June 26, 2008

BTT: Definition

Booking Through Thursday comes through to help my writer's block:


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?


Well, even those of us who read "anything" do discriminate somewhat. I don't like westerns or mysteries, but will make an occaisional exception based on a friend's recommendation. I do think the definition is broad enough to include lots of things: websites, comic books, manga, etc. Of course, when an authors says "Faithful reader" in the text, they mean you - the person reading it. So in that sense it can be specific. But I think of it as broader - any text counts.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I agree on the exclusions, but wouldn't tell a manga nut he's not a reader. I personally run screaming from the romance sections, and I'm not big on the Louis L'Amours. I do, however, enjoy Zane Gray, who does write westerns (I read Riders on the Purple Sage when I was a teen.).

SmilingSally said...

We all have preferences, even though in desperate times, we will "read anything."