Weekly Geeks: Who Do You Connect With?

Erotic Horizon from E.H. on Books and More was looking back over her old posts and came across one she thought would make a good topic for this week's Weekly Geeks theme. It's been ages since I last participated in Weekly Geeks, and while I keep telling myself I'll jump back in, I've yet to do so. Until now.

Erotic Horizon has this to say:

I visited a new blogger that I am following and the phrase below jumped right up and hit me – literally. I am not sure where the blogger is going with his blog yet, as this is literally his second post.

This is the phrase
“We didn't get any reading done tonight. I told Jack we must read some tomorrow! It connects us somehow. I can't explain it, but it does. It's good to do things together” - Shayne © This and That

I can’t explain why that phrase made such an impact, could it be that reading has become a solitary venture to lose myself in. Do I use it as my own private time – to the exclusion of all else.

Does my own action not invite people in to share my world. When did I forget the joys of sharing the written word with someone other than the people at the end of the keyboard. Can I remember the last time I actually connect with a ‘real person”.
Honestly so much is rattling around in my brain – reading is such a big part and has always been a big part of my life, but other than the kids and eventually they find their own groove when it comes to reading. I don’t read with anyone and I refuse to minimise what I love to suit anyone else. I however miss exactly what that phrase is saying - “It connects us somehow”

Firstly, have you come across a phrase recently that has made just such an impact. And secondly – who do you read with, if you don’t read with anyone –WHY NOT?

Growing up in a house full of readers, it was impossible not to always find someone with a book in hand. Sometimes we would read together, either to each other, side by side on our own, or off in our own separate parts of the house. My husband and I are the same way. We may not always be reading the same books, but we do talk about what we are reading, sharing a particularly funny quote or using each other as sounding boards to solidify our own thoughts about a book. Well, maybe that last part is more a me thing. My reading is such a big part of my life--and sometimes the most exciting part--that it comes naturally for me to want to talk about where I have been and who I have met in books.

I find comfort and joy in talking about books and sharing my reading experiences. I think that is why I belong to online reading groups. I can discuss books on a level I can't with those in my offline life. Only in recent years have I worked in an office with other readers, and now I have that connection as well. And then of course, there is blogging. Blogging opened an entire world to me in terms of book talk. We share our thoughts about the books we read or want to read. While it is a solitary practice in some sense, blogging has also proven to be a link in connecting with others in the book blogging community.

Reading is a solitary activity, sure. When I read a book, I lose myself in the pages, and it is just me and the characters. Reading, for me, is so much more than that, however. Just as reading is something I do on my own, it is something I share with others. I can't not. It's such a big part of my life.

As for a phrase that I came across recently that made an impact:

A book burrows into your life in a very profound way because the experience of reading is not passive. - Erica Jong, O Magazine, 2003

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© 2010, Wendy Runyon of Musings of a Bookish Kitty. All Rights Reserved.If you're reading this on a site other than Musings of a Bookish Kitty or Wendy's feed, be aware that this post has been stolen and is used without permission.