Booking It
I haven't done one of these in ages, but I've got a minute today and the question is just too good to resist. I've been noodling around with a question similar to this as I prepare for the upcoming school year.
What, in your opinion, is the definition of a “reader.” A person who indiscriminately reads everything in sight? A person who reads BOOKS? A person who reads, period, no matter what it is? … Or, more specific? Like the specific person who’s reading something you wrote?
To me, a reader is defined not by what they read, but by the attitude they bring to the world around them. At some point I realized that I read everything: cereal boxes, newspapers, books, movies, television shows, commercials, conversations, body language. Any form of human (or, as I'm learning now that I live with 3 cats, animal) communication can be read if you attend to that communication as readable. The reading attitude questions, examines, explores, and discriminates. Readers are open to possibilities and seek to understand. Readers consume communicative events.
Like I said--noodling. I'm curious to see what others have to say about it. Thanks, Deb, for such a provocative question!
Comments
Interesting take on the question including body language in it as well as print. I took a more literal "bookish" view on it.
Posted by: The Kool-Aid Mom | June 26, 2008 12:43 PM
Right, readers are actively engaged; they are thinkers!
Posted by: Sally | June 26, 2008 02:14 PM
I'm with you, Anita: I read everything, even my TV (you know, captions). But not completely indiscriminate, as I'm not afraid to stop reading something that's wasting my time (keeping me from reading something better!)
Posted by: karen p. | July 1, 2008 02:01 PM