Saturday
Expectations
One of the best and worst things about reading is expectation. For instance, I think that most readers delve into whatever book or poem, anything, expecting to either walk away with a fulfilled mind or with nothing at all. When I am about to read a poem that I’ve read or that I know of, or that I’ve heard is good I go into it thinking I will read and then finish feeling inspired to think a different way, to write, or just leave with a new word that I like the sound of. When I read a novel I expect to lose myself in a story, I expect to escape reality. When I read something historical, autobiographical etc. I tend to expect that I will close the last page feeling smarter, like I’ve learned something about the world and those that have walked before me. When I read something from a new writer, I expect the unexpected. But all of the above I expect in PRINT.
There is something about words on a screen that lower my expectations. If I find a book/article/poem/piece that I’ve read before on print and then read it online I find it less engaging. I don’t know if it may because the certain romance of the page is gone, or if the light on the screen is too bright, or if it has to do with the fact that I may have read the piece before. I find my senses dulled. I find my mind in other places. Its even worse when it comes to the “new”. There are thousands of blogs and websites designed for new writers just like there are thousands of libraries and bookshops all over the world but there is something daunting, sickening almost about the high volume of material on those sites. I sit there trying to decide what I ought to click on. I think, I think. How good can any of these really be? Self publishing online takes away a bit of the drive, a bit of the competition of who is actually GOOD and who is GREAT. Then of course, there are the really awful mixed up in the batch as well. But that’s the thing, why bother? If my mind seems to be hardwired to think that I am going to bore myself to death with one bright screened page after the next. We need to be able to sift better, to find the things that meet our expectations like all of our favorite books once did.
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For many people, the act of reading a book is a greater experience than simply reading the text. It's the ability to sit someplace sunny and insert yourself into the characters' lives, including dress and props. It's the ability to give off a signal to everybody else in the real world that you are smart, you are busy, and you are mentally somewhere else. Or, it is the ability to quantify in your hands exactly how many pages you've read and how many more adventures are left in the story. I own a kindle. I've read some books electronically, but there is something special in a physical, ink-and-paper book. Just holding it in your hands makes it so much more real, like here is physical proof that somebody had a good idea and worked hard to make it 200+ plus pages for people like me to read.
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