To set the scene: I used to read a to Sue at bedtime. We read many books this way, including Lord of the Rings, maybe even twice. We did okay …
But … sometimes, she would look over my shoulder and witness that every now and then I was telling the story in my own words, and not the author’s. It would usually make sense, but I did do this — at times and not like every sentence on every reading. My mind would, occasionally, wander a bit, and so I would read a word wrong or insert a word that wasn’t there and then have to adapt on the fly, as it were.
Actually, I wasn’t always fully aware of this and neither was Sue when she wasn’t looking over my shoulder, which was seldom. I was somewhat aware of my adaptations sometimes, like when I missed or messed a word and and to scramble to make the narrative work.
By way of note (heh heh), I would sometimes do this with music too when I was trying to learn the fiddle. Some people play by note and others play by ear. I tended to do neither — or both depending on how you look at it. I could be reading the notes for the most part, but I would also be listening to the music, and sometimes, my addled brain would decide that the music should go this way when the composer wanted it to got that way. Of course, I would be unaware of what I was doing, but then teacher would say, “No John, that’s the way Beethoven would have written it, but it is not what these notes say.”
Alright alright, I am now about to get to the point.
This is what I read on a recent blog post that was talking about dogs at the time: “Karen, when your breasts join his pack …”
That is what I read it (to myself) and then thought, “Wait! What did I just read? That can’t be right. I have to check.”
Of course, it wasn’t breasts. It was beasts, and that fit the context quite well. I am a guy, and a pretty hetero one and that, and who knows what other thoughts were crossing my mind in a daydreamy sort of way as I was reading that post. However, we can be pretty sure that it wouldn’t have been Beethoven in that case.
17 comments:
I think many of us rewrite things in our minds especially around words that just rearrange a few letters into something else. :)
Glad you got that straightened out! I have cataracts, so I use that excuse to say I can't read as clearly...but geese, it does get tiresome having to read word by word, just like I now have to type word by word. No wonder I feel like I'm slowing down!
Interesting! I don't think I ever do that but who knows? I don't read out loud very often. :-)
Oh, what tricks our minds (and eyes and ears) can play. Sometimes it can be enjoyable. Though (my husband would add) probably frustrating for those around us.
I'm guilty of misreading blog titles fairly often and then have to scroll up and reread them when they don't make sense only to see my error.
We are reading Harry Potter right now. Yesterday, William read it to me!
I think a lot of us do that and never realize it! Who knows, maybe you improved Lord of the Rings.
It is interesting yet bizarre what our minds have us see sometimes.
Man, what can I say? You're weird!!! LOL.
That's very amusing! (Sometimes I read aloud to Rick while we're driving. It passes the time on a long roadtrip very well!)
I rarely read aloud but have misread words in blog posts. And of course auto-correct makes some weird corrections.
I love it if someone reads to me. I probably wouldn't notice a few changes!
The mind can do some odd switches.
That is funny to read the wrong words...
Well that was a fun read for me!
I do that with books when I am reading silently to myself. I get sleepy and think I am reading, but the story slips. At times I have been quite convinced tha the material I half dreamed WAS in fact in the book and can get quite irritated not to find it.
Well, but not Tolkein.
You are amazing if you can read TLOTR aloud. The names defeat me. I can hear them in my head, but they are all wrong. Smeagol ? gulp.
Someone taught you reading by way of word recognition instead of sounding out the words. You are too intelligent to do it often, but that is the error people make who learned that way.
It can be excruciatingly awful. As when my daughter read 'dog' for God, out loud, in church, in her clear and carrying voice.
It is, in truth, how we are programmed to see things. Many people can look at a drawing or even an abstract pattern, and see a face in it. Infants learn that way, and we never entirely lose it.
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