Welcome to Tuesday Book Chat where we discuss bookish questions.
Each week we ask a bookish question to spark conversation among readers, with a focus on Christian fiction and nonfiction.
Today’s question is:
Do you like descriptions flowery and detailed or subtle and real?
We look forward to hearing your thoughts. Please join in the conversation by commenting on this post or on the blog post shared in our Australasian Christian Writers Facebook Group. Remember to comment today on Tuesday Book Chat to enter the giveaway.
Let’s chat!
This question came about due to reading some books the description the location was so details leaving nothing to the imagination. For some this isn’t an issue. Personally, I prefer subtle and real. If I am reading about the decor of a room, I don’t need a lot of detail the room colour and a couple of the items. I don’t need a detailed flowery description of each artwork or antique piece. It may be the way my brain is wired but sometimes less is more. I am the one at the end of the book probably cannot tell you the eye colour, and my image will be different from what the author sees.
Your turn.
I look forward to reading your comments here or at the FB group.
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I like the detail. Put me in the room – let me see it, feel it, smell it if that matters. You don’t have to repeat the description every time you enter the room, but let me know where I am. That’s quite possibly because I am a visual processor. I love bright colours, and family pictures on walls, and knick-knacks on shelves, and bookcases stuffed full of tomes you’re yet to read or have already read but won’t get rid of because you’re going to enjoy reading it again. No prizes here for guessing what my house looks like. Maybe those who are minimalists rather than maximalists might have a different response?
I think its more how our brains are wired If I go into a house cluttered or uncluttered I am very unlikely to remember much detail of what is there. things that stand out probably but often I have no idea what colour the walls were when I leave unless as I mentioned the colour stands out to me. the house here is cluttered. I can often pick if something is missing but im not the visual person so a long description about a famous piece of art is going to bore me partly cost Im not into the arts. But as you said we are all different.
I like the details so I can visualize it. However if they are a hoarder, I don’t need to know every little detail of the hoarding.
I understand. I think it also depends on the book. A book describing art, Ballet, or a sport in fine detail loses me especially if I don’t know much of the sport. I can follow the book fine without needing to know all the rules of what makes a painting great, or the rules of a sport. A little is fine but long descriptions that dont progress a book frustrate me