need it to be described to me. So I just skim those paragraphs, which can lead me to see things very differently than they're described. But I figure it doesn't really matter that much, so unless it matters to the plot, I keep my version of what it looks like. And the 'voices' of characters are mostly based off me and people I know, but if I'm reading a celeb memoir I'll hear their voice (provided I'm familiar with it)

I'm very much a visualizer. In fact, I try to represent the images in my head exactly as the author describes (unless they go overboard on the details, in which case I'll plead artistic freedom).

When a book is adapted for television or the movies, I'm always amazed to see how different my representations are from others.

Rosalind wrote: "visualising is important to me but it's not at all like watching a movie in my head. I don't understand how lots of readers dismiss films as lesser when they're a different form of art with their o..."

Great answer, not too long at all. I think the author was defensive because so many people told her that she was missing out or handicapped with her method. I think that's why she was so insistent. I also didn't realize this was a thing until a couple of years ago.

I generally have vague pictures of the characters but if there is a movie or a new cover, I often think it looks wrong.

As far as voice, that's also a reason I love audio for certain things. For a book where accents are important, like The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, the narrator really establishes the tone and locale. The same for Demon Copperhead and James. And I laugh out loud way more often at audiobooks than at print books. I'm just not that funny in my own head.

On the other hand, for nonfiction, I very rarely use audio. There's no performance aspect and it just seems dragged out. There's not much to visualize, there are often recaps which I would skim in print. (There are some nonfiction books that read like fiction, such as The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, and those are great on audio).

Robin, I am the opposite with non-fiction. I would rather listen to it than read it unless it is heavy with equations or something similar.

I am a voracious reader. When my husband told me he did not see pictures in his head when he reads, it made more sense to me that reading was not as interesting to him. I wonder if it is more work to read without those visualizations.

I also visualise. Years after I read the book, I remember my images and the feeling it gave me way more than I remember the actual story.

It drives me crazy when I can’t visualise something in a book because I don’t know much about it. A few years ago I read Pavilion of Women which took place in a traditional Chinese courtyard house. I googled many hours long until I had an idea how these houses were looking. Only then, when I had the imagery in my head, could I continue reading.

This afternoon my husband and I visited another couple. The husband tried to tell a joke and his wife kept correcting him because he had things in the wrong order or with the wrong words. Because I had told my husband about this conversation he asked his friend, "When you tell the joke or hear one, do you see pictures of it in your head?" and he said No. So it was harder for him to put the events of the joke in order, while the rest of us saw the action in our heads. He said he doesn't visualize when reading either. This wasn't a problem in his scientific career, maybe because many texts are more abstract.

Robin - Thank you for sharing the joke story. That’s a thing - that people visualize jokes?! I’ll have to ask my husband about that because he is a joke teller. When I told him that I’m not able to visualize, he was surprised and asked how I survive. I told him that you don’t really miss something that you never had! I do wonder if there’s a way to develop the ability and what causes it. Hopefully, there will be more research on the topic.

Yes, I definitely visualize what I'm reading. I only recently (like in the last couple of years) learned that people don't.

I don't usually like to listen to nonfiction, but it doesn't have to do with visualizing. I can visualize while reading print or listening. I'm not sure why I prefer to read it over listen to it.

Pam wrote: "Robin - Thank you for sharing the joke story. That’s a thing - that people visualize jokes?! I’ll have to ask my husband about that because he is a joke teller. When I told him that I’m not able to..."

Yes, absolutely, when I hear "a guy walks into a bar", I see that scene in my head.

Yes, I had a conversation about this with my youngest son once. (Both my son's are adults and none of them read.) He doesn't like reading books at all. We started to read a book together some years ago, I wanted (I always do!!!) to help him experience the joy of reading. He found the book utterly boring from the beginning.

I asked him if he didn't view in front of him the corn field, the yellow colour shining in the sunlight, how the guys sneaked around inside it and he just said no. Until then I hadn't figured that maybe not everyone visualises what they read. I've always done that. I find it so strange to capture that the pictures, the movie does not start running inside of you the very minute you start reading.

Fee wrote: "I also visualise. Years after I read the book, I remember my images and the feeling it gave me way more than I remember the actual story.

It drives me crazy when I can’t visualise something in a b..."

Fee, I loved that book!

I visualize most fiction books. If they become movies then I like to compare my version to what the director envisioned. One of my biggest disappointments was The Bridges of Madison County. That movie should have been Robert Redford and Susan Sarandon, instead of Clint Eastwood and Meryl Streep.

If the writer is very descriptive in his or her writing, yes. Sometimes I can perceive that a book would make a good movie seeing it as a film running in my mind.

I don't think I'm aware of what is going on in my head when I read. I don't see pictures or movies. I might 'hear' the words in my head, but its more like absorbing 'knowledge' or plot points intellectually. It doesn't matter if it is fiction or non-fiction, its all the same.

I visualize. I can even recall the visualizations I have had from books that I have read if I need to remember something from a book or if I am bored. Interestingly enough, it's why I do not like audiobooks - I can't visualize the story and I don't like someone else's voice in my head. I only do non-fiction in audiobooks because I do less visualization with that genre. It's also why I do not like watching TV or movie adaptations that much.

Jette - You described exactly my experience.

I visualise. I'm the same as Tracy and others as to direction, placement of things etc in the setting. I like reading description, especially of outdoors, I just don't know how close I am to the author's vision of the scene! I visualise the setting and if the author contradicts that later, I've tried to change my vision, but my brain won't, so I just say Nope, and carry on with my own LOL. I seem to have a vague image of the characters' faces, although I see expressions, and I definitely don't cast actors as the characters. I do have a film running in my head, and it has happened that some years after reading a book I think that I saw a movie on it, even if there wasn't one!
Very interesting topic this.
Editing to add that this is clearly why I struggle with scifi and fantasy - I could not imagine the sand worms in Dune until I saw the movie. And when I tried to read A Long Way to a ? Planet, the characters were all people, not creatures. That I find a pity.

I haven't given this question a lot of thought over my life, but now that I have read this thread...yes, I visualize. At least, I think I must. I know how the setting looks when I am into a book. And, if I see it later as a movie or TV show, I am aware that the director had a different vision in those areas that don't match up in my head.

But, what I do mostly with characters that I identify with is less visualization and more assuming the attitude, manner, or parts of the personality so much so that if called away from my book suddenly, I might find myself initially responding in a manner not my own! This happened a lot as a child.

Yes, very much so. It's like a movie in my head. it's weird to try to explain it because it's something that just automatically happens. I didn't think I'd be as interested as I am in books and reading if I didn't have the mental visualization.

Fascinating discussion. I definitely visualize, and I think it helps me remember the books I've read, even years later.