Jul 21 2009
∞
Ebooks, Reading and Privacy
Other than when we are very young or very old, we read our own books, alone, in isolation. And then we take that solitary experience and carry it out into the world. It occurs to me that having read a book and never discussed it is like having only half experiencing it. It’s not real until I’ve hashed over it with others (usually my wife, the best reader I know). I doubt I’m alone in this (ironically!). This is sort of the reader’s equivalent to the realization at the end of Into the Wild: “Happiness is only real when it’s shared.”
