I really rely a lot more on memory. I'm definitely not as good of a sight reader.
I spent many years in grad school in English, so I've read a lot in a variety of genres. But adventure fantasy is my bread and butter as a reader, and probably always will be. So it's only natural that I came to that genre as a writer.
I've been a compulsive reader for as long as I can remember.
It is no use describing a house; the reader will fix the scene in some spot he knows himself.
I've been an inveterate reader of literary magazines since I was a teenager. There are always discoveries. You're sitting in your easy chair, reading; you realize you've read a story or a group of poems four times, and you know, Yes, I want to go farther with this writer.
The best headlines are those that appeal to the reader's self-interest, that is, headlines based on reader benefits. They offer readers something they want - and get from you.
I learned not to care. . . and to write for an imaginary reader whose tastes were similar to my own.
Each reader needs to bring his or her own mind and heart to the text.
They'll remember you if you're the best reader in class-or if you throw up at lunch.
Common Reader for Everyday Ecologists
The best writing is not about the writer, the best writing is absolutely not about the writer, it's about us, it's about the reader.
When a reader finishes a wonderful story and lays it aside, he should have to pause for a minute and collect himself.
Reading is, at its best, not an escape; it is genuine experience. A novel is not a monologue, but a conversation, a collaboration between writer and reader, an invaluable exchange of human conditions.
It would be an instructive exercise for the skeptical reader to try to frame a definition of taxation which does not also include theft. Like the robber, the State demands money at the equivalent of gunpoint; if the taxpayer refuses to pay, his assets are seized by force, and if he should resist such depredation, he will be arrested or shot if he should continue to resist.
Tis the good reader that makes the good book.
In a sense I am able to interrogate myself, address myself from that slight distance and enter a kind of dialogical relationship with myself. Because I'm saying, "Look, these are things that have happened to me, but how odd they are or how ordinary they are [is up to the reader to decide]. "
I happen to think that a book is of extraordinary value if it gives the reader nothing more than a smile or two. It's perfectly okay to take a book, read it, have a good time, giggle and laugh - and turn off the TV. I love that.
Many books owe their success to the good memories of their authors and the bad memories of their readers.
Writers think in metaphors. Editors work in metaphors. A great reader reads in metaphors.
It never seems to occur to anyone that each reader is different, and that even those who might be said to resemble each other will each bring an individual set of experiences and references to their reading, and interpret and misinterpret it according to these.