Your description of being capable of simulating "hearing the words" resonates with me. When I think about it more, I think I almost feel the sounds on my tongu

Your description of being capable of simulating "hearing the words" resonates with me. When I think about it more, I think I almost feel the sounds on my tongue, which is to say, when I try to simulate the sounds, I do so by imagining how I would make the sounds with my mouth. Also your point about casting choices for movie adaptations resonates. When a movie is made of a book I've been reading I'm almost always just so pleased by finally being able to see what the character looks like, and have never felt disappointment. If anything while reading about characters, my mind cycles over possible physical attributes wondering which a character might have, but never really building anything resembling imagery.