Monday, May 20, 2013

Do people read differently today?




Over at The Guardian, there’s a discussion going on about whether or not people read differently today, thanks to such things as TV mini-series.
Mohsin Hamid says readers nowadays expect details and description to be compressed from an epic eight hundred pages into about two hundred pages.
A commenter points out that many “famous” long books, began life as a serial story in a newspaper. In fact, they were originally written in bite-size chunks so today’s readers haven’t changed all that much.
I still like to read long novels for the wealth of characters and detail they offer, but I must confess mostly I read shorter books simply because of the time factor. Long books for me are for vacations. Shorter books are for everyday life.
What do you think?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2013/apr/08/reading-21st-century-mohsin-hamid-fiction

Helen Woodall
helen.woodall@gmail.com

Helen is available to line edit and/ or content edit fiction and non-fiction. Rates on application.

4 comments:

anny cook said...

I read very, very fast so a shortie is a lunch read... :-)

Helen Woodall: Freelance Editing said...

That's the beauty of an e-reader. You can have half a dozen books on it then if you get left waiting in line and finish that short book there's always another to read.
Helen

Anonymous said...

Another fast reader here. For me, a 'long' book is one that's likely to put my back out if I carry it around with me (in paper copy, that is!).

Thanks for another great post!

Deborah

Helen Woodall: Freelance Editing said...

Ah yes Deborah. Those are the kind of books I like to take on airplane trips. Nothing is worse than finishing your book with several hours of the flight still to go.
Helen