A picture/photograph shows us what we have already seen, maybe in a slightly different way, or shows us the impossible and shatters our assumptions, startling us.
Music sets the mood by appealing to our senses.
A movie combines both to tell a story: the images that create the world the characters inhabit, the music that elicit feelings. It has also words (dialogue) that communicate what the characters think.
Pictures, music and movies do not ask much of us. To look or listen does not require much energy.
Books, on the other hand, do not have pictures or music to lure us in. They only have words. Only words to paint a picture, to create a song.
Books demand action on our part and complete immersion, because the words must be processed by our brain to be translated into images and feelings. To do so, the brain calls on our knowledge.
That is why reading is, I believe, a more personal experience. And at the end, the most rewarding.
