Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Have you ever read a book and then...

Every time I talk to my friends about reading they say its boring, just reading words and trying to think what it means. But every time I read a book its like a movie in my head. When I read i don't see pages or words or anything happening outside my little movie. I have always wondered if anyone else read that way and if its just how all people read, like the human mind just does that automatically.

I'm new here, and is every person here a parent or something?

Welcome, no I don't think everyone here is a parent, and also most of those were young once too!

Yes my brain does the little movie, too, I wouldn't have it any other way. My ds9 recently read the Percy Jackson books and he said it was like watching a movie AND playing a video game at the same time! (So anyway, he liked the books!)

I am not sure all people do that movie in the head thing, that might be a visual-spatial tendency.

I have had people tell me books like 'Pride and Prejudice' are boring, and I just do NOT know what to say. When asked if I've read anything good lately I usually have a few things to say because I'm reading at least a couple books at once...maybe not when the kids were first born, but I am getting back to my old habits, which I very much enjoy.
My dh is the same way, many books, some books over and over. Don't worry that reading isn't 'cool' or interesting, you will eventually find folks who love books, reading and discussing books ...hopefully sooner rather than later!

Welcome!

I also "live" the book while I am reading. I am a parent now but I have read this way since I was a kid. I used to walk to school reading a book! I don't see, hear or think about anything else while I am reading. If it is a really good book I think a bomb could go off next to me and I wouldn't notice.
Read on!

Hmmm doesn't everyone do this? No?

Books make much more of an impact than movies to me. For example I saw the first Harry Potter movie before I read the books and when I read the books I do NOT see all the characters in my head as the movie actors. I actually don't read a lot fiction right now because, I can't just start a book and then put it down. I have to read the whole thing. Kind of makes things difficult with a 4yo. That is why I am a non-fiction girl right now.

Also, you should learn to knit and find some knitting friends. For some reason all my knitting friends are also in love with books.

Yes, it is like living in a movie for me, and yes I'm the parent of a gifted child (giftedness is highly hereditary)
Part of why I spend time here is that I'm motivated to be the kind of parent that I needed when I was a gifted kid.
As you can see from the banner above, this forum was specifically set up for issues of parents of gifted kids trying to deal with their educational issues, but we welcome everyone of every age!

If you are looking for internet forums for gifted kids, scroll down this page:

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Enjoy,
Grinity

I don't really think in images. But words convey an awful lot more than images do. Yes, books are generally more vivid than movies for me. And I am often disappointed when I see a movie and it doesn't (and how could it?) match up to the book.

I live books...it is great. When I was a kid I would remember books I had read for a long time by "the movie" they made in my head. I still do I guess but I think I used it more when I was little to make connections. I also remember where in the book things happened because I am able to visualize it so easily. So I have freaked a lot of people out by turning right to the page. In high school I used it to memorize chalkboards. I could see where all the words were and when the teacher drew diagrams and explained how things worked I could make them come alive in my head. And despite what people say I actually learned a lot of fact from television. I am guessing that since the visual part of it is taken care of on television my mind doesn't wander as much as when I am reading a book so I focus on fact. I do prefer to read. I can already see this is my daughter. She is 4. She has had more nightmares from books and her own life experiences than movies and she has watched some fairly scary movies for a 4yr old. I think this is probably what allows my daughter and me to be so creative. When someone says a word I can usually pull up several images in my head and most of them are images I made up from descriptions in books.

Hi, Skycil, welcome! I am a parent, and I think there is NOTHING in the world that is more interesting than a good book! And I have felt that way since about 1st grade... I always consider people who don't like to read to be rather unfortunate. So you are one of the lucky ones!

Both my daughters love to read also, and over the years have gravitated to friends who like books. A couple of months ago after a formal school dance my youngest had 3 friends for a sleepover. It got verryyy quiet when they went up to change clothes, and I thought maybe they fell asleep. I went up to check, and all four were sitting in her room reading to themselves! So keep an eye out for some new friends who like to read; they might be kind of the quiet kids, so you will need to watch for them.

My 11 year old son and I were talking about the "mind's eye" and the ability to visualize while reading or just remembering past events after reading an article in a magazine about a man who suddenly lost the ability to visualize. We told my husband, who also reads a lot, about the article and he said that he cannot see things in his mind's eye either. I can't imagine not being able to do this. I love being able to replay books and movies in my head and mentally rehearse things by playing things out in my mind's eye.

My son says he not only enjoys seeing things in his mind's eye but also listening to things in his "mind's ear." He says for him, this doesn't work as well as his mind's eye because his mind's ear keeps repeating the same parts of the new song he just heard or sometimes it won't turn off sometimes when he wants it to.

My son has the same problem with friends not being that interested in reading. Only one of them, 4 years older, shares his love of reading. So we often read and discuss books together and I really enjoy doing this with him.

What a great question to explore! My DD and I have had a similar conversation when we've encountered questions like, "do you think in pictures or words". She would say she thinks in pictures, I would say I think in words. However, we are both avid readers who quickly become lost in our books and re-read favorites to revisit old friends--and by that I mean the actual characters as much as I mean the books . I would say that we both experience the books as if we are a part of the book. My guess is DD could draw pictures of the characters from the pictures she thinks in, whereas I could not. I must "see" it as I'm reading it in order to feel I'm living it, but whatever visual images I form don't remain with me afterwards. Does that make sense? I'm definitely not spatial, whereas she might be. My hypothesis would be that auditory/verbal/visual/spatial factors don't determine the ability to become lost in a book, but probably do encode the information/experience differently for us in terms of what we experience when we *remember* a book.

I've seen students hang on every word of a read aloud despite being disinterested independent readers. Not sure where that figures into the whole question.....