June 17, 2016 
Amy Bishop 
My preferred activity as a kid was sitting somewhere (I always hoped for inside and air-conditioned during the summer) with my library bag stuffed with ten to fifteen new library books, and reading the day away. I would zip from one universe to another, skip centuries back in time, advance a few thousand light years in the future, face down a dragon or learn new magic words, be embroiled in the Civil War or Elizabethan England…the possibilities were endless. Changing worlds was as effortless as changing from wakefulness to dreams.
Given this, it’s unsurprising that this article from The New York Times piqued my interest. Two writers (Francine Prose and Benjamin Moser) ask whether or not it’s harder for readers to be transported by a book as they get older. Prose argues that children’s bigger imaginations and willingness to suspend disbelief allow them to become more wholly immersed in a book. Adults are more likely to analyze, cross-reference, and compare people and events in a book to things they’ve experienced. Moser says he discovered that he wanted to read the same books again and again, since, “the deeper you go into your own writing, the harder it becomes to enter someone else’s.”
Now of course, neither Prose or Moser’s points are true for everyone. Prose admits that some books still have the ability to totally immerse her in their reading experience and plenty of writers find new inspiration and motivation from reading other people’s work. Reflecting on my own reading trends, I realize that maybe I’m choosing a different kind of immersion as I’ve gotten older. I used to devour everything fantasy & sci-fi as a kid—I loved escaping to other (more exciting) worlds that had the possibility of magic glimmering at every turn. Now, I’m more interested in commercial fiction, “women’s” fiction, and more contemporary fiction, perhaps as a reflection of my own life. I’m turning to these genres for answers, other experiences and perspectives, and identification in my own life. It’s a different kind of immersion. (And I still love sitting down on a weekend and turning my attention to the stack of two or three library books I’ve checked out.)
What do you think? Can you mark a noticeable difference in your reading experience as a child and an adult? Do you think writing helps or hurts your reading?
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When I was 10, I read all the Hardy Boy books and would have hated The Fault in Our Stars. Now, I love Fault and have only gone back to the Hardy Boys once for the novelty of revisiting it. Our tastes change as we grow because we have more life experiences. Reading about love and dying at 10 is just not the same as it is at 40. At 10, I pretty much wanted to identify with 10 yo or teen protagonists. Now, I can identify with protagonists of any age. So, I think the older we get, the more we potentially get out of novels, and the wider we can read.
Writing definitely helps my reading. In any profession, you distinguish things others not in your profession don’t. A doctor looks at an Xray and distinguishes things that just look like blobs to me. As an author, I’m able to distinguish things, such as metaphor, symbolism, word choices, character techniques that non-authors typically don’t.
In the end, it’s about falling in love with the characters and their worlds. Our imaginations are amazing.
Good point! Of course our reading tastes change considerably, as we gain life experiences, but I do wonder if our level of immersion changes as we get older.
I can\’t remember my level of absorption into fictional worlds of early childhood. As adults, are we each attracted to a preferred historical period? In teen years and as an adult I\’ve always been transported to Sherlock Holmes\’ London and mid-20th century jungles described by Gerald Durrell and war zones, such as the Burma Railway, more easily than sci-fi landscapes or ancient history. My current w-i-p is creative non-fiction set between 1820 and 1880. Hmm, you now have me wondering about the number of potential readers…
Interesting point! My interest in a specific historical time period has remained pretty steady from adolescence til now–I’m still fascinated by Elizabethan England and WWII era stories, but I don’t doubt it does change for many readers.
I’ll be the first to agree that one’s tastes evolve as one’s vantage point changes; some books, music, and movies survive the change, others don’t. Fantasy is something I seldom read these days (I don’t listen to Black Sabbath much anymore either except late at night with a glass of Dry Sack) but there’s a lot of kids that are still falling down that rabbit hole and need a reliable tour guide so it’s my duty as a writer keep my astrolabe in working order, as it were. I still find most contemporary realistic stuff about as exciting as watching paint dry, but most reps are Conventional Wisdommeers who find Other Worlds threatening, so one has to be literarily multilingual if any kind of common ground is expected. At the end of the day you can’t tune your tastes completely to what you expect somebody else will be in sync with; bearing in mind the Baghdad money changer of a couple centuries ago who wouldn’t keep gold about the place for fear of robbers and the Sultan’s tax collectors; silver was too expensive to store and transport, and as for copper…Did one expect a man of his stature to busy himself with fiddling small change?! Talent is still the ability to pull someone into a story whether they want to be there or not, and even if they disavow the experience loudly afterwards, to have your stuff echoing in their heads forever after.
“Talent is still the ability to pull someone into a story whether they want to be there or not, and even if they disavow the experience loudly afterwards, to have your stuff echoing in their heads forever after.”
I’m going to take that as a personal compliment, since that was exactly my experience when my friends read my first novel — loudly though they claimed to hate it, they could not resist discussing it, and for several years regularly referred to the characters when talking about other things. I would have called it “workmanship” rather than “talent”, but have decided that I prefer your wording. Thanks.
Kevin, agreed! A really fantastic book will still provide the same immersive experience no matter what age you are. I think as a kid though, my tastes were far less discriminatory, and I got sucked into every book I read (whether it was “good” or not).
Can you mark a noticeable difference in your reading experience as a child and an adult?
** Well, yes. Dickens is a breeze now, compared to age 14. And my attention span is a bit shorter now than in my 30s. (I suspect that is true of most Americans, however, and I blame “Sesame Street”.)
** Before age 25, most of my reading was fiction, but nowadays I prefer biographies and histories. I think this is because I write my own fiction, and like it better than most things I find to read.
Do you think writing helps or hurts your reading?
** It has changed it. I am less impressed with most writers than I used to be, because I can more easily detect carelessness or laziness — or missed opportunities — on the part of writer and/or editor.
Thanks for your comments! It’s always interesting to hear writers weigh on reading and writing/what helps or hurts the writing process!
I think age brings a certain level of wisdom. In this respect, books have a lot less to offer an adult than they do a child – who (aside from wanting to be entertained) will want to know what makes people/grown-ups tick.