Have you read the WIRED profile on Brandon Sanderson?

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

I just don't bother with any pronouncing. Why should I? I read a book, not sound it out in my head. I don't care how the names are pronounced.

Do you mean you vocalize silently when you read a book?

I mean to correctly read names and places. It happens mostly in SF or fantasy books.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

I mean to correctly read names and places. It happens mostly in SF or fantasy books.

Why is it important, unless you read aloud to someone else?

I don't know, the thought is completely alien to me. I don't pronounce any names I read to myself. Why would I care about their pronouncement? And what do you mean, "correctly read"? What's an incorrect reading? Do you subvocalize when you're reading? I've heard about people doing that.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

I fell asleep trying to read my one and only McKenna book. Her characters didn't rouse basically any emotions in me. Just not my cuppa. I've never tried anything else by her.

Yikes! I was excusing her, assuming Green Man's Heir was her first book! I stumbled across it because I was looking for a horror or fantasy story involving the Green Man.

(My dirty secret is that I couldn't get into the Harry Potter books. I was just bored to tears reading about those kids and their adventures, though I admit the general idea was pretty cool. The movies were more interesting, but I still DNFed after a few of them. There's no pleasing everyone).

Oh yeah. I read the first two Harry Potter novels and watched the first four or five movies. I wouldn't have watched that much, except it was a family thing.

Also, I have a problem with a hidden world of magic existing along side the normal world. Why would the wizards still live in castles and use gold? Why an essentially medieval existence just because you can cast spells? It breaks my suspension of disbelief. But I don't want to derail the conversation with that can of worms.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by Quoth

All the ideas in HP are copied.

And your point is...? I just don't really care for trying to drag down one author's work by accusing them of theft.

Harry Potter is not my bag. But I'd be happy with her reading the Harry Potter books. She did love Rowling's The Christmas Pig.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

One thing that makes a book take longer to read is when there are names you have to figure out how to pronounce and that includes place names.

Originally Posted by Sirtel

Do you mean you vocalize silently when you read a book?

I do. At least foreign character names and places, trying to imagine how they would sound when spoken aloud. Whenever Superman came up against Mr. Mxyzptlk I would have a rough time.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by Critteranne

Following the posts about the article, there has been a lot of discussion about literary authors versus authors with "invisible prose." Some of the debate has been fascinating, and some of it has consisted of "nyah nyah I'm better than you because I read Mervyn Peake."

I decided to wander off and read on a pile of mammoth skins in my Neanderthal cave.

Believe me. Over the years, I've read the hilarously bad book Creation Descending three or four times. I've read the sequels as well. I'm not in an ivory tower tut-tutting the Neanderthal Sanderson fans.

But there's invisible prose and the n there's prose that occasionally works on your nerves.

Those are two names I never though I'd see in the same sentence.

They are both performers who are either ignored or mocked by critics who nonetheless were wildly successful.

[rkomar]

I was a bit of a snob about Harry Potter and refused to read the books, but one summer I ran out of things to read visiting home and one of my brothers offered his complete Potter collection. It started out rough, but to her credit, Rowling kept improving as she wrote more books. By the last book, the writing was properly first class. Don't judge the entire series by the first couple of books. Like me, you might realize your preconceptions were wrong.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by rkomar

I was a bit of a snob about Harry Potter and refused to read the books, but one summer I ran out of things to read visiting home and one of my brothers offered his complete Potter collection. It started out rough, but to her credit, Rowling kept improving as she wrote more books. By the last book, the writing was properly first class. Don't judge the entire series by the first couple of books. Like me, you might realize your preconceptions were wrong.

Good to know, if ever I find myself with nothing else to read.

[ZodWallop]

BTW: I think there is an interesting conversation to be had about Mormons and fantasy.

I'm an atheist myself, but I have a good friend that is a Mormon and have gone to a couple of Mormon bookstores with her. That is a religion that is very supportive of fantasy.

They had tons of fantasy novels, kids fantasy novels that I would have actually read and the books didn't feel like the thinly disguised indoctrination that I remember religious kids books having when I was a kid.

The church I grew up in thought reading Magic Kingdom for Sale-Sold! was an invitation to Satan worship.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

I'm not in an ivory tower tut-tutting the Neanderthal Sanderson fans.

I really like your turn of phrase.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

BTW: I think there is an interesting conversation to be had about Mormons and fantasy.

I'm an atheist myself, but I have a good friend that is a Mormon and have gone to a couple of Mormon bookstores with her. That is a religion that is very supportive of fantasy.

They had tons of fantasy novels, kids fantasy novels that I would have actually read and the books didn't feel like the thinly disguised indoctrination that I remember religious kids books having when I was a kid.

The church I grew up in thought reading Magic Kingdom for sale-Sold! was an invitation to Satan worship.

I'm an agnostic. That is, I neither believe nor deny an existence beyond the material world. Perhaps there is something, perhaps not. As long as the books I read don't outright preach or try to indoctrinate me, I'm fine.

An interesting bit about fantasy-loving Mormons, yes.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

I do. At least foreign character names and places, trying to imagine how they would sound when spoken aloud. Whenever Superman came up against Mr. Mxyzptlk I would have a rough time.

Now I really almost fell off my sofa, laughing. I must stop reading any more of your hilarious posts, lest I injure myself.

Subvocalization is something I've never done, at least consciously (I read somewhere that basically all humans do it and it's impossible to not do it at all, even when you're not aware you're doing it).

[j.p.s]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

Also, I have a problem with a hidden world of magic existing along side the normal world. Why would the wizards still live in castles and use gold? Why an essentially medieval existence just because you can cast spells? It breaks my suspension of disbelief. But I don't want to derail the conversation with that can of worms.

I agree, but it's even harder for me to accept galactic empires ruled by hereditary monarchies and hand to hand combat with high tech swords.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by j.p.s

I agree, but it's even harder for me to accept galactic empires ruled by hereditary monarchies and hand to hand combat with high tech swords.

Well, yeah. But I don't really care for Star Wars either.

[haertig]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

Do you mean you vocalize silently when you read a book?

I certainly do, for names and locations. If I can't say it in my head - full stop. I re-read the word over and over until I can. This is probably why I don't read as much fantasy as I'd like. Some of the character names can throw me into an endless loop.