How do you hear your reading?

[SaveUs3rname]

So, when I read, I literally hear myself reading in my head. I put on different character voices etc.

DH has told me that when he reads, he hears nothing?! He doesn't like reading (don't blame him if he hears nothing).

What about everyone else?!

I hear my own voice reading it. Except that half the time my own voice is saying 'I wonder what we should have for dinner', 'Must remember DS2 has swimming tomorrow', oooo there's a cat in the garden'. So I have to reread the same page, sometimes more than once. Same when I'm listening to an audiobook. I do love reading, but it's an effort. Only very rarely do I hear a voice different from my own - usually when the writer has spelt out the dialogue in regional phonetics, in a very obvious and often clumsy way.

So interesting!

I wonder if there is a link between the way people read and whether or not they have an internal monologue. I was so shocked to read that only 30-50% of people have one! I have an internal monologue and when I read I hear my own voice (the same voice as my internal monologue) reading the words.

I'm perturbed by people without an internal monologue. It must be so quiet in their head.

<hollow laugh>

I'd swap my soundtrack for your monologue any day.

I'm perturbed by people without an internal monologue. It must be so quiet in their head.

It's probably not, though. It's probably just busy in a different way. We all seem to be capable of lots of thinking (those who are probably aren't one, especially not in places like MN,) and what's amazing is we all do it in different ways.

Interestingly I have an internal monologue, but I don’t usually hear it when reading, unless I’m either distracted or really concentrating on the words. I read really fast and just ‘inhabit’ the world if it makes sense. And no to visuals - I’m always intrigued by those who can see images in their head. I only feel things.

I didn't mean quiet as in nothing happening in there, just quiet as in literal noise. I wasn't suggesting they were stupid

And those you are probably aren't one what?

I see it rather than hear it I think

You have music to replace the chatter? Singing music or instrument music? My head voice keeps singing Revolting Children from Matilda but she doesn't know all the words

Does it make anyone else feel weird thinking about how you think?

It's weirder thinking about how other people think when they don't have a voice chattering at them all day. Like how do "you need to go to the chemist" work in your head without a voice?

@JaneJeffer Turning inside out right now at the thought!

I read non-fiction quite fast in my own voice but if I’m reading New Scientist I do use the voices of the NS podcast hosts, because I love them.

Fiction I tend to read slower, savouring the words and using a voice I concoct from the character traits evident in the book (locality, class, time period etc.).

Sometimes I have known actors voicing the character I think they’d play well.

Sounds a bit mad now I’m writing it out!

I hear me talking too but in a wide variety of accents, my favourite being a northern one similar to Bubbles in AbFab.

Barebones melodies without specific instrumentation or lyrics, full orchestral scores with all the trimmings, exact reproductions of pop songs with every quirk of the singer's voice, everything… sometimes full-length versions, sometimes just short extracts on a tight loop, sometimes neverending 12" versions that never seem to get to the outro but instead loop back somewhere near the beginning repeatedly. And like you, sometimes without all the correct words, but that doesn't stop it. All the time, every day, from waking until dropping off, except (usually) when listening to real music.

And it gets worse when I'm manic.

I definitely have an inner monologue and a mind's eye (some people don't). I know I sometimes see visuals when I'm reading and I don't like reading a book after watching the film because the actors intrude too much. But I don't always read each word in my head it tends to happen when I'm not fully immersed in the book.

Also, while I do have an internal monologue I don't always use it when thinking hard. I have a kind 'souped up' brain setting that I use at work (I'm a scientist) that isn't wordy, it's sometimes visual and sometimes I just know things in a way that's neither wordy or visual.