Do you you like reading first person or third person point of view?

Answer 1

I think there are advantages and disadvantages of both.

First person allows you inside of the character's head, letting you learn about them on a personal level.

But Third Person allows you to discover things in a more surprising manner. You may learn that a character is not as bad/good as you originally thought.

I can be in the mood for either.

Answer 2

Well, it really depends on the genre of the book I'm reading. In some books, usually in fictional wars or battles, or stories that address more than one character as "the main character" it's more interesting to read in third-person as you get a view on what everyone has been doing. It also allows the author to be able to address different parts of the story whereas in first person you're stuck to wherever that person is.

I'd rather read in first-person in suspense stories where we can only see the life of the main character, thus allowing us to be more surprised with the twists and outcomes of the story.

So yeah, it doesn't only depend on the "First Person", "Third Person", but also if it is third-person limited, omniscient, or objective, aside from the genre and how it is being told.

Hope that "helps".

Answer 3

Third person. I love being in everyone's head and knowing what other people think. Having everyone's point of view makes the story better. A book that I love written in third person is My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult.

Answer 4

First person, for me, always creates logical problems, which can either be solved or ignored by the author. Is the first-person narrator the writer of the novel or short story, is he or she the one who submits the work (completed or not) for publication? If it is a collection of multiple first-person narrations (say, Faulkner's As I Lay Dying) are they instances of the author reading the minds of the narrators. Why does the narrator choose to tell the story at all? Why, perhaps, might a poor or uneducated character have in his first-person narration the vocabulary and sophisticated writing style of, well, his author?

And of course you can think of more loopholes that can come up in any form of storytelling. Lots of early novels solved the problem by being epistolary, that is, collections of letters from one character to another.

So the cheap answer from me is that I love first- and third-person equally if they're both done well.

Answer 5

Depends on the book. I like first person because you get more in-depth and personal with that one person, it's like getting to know someone new. I like 3rd person because you aren't limited by the point-of-view of the main character. I love third person Omniscent because then you know everything about everyone.

Answer 6

It really depends, but I'd say I like third person because...well, I can't really pinpoint why, but I like reading omniscient third person (like in The Lottery, that short story by Shirley Jackson) or where it goes like this (bear in mind this is just an example):

Tom stormed out of the room in a towering rage, and did not hear Alicia quietly shut the door behind him afterward.

I know it's a terrible writing sample, but I like that kind of perspective.

First person can be very effective, and most humor that I read is in first. (Georgia Nicolson books, Bridget Jones's Diary, some funny parts of the Bartimaeus trilogy that were narrated by Bartimaeus come to mind.)

Overall, though, I favor writing and reading third.

Answer 7

Oceanofapathy loves to talk about oceanofapathy in the third person.
Oceanofapathy loves to read in the third person.

Answer 8

I love first person. It gives us a chance to be someone else...to see and feel what the narrator felt. I believe the best stories are true stories, told by the person that experienced them.

Answer 9

That's tough.

I like third because you are not limited to the main character's thoughts and emotions.

I like first because, in a way, I feel like I'm bonding closer to that character. Does that sound stupid?

Overall, I think I like third person best.

Answer 10

Third person because if the book is written in the first you know that they are alive. This sucks badly in a suspense novel, crime novel or spy novel.