You don't read it in the sense of reading a message; it doesn't work like that. What's happening is that the Shadows are responding to the attention you pay them.
Philip PullmanThere will be days when the stuff is not flowing freely. What you do then is MAKE IT UP!
Philip PullmanAnd among academicians, and among spirits. I found folly everywhere, but there were grains of wisdom in every stream of it. No doubt there was much more wisdom that I failed to recognize. Life is hard, Mr. Scoresby, but we cling to it all the same.
Philip PullmanLong before writing, people were telling each other stories and the audiobook goes all the way back to that tradition.
Philip Pullman