Yesterday, I did something I haven't done for ages -- I sat and read a book the whole way through. The book was Up the Down Staircase, which I needed to read for my www.visualthesaurus.com article, going up next week. I certainly didn't have to sit and read it in one day, but there wasn't anything else to do. I was at school, I had accomplished my work for the day (nay, for the year), there were no students around, no one on faculty seemed to need my help, and, so, I read. Just kept my nose down and kept going.
Overall, I'm not a big fan of the read-it-through-in-one-big-go technique, because I think you miss a lot that way. But this was my second time through on this novel, and I found whole sections that I had no recollection of, so I'd have to say I read it more carefully, if quickly, this time than I did when I last read it, presumably more slowly.
The last book I read in one complete go was Alice Walker's The Color Purple, about 5 years ago. I had in on the train home from Johnstown back to New York, and I just kept reading. I remember, I would put it down, think about switching to knitting or listening to music, and then I'd just snatch it back up and keep reading. I just wanted to be in that world.
I'm writing a novel now, and that's the feeling I want my readers to have -- of being a part of world that isn't theirs, but, since they are with the narrator, they belong. That's a good goal to keep in mind, actually. I think more writers should think about their readers, and less about what important things they want to say.
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