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In Praise of Skipping Through Books

20/9/2016

2 Comments

 
Listening to a podcast where three people compared thoughts on Dickens’ Great Expectations and Woolf’s To the Lighthouse, a point arose by a woman that TTL was hard and slow to read. GE was by contrast felt to be a broad sweep of canvas and written in vivid scenes which were easy to read.

Dickens will convince readers to read Dickens, was the message from the book’s advocate. She added that if new readers felt the need they could skip through slow parts to get to the action. Books shouldn't be hard work, she advised. They are entertainment and shouldn't be viewed with such reverence that one must studiously read every single word.

I'm guilty of skipping through books if confronted with a big wedge of narrative with no paragraph breaks or dialogue. My eyes search frantically for the next break. My brain scans for the next person saying something which, unlike a narrative section, is always something happening.

How do you feel about skipping in books? OK or must you read every single word?

Maybe I’ll revisit Great Expectations, because the last time I read it was for GCSE English, and then I may have skipped the odd scene.


2 Comments
Becky Black link
20/9/2016 10:53:18 pm

There are some books I only got through with some judicious skimming and outright skipping.

Like Lord of the Rings.Oh, a song in Quenya, eh? Moving swiftly on... Hello and goodbye, Tom Bombadil,

War and Peace and Tom Jones also have bits where the author is basically lecturing us that can be skipped past to get on with the actual story.

Don't even get me started on Thomas Hardy. I did on of his books at A-Level and still skipped bits of it. (Since I couldn't skip reading the entire book, always my preference with Hardy.)

Reply
Liam Livings
21/9/2016 10:14:24 am

I would happily skip through the whole of Thomas Hardy! In fact, I skipped a bit too enthusiastically when studying it a A level English and I missed a very key scene that everyone else was discussing the next day in class.

Reply



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    Liam Livings

    Gay romance & gay fiction author

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