Novels: Pictures or no pictures?

[Eternal Mametchi Fan]

When it comes to novels, do you like pictures on the pages or not?

I don't like it when novels have pictures for some reason. I find it distracting when I'm trying to pay attention to the words, and it ruins what I'm imagining in my head

 

[dazzilitchigirl]

Books with pictures are about 90% of the reason why I waa bullied in primary school; people could see what I was reading and tease me about it. I would always hide books from everyone else. I still refuse to read books with pictures at school even though I'm no longer bullied.

 

[Box]

For my tastes, it depends on where it is and what it does. Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis isn't really kiddy, and the fact that it's a graphic novel makes it unique (in that it's also about growing up during the Iranian revolution).

Pictures can be a bit much, though. For example, in fiction, literal images aren't necessarily required. If it doesn't need them, they ought not to be there, depending.
I don't encounter this sort of thing often, so it's not something I've thought deeply about.

 

[The Ultimate Doomer]

When it comes to novels, do you like pictures on the pages or not?

Hmm...when a novel doesn't have pictures, then you use your imagination more to think of the appearance of what's happening in the story, etc. Also, if there are illustrations, they are often not drawn by the writer. Thus the illustrations are really just one artist's own interpretation of the writing. The War of the Worlds novel for example, has a lot of different printings, and each printing usually has illustrations which are an artist's own interpretation of the story. The result is that in the different printings of The War of the Worlds, the aliens in the illustrations are portrayed in dozens of different ways, depending on how the artist decided to draw them. ;P Even if a novel has pictures, it's still fun to imagine your own appearance of the characters and locations (and aliens) in the story.

 

[Bubbles11]

Most of the novels I read don't have pictures, but the occasional fantasy novel with brilliant art is definitely something I can appreciate. Sometimes, though, the art contradicts my own perception of how things should look, and I don't like that - but that probably happens to most people.