Now, as an adult, I open a good novel at my family's and my to-do list's risk. I will disappear into the world of the book. My kids call it "Scorpio-ing." (I'm a Scorpio, and that sign is noted for its powers of concentration.) My youngest son has been known to jump up and down in front of his book-immersed mother, flapping his arms, to demonstrate to visiting friends how weird I am--though he and his sister inherited that ability to be swept up in an enthralling novel's world.
That ability to live within the story I'm reading has served me well, though. It brought me whole, if scarred, from the kind of childhood that routinely tosses people into drug addiction, crime, mental illness, and suicide. It turned me into a writer at a young age. It allows me to experience my own stories while I'm spinning them in that same real way.
I enjoy movies, as well, but I have to say, no movie has ever given me that same total immersion into a different reality that a book does.I think that's because watching movies and television is passive while reading a book is active, drawing your whole brain into a co-creation of the world and people of the book. My oldest son can't do this. He's totally a movie person. His brain is wired a different way, very analytical, a whizz at math and computers where he makes much more money than all of the rest of us combined. So I know this isn't a given for everyone. I think it's a function of the type of imagination we are born with. 
When I have had injuries and illnesses involving great pain and discomfort, reading novels has sometimes been the only way for me to gain some relief. For the hours I am caught up in the book's world and away from the pain troubling my body. I am living elsewhere and involved with other things. Mysteries and fantasy novels have helped me get through miserable nights when no medicine that I could take would do it for me and the equally great pain of grief. The Lord of the Rings movies are wonderful, and I love them, but they don't take me out of myself in the same way as the original books do.What about you? When you want to wander in a new story's world or seek relief from emotional or physical stress, do you turn to movies or to books? When you read your books, do you become completely involved in the story's world?
P.S. I'd like to thank Warren Bull for introducing me to Writers Who Kill and all the bloggers on here for inviting me to join them.
Welcome to WWK, Linda. Sounds as if you used reading to escape reality as a child. As a "crutch" it is a great one because it enabled you to see that all the world wasn't nasty. I, too, find myself reading more when times aren't great and skies are gray.
ReplyDeleteMovies are rarely as good or better than the books, i.e., Snow Falling on Cedar.
I find books more absorbing than movies. When I was a kid, novels taught me about those strange people called adults, about their motives and wishes. If I'm surrounded by a crowd of strangers on a plane or in hospital, then I find emersing myself in a book more difficult and I'll check out a movie or documentary or the animal channel.
ReplyDeleteHi, Linda,
ReplyDeleteWelcome! I san crawl into a book and lose myself for hours.
I'm a bookworm, too. I can't imagine a world without books. I so remember being told to get my nose out of my book and do the dishes. Still, I was fortunate in having parents, who loved to read, and passed that love down to me and my five siblings.
ReplyDeleteA little over 20 years ago, I bought an old house, and for the first time I was living on my own. I turned one of the front rooms into a library with shelves stretching from floor almost up to the ceiling. I feel so comforted being surrounded by books I've read and enjoyed or books still to be read.
Movies are okay, but not as good as books. TV? I rarely watch it except for Masterpiece Theater or Masterpiece Mystery.
Thanks for the welcome E.B., Pauline, and Warren.
ReplyDeleteYes, E.B., reading has helped me through many less-than-good times. But even when times ar great, there is little comfort like curling up with a book that draws you into a new world.
I have a TBR list that goes on forever with so many good books coming out, but I also love to reread really good books I've enjoyed before.
Gloria, I love what you did to your house! We have bookcases in every room of the house, as well as halls and hanging on door backs. When repairmen come to our house, they look around as they walk and say, "Golly, do you read all these books? What on earth do you want all these books for?"