July 15, 2007 No comments

Reading - a private or a social act?

Engineers without Fears responds to Andy’s post about creative thought and chimed quite nicely with my own thoughts about reading.

And another thing: more on social creativity
I listen to others perform & I also read their work (reading is a paradoxically private and social activity)

Reading often feels like the ultimate asynchronous conversation. By reading a book I can engage with a long dead author yet in my mind I hear his (her) voice and have my emotions touched by their words. They can make laugh, cry or shiver. I find myself debating with them, sometimes impressed by the power of their argument, sometimes enraged by it.
The same is often true of the blogs I read but there’s a subtle yet huge difference. I now have an audible voice. I can argue back or tell them how much I agree. I can thank them for their insights or rebuke them for their lack. And, just sometimes, I can enter into a longer conversation with them.
I came across this lovely quote yesterday in the Charles Lamb pub in Islington (celebrating Bastile Day but that’s another story)