"No two persons ever read the same book."
~Edmund Wilson
What an interesting thought! That everyone reading a book is getting their own unique perception of it.
It's easy to imagine. Even if two readers are extremely alike in behavior and attitude, if they read the same book, they're not going to notice the exact same things as each other. One might pay more attention to the characters, while the other's focus catches on to the descriptions of the settings. One might look at dialogue intently, and the other might keep a diligent eye on the plot. If a reader likes one character in particular, they might pay more attention to them than they would to others. And if one likes to read slowly, they have a better chance at soaking in more details at once. All of these factors affect the way each reader takes in a book, and would cause their readings of it to be totally different. It would produce different opinions, or a similar opinion with different reasons for it.
Maybe the biggest (and most fascinating) difference in reading would be that of the author of the book and a person picking it up for the first time, don't you think? As the author re-reads their book, they would probably notice basically everything--and then some, if they had scenes that they couldn't fit into the book--to the most intricate detail. But meanwhile, as the new reader reads for the first time, they'd probably just get the first few layers of the story's plot, characters, descriptions, etc., and not notice as much as the author would. This particular difference in perceptions would be more of a positive than a downside in editing though, since a new reader's observations and thoughts are vital in showing the author what's actually written in the book, and what might need to be changed.
Have you ever thought about this concept before, and the way it plugs into the editing process like that? Isn't it intriguing? :)
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