{"id":1568,"date":"2018-02-17T19:28:57","date_gmt":"2018-02-17T19:28:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.overbrookpublishing.com\/BackStory\/?p=1568"},"modified":"2018-05-14T02:45:05","modified_gmt":"2018-05-14T02:45:05","slug":"review-what-we-see-when-we-read","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rosadeberryking.com\/BackStory\/review-what-we-see-when-we-read\/","title":{"rendered":"Book Review: What We See When We Read"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"What<\/a>What We See When We Read<\/a> by Peter Mendelsund<\/a>
\nMy rating: 4 of 5 stars<\/a><\/p>\n

The cover caught my eye first while I was browsing in the bookstore. Not surprisingly, I later learned that the author, Peter Mendelsund, is an award-winning cover designer. His book stood out from the surrounding piles of others for its simplicity. The cover is matte black with two lines of serif text top and bottom that frame a gold foil icon of a keyhole at its center. Of course, I wanted to know what was on the other side of the keyhole; in this case, the contents of the book.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s unlike any book I\u2019ve read before in that almost every other page is illustrated. I found this both interesting and distracting, if not overwhelming at times. However, the points Mendelsund makes are equally interesting and original for their insight. In one chapter about the co-creative process of reading, he states, \u201cThese images we \u2018see\u2019 when we read are personal: what we do not see is what the author pictured when writing a particular book. That is to say: Every narrative is meant to be transposed; imaginatively translated. Associatively translated. It is ours.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mendelsund\u2019s examples from classic books are well chosen, among them Tolstoy\u2019s Anna Karenina. Several decades after having read Anna Karenina, I still remember what she looks like. However, through the author\u2019s careful analysis, I realize that my representation of Anna is based on how I characterized her in my mind, how I have imaginatively constructed her, rather than the scant details given of her physical appearance.<\/p>\n

The author delves beyond the concrete when he compares reading to listening to music. \u201cIf we don\u2019t have pictures in our minds when we read, then it is the interaction of ideas\u2014the intermingling of abstract relationships\u2014that catalyzes feeling in us readers. [\u2026] This relational, nonrepresentational calculus is where some of the deepest beauty in art is found. Not in mental pictures of things, but in the play of elements\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

This book offers much to consider when we think about how we read. I\u2019ve come away with a new awareness that will help me in my future writing, as well. I recommend this book for anyone interested in how we see what we read, and how what we write impacts our readers.<\/p>\n

View all my reviews<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What We See When We Read by Peter Mendelsund My rating: 4 of 5 stars The cover caught my eye first while I was browsing in the bookstore. Not surprisingly, I later learned that the author, Peter Mendelsund, is an … Continued<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1570,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[130,126,150,156],"tags":[157,158],"class_list":["post-1568","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-about-art","category-about-writing","category-book-reviews","category-peter-mendelsund","tag-visual","tag-writing"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/rosadeberryking.com\/BackStory\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/young-girl-reading-e1518895626986.jpg?fit=1648%2C1123&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rosadeberryking.com\/BackStory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1568","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rosadeberryking.com\/BackStory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rosadeberryking.com\/BackStory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rosadeberryking.com\/BackStory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rosadeberryking.com\/BackStory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1568"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/rosadeberryking.com\/BackStory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1568\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1577,"href":"https:\/\/rosadeberryking.com\/BackStory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1568\/revisions\/1577"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rosadeberryking.com\/BackStory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1570"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rosadeberryking.com\/BackStory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1568"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rosadeberryking.com\/BackStory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1568"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rosadeberryking.com\/BackStory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1568"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}