Asher's "Why Reading Is Always Social"

When I think of reading, I think of me, my book, a comfortable place, and time to myself. I might be reading in the quiet, sleepy time before bed. I might have taken a book to my daughter's swimming lesson or aikido class. I might be waiting in a doctor's office. Wherever I read, I often think about reading as time for myself where the world slows down, and I can relax in my own imagination. As a relatively introverted person, this time to myself is incredibly rejuvenating.

Yet, as Levi Asher argues in "Why Reading is Always Social," it totally is! Asher writes, "To read another person's words is to conduct a meeting of minds." This is absolutely true. Reading takes me to another place and time where I can see through another person's eyes. If the reading is fiction, I experience the perspective not only of the writer but also of the characters. And, if the narrative includes allusions to prior narratives, I've got windows onto those writers and characters, too.

Asher goes on to indicate that reading is social because readers like to talk about their reading with others. I get to do this in my classrooms with students, which is kind of inauthentic, as they are forced to talk to me. My family members are all great readers, so we often talk about books. I also have colleagues with whom I like to discuss reading. As Asher concludes, literature is about reading together.

But, sometimes even in this crowd of readers, I still feel lonely. I want to talk with people who like to read and who have just read exactly what I have read. Although I work with English majors, few of them read what I read for fun, and even fewer stop by to talk about their reading and suggest new books. While many people around me have heard the same news or watched the same movies, few have read the same books. So, maybe that's why I started this blog, so at least I can talk to myself! :)

I also seem to need to keep a record of my reading, as I read a lot of books and sometimes want to go back and refresh my memory about them. I even have a stack of books near my desk about which I want to write but have not yet gotten to. I don't want to put them away until I can record my thoughts. So many books, so little time!