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A place for the educated exchange of information about books, reading, writing, and more. Format: title "Title of book" by Author. The post is the synopsis from the back of the book. Your comments are your feelings on the book, author, writing style, etc. Your comments are where you make your connections to the book and talk about what the book means to you and WHY!
Lately????
ReplyDeleteIn Mossflower, a book by Brian Jacques, the last thing that I visualized was: “The lakeshore rang to the sounds of late evening merriment. Colored lanterns were hanging from the trees, reflecting a mass of orange, pink, blue, and gold lights upon the calm waters. Stars twinkled above, woodlanders danced below, garlands of flowers were strewn everywhere and delicious smells came from the great fires at the lake margin.”
ReplyDeleteI just pictured a grand celebration.
The quote from Mossflower immediately drew me into the story. However,I am finding that as I read War and Peace I often have to stop and reread a paragraph so that I can use the visualization strategy to be an active reader. The story is dense and takes time to read, but oh so far, what an awesome story!
ReplyDeleteI often find while reading War and Peace, if I read quickly I can visualize better then if I try to parse the story out. Could it be that when I read quickly I am able to invent the scene myself, where as if I try to get to specific when reading the book, especial the translation, I am bogged down with the "extra" stuff? I think the answer is yes. However, if I were reading a text book with technical information, or another thing in which specific details were of import, I would not read this way.
ReplyDeleteThis leads to the idea: What are you reading for? Which would be interesting, but not entirely on topic.
Purpose for reading is one of those "Study Skills" things! There are indeed many different ways to read!
ReplyDeleteI have been reading War and Peace as well and I find that I am struggling to visualize the first scene of the book. I attribute my difficult to all the new information I need to process as I enter this vast work of Tolstoy. I have done some background reading in order to prepare myself for reading this book, and despite all this previewing, I still am somewhat flooded by all the new information. I know Orion has also done some background reading as well. Reading the book’s introduction and on-line biographies about Tolstoy, may or may not help the reader to visualize any easier from the onset of page one. So for me, what is causing the problem? I believe the answer is as simple as starting a new book, but also acknowledging that War and Peace is no ordinary book. It is a renowned great work. At the beginning of this tome the reader is introduced to a new culture, time period, and a list of complicated characters. May we not forget the translation as well? Hopefully as the journey into the world becomes more exciting, the reading strategy of visualization will occur more naturally.
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