[Quiet Man Cometh]

I remember the "Choose Your Own Adventure" books. Unfortunately, when I was young I wasn't adventurous enough to actually get a lot out of them.

One of the things I find with first person when I try to write it, is that one must have a very thorough understanding of the narrator's mind. Appearance and physical details not so much as in a third person story, since a narrator doesn't tend to look at him/herself a lot. When I think about it, in each of the first person books that I've read I have almost very little idea of what the characters actually look like.

Frankenstein is written in first person in two ways, in that one man is writting letters to his sister, in which he copies the narrations of Victor Frankenstein when they talk. Victor tells his own story in first person, and the current events happening around Victor are told in first person by the other man.

Doctor Glas is made up of diary entries, at the beginning of which the narrator states flat out that what he tells is the truth but not all of the truth, so it makes for curious interpretatios along the way. This novel makes easy sense to me since I write my own diary entries in first person like I'm talking to someone else.

All Quiet on the Western Front is written from the perspective of one of the soldiers who enlisted in the German army with his friends just after high school. The author himself was a soldier so I imagine that helps a lot when getting into the character's mind. I don't think the story is autobiographical at all, if I recall correctly. (I say that a lot. Perhaps I should start looking more stuff up to be sure.) One curious thing about this book, is that at the end, on the opposite side of the last page is a third person paragraph about the death of a man who is not named, but is presumably the narrator. If I didn't happen to see the shadow of the text through the page, I never would have noticed it.

[Lucid:]

I think it depends on the book. 3rd person is always nice, but for a book with an overlying theme of social commentary, 1st person works well to point out and sometimes even exaggerate the bias of the main character. and I think that seeing how others think is absolutely fascinating, so I like those sorts of books.

[Echo-chan713]

I like either 1st person or 2nd person (I like 2nd person best), I think I like 2nd person better because every time I read i always play this anime-like movie in my head and it's hard to do it in first person in that type of thought since the person can easily configure what the other character's saying differently than if you would of done 1st person on another character.

For me second person gets everyone's situation in the story, not just one.

[Suzerain of Sheol]

Second Person, as in "You see this," "You said like..." "You felt that..." and so on?

I don't think I've ever seen a book written in Second Person beyond adventure books for kids. I'm kind of curious if there's ever been a real book written in that style. Anyone have any examples?

[Duchess]

I don't know any full length books written in 2nd person. But it's not necessarily only for kids.

I have a Mini- mystery book written in 2nd person, where the deduction and observation skills required to figure out whodunit at the end, is waaay too much to ask of any child. Well, at least any normal child.

So its safe to say that not only choose your own adventure books have it, but rather any book that requires "interaction" on the readers part, can be done in 2nd person.

For me, 1st person just does NOT cut it as placing me into the narrator's shoes. It usually just makes me feel like I'm reading someone's mind and they have an over active imagination (a la JD of Scrubs) or I'm just reading their diary. I never feel like its me doing those things.

2nd person does that. They literally force YOU to think of YOU doing the actions and in that situation. Which is why it can also work of mystery novels and crime solving books where YOU are the detective. That way there isn't a sense of knowing anything about the character that you personally wouldn't have access to.

Normally in mystery books, it's written in such a way that the reader is given chance to solve it before the detectives do. I'm not entirely in to that. I prefer to go on the ride with them.

[Quiet Man Cometh]

Originally Posted by Duchess

...2nd person does that. They literally force YOU to think of YOU doing the actions and in that situation. Which is why it can also work of mystery novels and crime solving books where YOU are the detective. That way there isn't a sense of knowing anything about the character that you personally wouldn't have access to.

That's the kind of writing that, for me, I can't stand, usually because the stuff that it's telling me I do or the options that I might pick are nothing like those I actually would choose, so it just becomes flat and irritating to me, a story about some hypothetical individual who is not me.

I agree though that first person isn't the way to go if one wants to feel like they're part of the story, as the narrator in a first person story can't be ignored. The best one can do, I think, is to decide who they relate to the narrator and the story they are telling.

I've never read a mystery book in which there was any intention for the reader to solve the mystery before the detective, but that may be my choice of authors. I read a lot of Agatha Christie when I was young, as well as a few of the Nero Wolfe mysteries. The information is presented through the detective so the reader usually gets any info at the same time as the detective. Or, if the author is evil, the reader only get some of the information so they can't solve it until the dectective brings it up. (There's an amusing movie called "Murder by Death" that deals with that very issue).

[Batty]

I'm really loving all of your guys' responses! I'm glad I thought to make a topic like this. <3

[johnny]

I think all perspectives have their value. There are certainly some stories that are better in third person rather than first person, but the true could be said of the opposite, really.

I even enjoy some short stories done in second person. Choose Your Own Adventure books are a good way to use second person in a longer format, but they sort of lost their appeal for me around... middle school, I think?

Then again, I'm one of those people who skip to the last page in a novel. I tended to cheat a bit with Choose Your Own Adventure books. xD

Anyway, third person is probably the most flexible point of view. You can easily adjust the amount of information given to the reader.

[Nanka]

I don't really have a specific preference to that, but I guess I like first person better. The series I read and pretty much only talk about changes perspective from each sister in every new book, so it makes it less boring.

[Mrs Jesse Jay]

Heya Batty.

I personally prefer third person as well. Its just that when you're learning to read and first getting into books, most of them are in third person. Now there's been an outbreak of first person writing. Even, I found a book that was first person, and writing out like the story was present tense, not past tense. It was confusing as all get out.

[Madam Kira]

I prefer third person, however if the book just seems really good, then I don't mind. I just really get annoyed if every other sentence starts with "I".

[Nanka]

Originally Posted by Madam Kira

I prefer third person, however if the book just seems really good, then I don't mind. I just really get annoyed if every other sentence starts with "I".

I can't stand anything extremely repetitious in a story, yet when I write poetry or whatever it is, I repeat things constantly.

[Quiet Man Cometh]

A lot of the problems with first person can be easily moved to third as well, I think. Repeting "I" all the time is just as bad to me as repeating a character's name.

I think what I like about first person is that it adds more personality to the story rather that was is generally a neutral narrative. I'm not saying that I don't think there is particular personality to be found in third person books, it's just that I've foound it more often in first person. Of course, how much I like the narrator in question always has an impact.

[Suzerain of Sheol]

I do like it when a third-person narrative is told consistently in-character. Maybe because I appreciate how difficult it is to write that way, I don't know, I'm just really partial to that style.