Interesting concept. I would have to say that I don't hear words as I read them. I probably would not have understood the joke until I read it out loud, unless it was very simple, for example GR8.

I don't think I actually "read" them either, although I probably once did. After all these years, the meaning passes directly into my mind without thinking about the actual words. I am sure this is not a unique experience - most people here probably do this. I haven't described it very well, but I hope it makes some sense.

What you are describing is technically known as "subvocalization". I do not subvocalize, unless I deliberately attempt to. For example, I prefer to subvocalize when reading poetry.

Subvocalization tends to slow down the speed that you can read; it is one of the first techniques taught when learning to speed-read. For that reason, it's quite possible that people who read constantly are actually less likely to "hear the words".

I sometimes hear the words, especially if I have listened to an audio book of the same story or a story with the same characters, or seen a movie based on it. This goes for the Harry Potter books - in my head I "heard" Daniel, Emma and Rupert and all the other actors from the movies as I read the books. When I read Lord of the Rings I hear the voice of Rob Inglis who read the unabridged audio version of the book, telling me the story.

Recently I started reading a Rebus mystery (by Ian Rankin), and it annoyed me immensely that in my head everyone sounded like characters from the Taggart TV series.

Of course, having been asked the question...I would have to say, yes, because I just heard every word of all these posts. A little like stopping the centipede dead in his tracks by asking which foot he puts forward first.

I've had this conversation elsewhere and its interesting how many readers do hear a voice. But just as many see images. When I read, the words form images to me much like a film in my head. Which is one of the reasons why its hard for me to watch a movie after I've read the book. Its also why I can't listen to audio tapes; I get very distracted. In college, I tried taping lectures, only to find that my own notes were much more helpful

In non fiction, I do hear a voice. But since I prefer the images, its not a surprise that travel narratives are among my favorite non fiction subject.

Oh, it took me forever to get this license plate: RTQL8. It was on the back of a colleagues car and once I got it and matched her occupation, I had a d'oh moment.

Siobhan, that makes perfect sense because I also don't hear or read the words individually unless the material is very complex or I'm studying something that I need to remember in detail. Otherwise, it all just flows through.

DS has to read to himself out loud to really understand-even now in college he will quietly whisper as he reads his textbook assignment for the first time. He is a heavily auditory learner-takes very few notes in class but remembers a lot of the teacher's lecture. He studies that way too-out loud. When he was younger, he would read his spelling words and their spellings into a tape player, then listen and "speak along"-also vocab and definitely when he was studying foreign languages. I think this is why he is not a big fiction reader-as Martin says, it slows the reading pace down and when younger, he became bored with the slowness of the plot progression.
I don't consciously hear as I read, but when a book is dramatized, I am sometimes just as irritated or pleased by the actor's voice as I am by looks or mannerisms-it has to "match" what I had in my head.
Cindy-is she a speech pathologist?

I definitely don't hear the words and I also get distracted by books on tape. I think this is why I don't read horror or really graphic type books because the image from the page goes right into a picture in my head and it is really to get it out once it's there. When I read I am "in the story", in that world that I am reading about.

I've always been a visual person, so I usually have definite images in mind, re landscapes or personnages I am reading about. I think it is rare that I "hear" the characters or the narrator speaking. (The exception to this is my reading of poetry).

This is the strange thing about movies vs. books. For example, re-reading Gone With the Wind after having seen the film many times, how could one not hear Vivian Leigh intoning Scarlett's petulant words???

>Cindy-is she a speech pathologist?

Ding ding ding, we have a winner!

> this is why I don't read horror or really graphic type books because the image from the page goes right into a picture in my head and it is really to get it out once it's there.

Ditto. Even a few of the psychological mysteries I enjoy have left their visual mark in my head. And like you, when I read I am in the story. The rest of the world disappears.

woodnymph, I do the same thing when reading books like Princess Bride or the Caedfael series. Having seen the movie/series first, the voices of the characters are right there. However, the images are very clear as well.

The strongest example of that for me is the Jeeves and Wooster series-after having seen them on PBS with Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie, I hear their voices so clearly as I read!

p.s. I'll collect my prize at the soiree!

I really do not, and I read every day, and have throughout my whole life. That is one reason why I take so much pleasure in listening to recorded books. Finally I hear them! I will say that sometimes when I am reading and come across a passage that demands to be heard, I will read it out loud. That is the only way I can make it audible.

Rosefolly

I don't hear the words as I read either but, like Rose, if I really want to "hear" a passage I need to read it aloud and I often do it with poetry.
I do visualize scenes while reading. My favorite authors are those that can actually transport you into the novel, although I've never been able to pinpoint how some can make you a part of the story so effortlessly. I definitely picture the characters, scenery, etc but doesn't everyone do that? I think that's why we readers are so often disappointed by movie versions of the novels we read-they just can't meet up to the way we have "seen" the story already.
I mentioned before on another thread that I cannot listen to audio books, my mind wanders. I wish I could as there is so little on the t.v.

I'm finding the responses fascinating. I am generally a fairly fast reader and have always been a heavy reader, as well - I have not noticed that hearing the words is slowing me down much. I do not enjoy books on tape at all, which is interesting as some of you who do not hear the words do enjoy them.

I also "see" the images in my head when I read, in addition to hearing the words - it really is like a movie in my head. Perhaps this is why I am generally not interested much in movies - I can create my own via books.

This is actually a hard question for me to answer. I do 'pronounce' the words in my head as I read, but I don't hear another voice, it is my own (unless, as mentioned, I have perhaps seen it in a film or on TV).
But I also don't quite understand how you would read without pronouncing the words - don't you have to translate the scribble to something coherent in your brain? When you see 'dog', how do you know what word it is without a soundless, but auditory-type recognition? Does that even make sense?
OTOH, when I am reading an exciting book, I don't always read all the words - I tend to skim *g*

I read in clumps-not word for word-so it is more ideas-I would read "The dog ran across the field" and see a dog-a big dog-running across a field.

astro, I think those of us who have been reading so long have a subconscious 'voice'; I know I hear that voice when I am typing or writing, and suspect in my case, it pronounces the words for me but I barely hear it. I read and the words almost disappear. Its as if the sound has been turned off the the movie starts, yet I know what is happening without the sound because of the subconscious voice that has developed. Probably a crackpot theory, but there you go.

I think the brain is a really COMPLEX thing. For example, I am extremely sensitive to violence. I almost feel like I am actually experiencing it when I read about it so if I am reading a book that has violence, or torture like "The People of the Book" I recently read, I am able to skim through the paragraphs (sometimes whole pages)until my brain finds the story line again after the violence. I do not read it and yet I instinctively know what has happened and when it is safe to start reading again.

Apparently, a lot of book worms do block read and are very visually oriented readers. I am not. I like to subvocalize, though I do block read when I'm reading for an assignment or need to find information quickly (I'm probably the opposite of Cindy; I can read NF better without subvocalization, though I still prefer to hear the words as I read along). However, I need the subvocalization for the reading experience to be pleasurable, which is why I'm not a fast reader. I've looked at blogs where people list 20 or 30 big, fat books they've read in a month, and know I could never do that. First of all, I have too many interruptions in my life to do it effectively, but more importantly, it just sucks the pleasure out of the book to read that way. That's not to say I can't visualize, but my natural tendency is to subvocalize the text.

Forgot to add -- I also think in words more than I visualize. I don't know what that says about me. Sometimes my brain keeps me awake at night just running words.

>. I do not read it and yet I instinctively know what has happened and when it is safe to start reading again.

Same here. BTW if you were bothered by the details in People of the Book, do not under any circumstances read Pillars of the Earth. For some reason that instinct didn't kick in and I have images I'd love to bleach out of my heard.

I'm another who does not "hear" the words, but I do visualize scenes--maybe more so, settings. For instance, when I saw my first moor in my 60s, I knew it from reading Wuthering Heights as a young teen. I do block read.

Cindy: I thought "reticulate"! being in the middle of a drought, my mind is on my garden, so I might be excused!
I read with my own voice which I recognise because of the way I pronounce words and also my English accent. I got quite a surprise when I saw a film of an Irish book that I had read and all the characters spoke with Irish accents! Doh!!
I also visualise scenes, which is why I wish the books I sometimes read have marks indicating "sexually explicit from pages 50-53" as I don't want to go there. I'm not sure what kind of marks, perhaps like on TV for S, V or N etc.

ann and any other interested folk: the license plate spelled 'articulate' (RTQL8).

I should add that I visualise quite strongly when I read, and as a child, the characters lived in variations of houses I knew. The Famous Five lived in my grandparents' house (with a mysterious second storey which most Australian houses don't possess) and the girls from one of my favourites, The Three Elizabeths, lived in the house of the lady down the road, again with that second storey.

I certainly do have a movie unwinding in my head when I'm reading a book. It's not often the case that seeing a film or TV dramatisation affects that movie, either; even when I've seen the film/TV first.

Georgia peach, are you a writer? I ask that because I, too, have nights when various words just run through my brain. Having said that, I am still a visual person.

Does anyone else here see the letters of the alphabet in colors? I have done this since childhood. Weird, eh? I think I even see some words in colors. I once read or heard that right-brained folk are very suseptible to colors....

woodnypmh - your experience of seeing letters in colors reminds me of the book 'Bee Season' by Myla Goldberg (not to be confused with 'The Secret Life of Bees' by Sue Monk Kidd). Have you read it? The main character, Eliza, has discovered that she is a good speller, and begins competing in and winning spelling bees. As Eliza develops her skill as a speller, Goldberg describes how Eliza visualizes the words, how they morph into shapes in her mind, etc. It is a marvelous bit of writing!
I tend to turn numbers to letters as I read them - a very dissatisfying and inefficient quirk : (

Nope. Not a writer. I haven't attempted creative writing since my college days, over 20 years ago now. When I was a teenager, I had the urge, but recognized I just didn't have the talent. I do think my thinking in words might have been inherited from my father. When he thought he was alone, he talked to himself quite a bit, and I find myself doing that, too. The odd thing is, I can't remember lines verbatim very well, but I am fairly good at conceptualizing. I don't honestly know how that works. I think I'm a creature of inconsistency.

Does anyone remember phone numbers only by performing the keystrokes? I often forget numbers until I start to dial, and then they come back to me.

Ive seen people do that, and marvel at the skill. It doesn't help me at all (but then I usually can 'see' the numbers in my head, if I happen to remember them :)

Bee Season is also about the girl discovering Kabbalah, which starts out with the power of hebrew letters. Very good book (and speaking of visuals, I still have an image of Miriams storage locker). I worry about the upcoming movie tho - I don't think they will get the mysticism thats inherent in the book.