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I recently read about site specific reading. This is where the reader, in the interests of getting a more immersive experience, reads a book in a location connected with that book. For example, reading one of Colin Dexter's Inspector Morse novels in Oxford, or taking the Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo with you when you next visit Paris.
Site specific theatre is a form of theatre in which the performance is staged in a location other than a standard theatre. The location at which the performance takes place might never have been intended as a location for theatrical performance. However, the location might lend itself perfectly to the plot of the play. For example, a murder mystery that takes place in a grand English house, the play unfolding around the audience. This lends itself to a more immersive and interactive form of theatre.
When applied to readers this means taking your book off to a location connected to that novel. When you finally get to visit New Zealand, like you have always wanted, maybe you could take The Lord of the Rings with you - Peter Jackson's film adaptations were filmed there. Or, perhaps you might consciously recreate a trip from a novel - the character of Stevens from The Remains of the Day (which I reviewed and discussed in a previous post ) takes a trip through the English countryside and to a seaside location, for example.
You don't have to travel to immerse yourself though. If you are reading The Room by Emma Donoghue, why not take yourself off to the smallest room in your home to try and get a sense of the world those characters are living in. If you want to read a book like Wild by Cheryl Strayed, but the weather is just too frightful for heading outdoors to read, maybe you can get away with heading to YouTube and finding some ambient outdoor soundtracks that you can play while you read.
It could just be that a location recalls to your mind a place in a book that you have read, or that, for reasons personal to you, there exists in your mind a connection between a book and a place that others wouldn't understand. I don't think that really matters. The interest of this exercise is that it makes the experience more immersive for the audience - for you. So, take your book outdoors. Feel the grass beneath your feet, smell the coffee, hear the bird song . . . whatever it is that drops you into the story that much more, take yourself (and your book) there. Browse your bookshelves and select the book you are going to take with you on that trip you are going to take when the world opens up again.
Be safe though.
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Thank you. Be good. Be kind. Read lots.
Interesting idea. I'd never heard of site specific reading before.
ReplyDeleteI came across the idea in a magazine article. I hadn't heard of it myself. I can understand the appeal though. When Victor Hugo wrote The Hunchback of Notre Dame he did so with a love for the architecture of old Paris, especially the old cathedral - I can imagine it would add something to the reading of that novel if you could raise your eyes from the pages and let your gaze fall on the building. Or any location that might drop you into the world of the books you love a little more.
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