What We See When We Read

by Peter Mendelsund
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/237251/what-we-see-when-we-read-by-peter-mendelsund/

https://www.amazon.com/What-We-See-When-Read/dp/0804171637/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1530125983&sr=8-1&keywords=what+we+see+when+we+read

Described as a phenomenology of reading, I thought it might be interesting to record my impressions here as I am reading the book.

Published in 2014, so not a new title, but new to me and welcome as I am experiencing my own renaissance as reader with a big toe holding open a doorway to the visual arts.

Mendelsund is an artist/designer and visual thinker. The book is as much about processing the images as it is about reading the words.

One of the first questions in the book asks the reader to visualize one of their favorite characters. Then asks us to describe the character.

I found myself wanting to default to the author's appearance or my mind wandered to what the "consensus" version from movies or other predefined images might be out there circulating.

Though when I thought about it later, I conceded that these first impressions were  not what I experienced while reading.

While reading, I am all of the characters. Good and bad. Saintly and wicked. Ugly and beautiful.

So, my answer to your question, Peter, is they look like me. But male, or younger, or another species, bigger, or shorter, wiser, sillier.