Katherine Mansfield said, "The pleasure of reading is doubled when one lives with another who shares the same books." A flurry of recent price breaks for the Sony Reader (apparently both intended and unintended) has me wondering how many of us are actually reading together with a friend or family member. Outside of book clubs or school assignments, does anyone actually do that anymore?
This topic naturally brings the Sony Reader to mind because of the way the Connect store is set up - you can read Connect store books with any of the Sony Readers set up on that same account. Even before the device was released, Sony had envisioned families reading together. Yet, I only know personally of one couple who does that. (They are MobileRead members, of course, and they read Baen science fiction. We discussed the Sony Reader over lunch last year, and they have since bought a pair of the e-ink devices.)
In this fast paced world full of so many entertainment choices, I wonder if the nostalgic idea of reading books together has just faded into a historical curiosity. I hope not.