Why I like reading

Why I like reading

As per my last post, I explained my obsession with music. Today I thought I would delve into the world of the written. I have always enjoyed reading, but over the last few years I have moved away from it because of all the other hobbies, work, and study that I started doing. Now that I’m no longer studying, I have spare time in the evenings and on the weekends. This means that I can get back into some of the things that I was doing previously.

This has allowed me to get back into reading, which is quite good. I found that usually at night I start watching DVDs to fall asleep and now I find that I’m doing it all the time. I find it easier to get my brain to switch off if I am watching that if I am reading because watching doesn’t require you to think, you just view. When reading, you have to think about what is going on which means your brain continues to process and it never shuts down.

I enjoy reading due to three separate reasons. Firstly, authors are able to create characters that become people you know. Even though fictional, good writers can make them almost seem real and to the point where you can remember their past history within the story. If a certain situation arises in the story, you can almost picture how the character will react. You want to know how they are doing, what is going on in their lives and what is going to happen. If these aren’t happening for you then you aren’t connecting with the characters when reading the story.

The next thing I find interesting is the environment. Good authors are able to describe the scene so that the reader can picture what they are trying to paint. What I find interesting is how differently authors go about describing the scene. Some like to delicately describe every scene to the very finest detail, whereas others take a very minimalistic approach to scene construction. I like it when the author gives you a bit of detail, but not too much, just the important parts. This means you can use your imagination to fill in the rest with what your brain decides should be in the scene. Very interesting when the author then feeds you another slight piece of information and how it then changes the scene that you could see in your head or that you are easily able to amend that information into the scene you have already created. The ability to activate your imagination is a strong reason as to why I enjoy reading.

The final reason that I enjoy reading is the plot. In the beginning, you are given a small snippet of information which forms the basis of the story. Slowly as you progress, you are given more and more pieces of information that begin to come together like a snowball rolling down a powdered slope. It continues to roll, picking up pace until it hits a rock. Now, depending on how well you have been following the story, the pieces that have come together will shatter into hundreds of pieces and it will take you a while to piece them back together. The other possibility is that you see a slight or pronounced shift in the direction of the story and you roll with it. It can eventually steer back on course or end up in a completely different location. This introduces feeling when reading – such as suspense and mystery. The need for a strong plot is required to keep the story entertaining and enjoyable.

So from those points, the story needs to have an imaginative plot that allows me to connect to the characters and envisage the scene. Will keep these points in mind when I get onto writing my own.

Submeg

writing