The Perspective Shift: Rediscovering Third Person

It's funny that you can grow up reading books in third person, not really thinking anything about it, and then you suddenly can't enjoy third person novels in the same way. It's even weirder when statistically, books are more likely to be written in third person. All those children's books that had kids learning life lessons were the third person books that we grew up on. However, as I got older, I started to dislike books in the third person.

Over the course of my blog posts, I have posted many times about how I dislike third person, but when I actually thought about it, I questioned why. Why had I been reading books in third person for years and then suddenly just didn't like them? To be honest, I think I lost the appreciation for this perspective in books. And if I really think about it, my excuse was always that it jumbled up my brain, trying to figure out which character I was following at the time - especially if they were fantasy and/or romance novels.

I then got to thinking about how, for English in school, we read third person books all the time. I mean, I just accepted it, and apart from it being forced reading from school, there weren't any problems with reading it compared to the way it sometimes felt when I was reading books for fun - when I had to prepare myself for the mind jumble. But then I recently discovered the appreciation for it again.

I was reading a book, and suddenly it just clicked. It clicked that the third person gives so much more than first person. It can give descriptions of the surrounding characters and delve into their stories more than first person can. It can show a lot more about the main characters than you expect, or even thought you needed. It shows the information surrounding the character and not just their personal emotions and thoughts. It's good (a great way of storytelling) because it gives the facts on the characters and gives more depth to the story.

Don't get me wrong, I still prefer first person, specifically when it is dual POV, where you get into the mindset of the characters and their thoughts and feelings. However, I have a newfound appreciation for third person. And hey, it doesn't hurt that I don't find them as difficult to read as before.

So, what I would like to know is: which do you prefer?