The Loneliness of Reading

Quote:

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Originally Posted by stlukesguild

Then again, there are many wonderful books I can't talk about with anyone, partly because none of my friends have read them or even if they have, they haven't experienced it the same way I have. In that sense reading is a very solitary pastime.

Can you only discuss a book with someone who shares your experience of the work? It would seem to me that someone with a different experience might bring a different perspective... come at the book from an angle fully new and unexpected by you. That would seem to be far more valuable than someone who merely parrots or reinforces your own experiences.

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I didn't mean that. Of course discussion is best when both parties bring something new into the conversation. I just didn't mean that kind of discussion. I'm sorry, I'm not expressing myself very well.

I meant those books that made the deepest impact on me, that evoked some feelings that are so strong that I don't wish to discuss them with someone who doesn't understand them. That's what I was trying to say about other people not experiencing the books the same way. Even those book I'd be able to discuss about on a more general level, though.

(If no one understood anything, please pardon me. I haven't slept well for weeks and it shows...)

Feeling the Education of Henry Adams is somewhat different than reading it. would I appreciate that others felt the same as I. I don't know and perhaps may never.

reading itself is a strange thing, for the story is only completed when it is read. without the reader a story is only paper and inc. this is why there is not one story but rather many versions of a story in this world (one for each reader). actually you can watch this phenomenon whenever you try to expain your thoughts to someone... there is no world but a world for you and a world for me and so on .... (see Kant). or like Schopenhauer says "to read means to think with someone elses head". I know he ment to insult but I like the thougt... so whenever I'm sick of my own head (and world) I take a book and I'm gone... most of the times I love the fact that this is my world ... but sometimes I just despair while trying to explain my thoughts.. I feel as if I was speaking a foreing language that noone understands... so I'd perhaps like to have only one other individuum that talks my toung... well, yea so I hate it an love it .. now you understand my name, I'm inbetween

Reading is inherently an anti-social behavior through the tangible eye, but it transcends loneliness intangibly. Reading, like any other vocation, must be implemented into one’s life w/ some sense of balance; otherwise an unwanted effect is sure to occur.

Great thread topic by the way, as this is place is safe haven from loneliness :)

I find reading comforting, not a lonely pursuit at all. In fact, when I get away from reading, that is when I begin to feel depressed and lonely. I think reading and experiencing the mind and the idea of a great author and human being is very much like being in contact with his soul. I find reading makes me, not only thoughful, but also happy beyond describing. It places me in another world, of which I connect with the thoughts of another human being, even though they, themselves no longer physically exist. Their works and soul lives on. This is the magic of communication. Books are just one more form of communication as is music and art.

I do not agree that reading is a ''lonely'' process. Yes, it is a solitary process in that you are doing it alone. But there are thousands doing precisely the same thing. Each of us gains from reading and we become more contributive people as we learn from the materials we read. Thus, the world becomes a better place for the time spent on this wonderful activity.

Reading is really a lonely activity but the fact is it kills our loneliness and we can have a company op people of the world over, not only of this time, we will kind of come across genres of people of many centuries. When I read Shakespeare I will silently communicate with people of a country that was different than what I am in. I can share ideas of them and this indeed will liven up my soul. Therefore reading is not something that gives loneliness but it takes us to a world of friendliness and affability in point of fact. I have moments when I was unaccompanied, living solitarily and had it not been for books or to put it another way, if books did not give me company of I would have lived a life of melancholy. But books always supported me against the stretches of time in life. Even now I cannot think about life without books, for books give me all kinds of emotional and intellectual satisfaction. It has of course widened my world of thought and imagination. And therefore loneliness and books are two different and opposite poles. Or to put simply loneliness cannot exist where there are books

Reading and books have provided me with a livelihood as well as helping to keep me sane and literally saving my life. If it wasn't for reading, I wouldn't be here--I'd been dead a long time ago.