The Next Best Book Club discussion

If it's a good book, I'll totally forget that I'm reading print on a page, and it will become more like a movie or dream. Most of the time the faces aren't as sharp as the whole scene is. If the book has been made into a movie or is being made into a movie then the faces are clearer (however, I hate it when they cast an actor who does not fit the physical description in the book). And sometimes I do my own casting. For instance, when I was reading Rebecca, I felt the perfect person to play Max would be Liev Schrieber.

Same here. I always picture evrything so clearly except for the character's faces. I can never picture them, and when I try, it usually takes the focus away from the rest of the story. I always picture decapitated bodies instead. ;) However, if the book descirbes a face in detail, I can imagine it easily without it subtracting from the story. I never picture actors as characters though, usually the image in my head fits a character a lot better than a real person ever could. I like description, but I also love making up things in my head, so I think a good balance between the two is just right.

I'm like you guys - faces are unspecific and defocused.

However, I do see the setting in crazy detail, especially the layout. I could probably draw detailed blueprints of houses or cities, even if those details aren't given in the book. My locational detail affliction is so bad that I'll incorporate those locations into my dreams. Who knows, maybe I'm a film director in another life?

I guess I'm the opposite - I can see the faces, the way they walk, the smell of their hair, the way they hold their mouth, etc.

This is probably the reason why when I see a movie after reading the book I am often so disappointed with the look and feel of the movie - especially if the characters are cast to only feed box office casholla!

I agree with most of you guys, i imagine the book so much thats its not like i'm reading anymore. I also didnt realize till now that i dont see full faces, tehy usually all have features but not distint ones. but like Cindy, i see the setting in astonishing detail. now thinking about it i do not detail clothes that much either unless it is definitly described.

I have a strange (narcissitic?) way of inserting myself into certain characters. Does anyone else do that??

Eliza wrote: "I have a strange (narcissitic?) way of inserting myself into certain characters. Does anyone else do that??"

Yes, I do that all the time, sort-of. I usually make up a new character to add to the story in my head and imagine a (better looking) version of myself as that character I made up.It's kind-of fun to make up all-new back-stories for the character that fit into the laws of the world of the author.

Often, if a detailed description is given, a certian actor or person will come to mind and that's who I picture. If not the face will stay nondescript, almost fuzzy, in my head. It seems that's what most of us do. Anything that's described in much detail I'll see that way, but if not a lot is given, then a "house" is just a house, etc.

I tend to see movie actors, friends, and family when I imagine what they look like and who they are. I get a pretty clear picture of who they are that way. The description is usually close enough to the person that it works very well for me. As far as the background goes, I rely strictly on what the author is describing. I hope I am making sense.

I put faces on the characters when I imagine them and don't usually use actors unless I can 't put the described features together in my head. However, I don't usually give them a voice and my backgrounds remain vague regardless of the descriptions used by the actors.

For me it really depends on the book. Most of the time I see the characters bodies clearly yet the face is almost always blurred. However, there are some books in which I picture actors almost immediately. I don't know why. Like in A Great and Terrible Beauty and its subsequent books, I pictured Gemma as Emily Browning. In The Kindness of Strangers I pictured Mary Louise Parker in some parts and then Sarah Wayne Callies in the others. Wentworth Miller as the main character in Change of Heart, etc. I admit that it's weird, especially since most of the time the actors don't look anything like the description given in the book. It's just this weird quirk I have.

One thing that I do dislike is when authors describe everything a character is wearing down to the way they have their hair. Most of the time it contributes nothing to the story and it takes me completely out of it. I want to picture the way their shoes are. Let me imagine something.

Voices are as clear as day for me, particularly southern accents (Sookie series etc).

I do tend to see faces but sometimes just sections, eyes, nose etc which is a bit weird. I struggle to picture characters as they are described though, I tend to imagine them to look like their personality.

I do also have a tendancy to substitute a famous actors face and features for a characters if I can't get a clear picture in my head. The whole time I was reading the Millenium Trilogy (Girl With A Dragon Tattoo etc) I pictured George Clooney as Blomkvist and now he's rumoured to be interested in playing him when they make an English version.

I do also have a tendancy to substitute a famous actors face and features for a characters if I can't get a clear picture in my head.

I do this as well! I am constantly playing casting director with the characters in my books. What's really weird is when I will imagine an actor as that character, only to later find that actor playing that character in the adaptation. Freaky. I'm that good. :) However, sometimes I imagine actors who are already dead, so that's a no-go.

I don't do the actor thing very often, but for the Millenium books, Blomkvist has always been Keiffer Sutherland for some reason.

For characters, an actor usually comes to mind for me but which actor depends more on the personality than the physical description of the character in the book.

As an author, when I'm writing a novel I sometimes cast the story with actors in mind for the various main characters. But this is only a starting point. The more I write the more the 'character' takes on a personality and image of their own, so that by the end they 'look' entirely different to me.

I also picture actors (actresses, not so much) when reading. I'm still trying to find the perfect Joe Morelli.

And for some reason, the men are always brunettes. I was really put off when I discovered Eric (Stackhouse series) is a blond. Just didn't seem right, even though he is a Viking.

Unless the faces are described, I also see them as being blurred. The few chracters that I do actually put faces to are usually actors. Also not many actresses. For some reason, if Im got the right book, I see Joe Morrelie as a cross between a much less desheveled Colombo with his always messed up hair. Also I never saw Eric ( in Sookies books) as blond either. Just tall, pale and handsome, without a hair out of place.

I actually just posted in the books v. movies thread that I hate how in movies the characters and settings are nothing like i pictured them.

I have a super vivid imagination and I get completely lost if the book is really good.
I don't have to have a lot of description, I can imagine it without it.
I don't have a problem with the blurred faces, and I don't really imagine actors either. I think they're faces that I've seen before, just not the faces of famous people.