Social reading?

[Freeshadow]

I 'd connotate social reading with "take a book and read it to someone else. FYI: look up how some cigars acquired their names (e. g. Monte Christo; Romeo & Julietta) everything else is plainly disturbing someone while reading and as such an anti-social behaviour! towards him or her as a reader.
Whilst I am not cutting someone's throat for doing so on the spot I expect a damn good reason for such an impolite behaviour. A fellow genre reader asking for my favlist is a special exception because of the importance to spread the word. Apart from that: When I read, I want to dive into the story and leave the rest outside. Just so. The term "rest" very prominently includes all these individuals whose attention span is stretched to its limits by reading and clicking a "like it" button, discussing the last crap of the day inside public transportation wehicles and the likes.
In cases I can't read in sanity-hostile environments I have an audio based anti-disturbance comfortation-layer emitter prepared. (they are sold as mp3 players) There's a t-shirt to buy @ thinkgeek which says: "You've read my t-shirt. That's enough socialization for today. "
That's it in a nutshell.

[ScalyFreak]

Originally Posted by Freeshadow

In cases I can't read in sanity-hostile environments I have an audio based anti-disturbance comfortation-layer emitter prepared. (they are sold as mp3 players)

You get karma for that one.

[BelleZora]

Social reading....sounds threatening. Reading is a peaceful activity because it is solitary. Agreed that Kindle's public highlighting feels intrusive, even invasive.

I like tracking books (and pages) read on Goodreads and have appreciated reviews and comments of others. But it is otherwise a solitary pursuit since I have no friends active on the site.

The only reason I'm on Facebook is because, without it, I would have no idea what my grandchildren, nieces, or nephews were up to. I quit once thinking I would make a greater effort to stay touch the old fashioned way. Didn't work.

[DiapDealer]

RE Social Networking sites: I figure if I can't manage to stay in touch with someone in the real world... we must not really need/like each other all that much.

[Synamon]

Put me in the antisocial column. I don't even like talking in detail about the books I've read, the experience of reading is intimate and private for me. I certainly wouldn't want to hear someone's comments while I'm reading.

I like lists of books for recommendations, since those either have no description or a very brief summary. I barely skim reviews and descriptions of books, usually reading only the first and last sentence of them to avoid spoilers and being influenced by someone else's impression of the book.

[Xanthe]

Originally Posted by Matthew Bostock

I see where you guys are coming from, but don't you think there's some room for the web and social media to come into play?

When you're reading, granted, you don't want any social. At [deleted] we don't do that. It's just text on a page, as you'd envisage. But when you choose to highlight something, sharing springs into life.

For example, if I'm following someone and what they read, when they make highlights in a book, they are giving me an insight into it way deeper than the cover and summary could ever do. Therefore, exploiting the 'social' is good for book discovery.

I never write in books myself, am not interested in watching someone else read a book, and don't care to read the margin notes of others, so no, I have no need to incorporate social media into my reading process.

[Sweetpea]

Originally Posted by kennyc

Reading is specifically an individual pursuit. Literature discussion groups are social, (such as this website). I abhor "social media" such as facebook, google+ etc.

The same here. I read books I like and I don't care to share my experience with it with strangers. I might tell a friend to read a certain book because of this and that, but I won't even announce it on a forum like this. And things like facebook and google+ and whatever, those can disappear from the face of the earth without me ever noticing...

[crich70]

I think the closest thing to social reading that was once upon a time was the old Storyteller on cold winter nights myself. There are such things as book clubs I guess where everyone reads a given book and discussion takes place about it, but I'm more into individual reading myself.

[maxiart]

The most social reading I do is looking at reviews and reviewing things I read on Goodreads or checking things here. I would not mind sharing brief impressions and opinions if someone I know and I are on the same page on a book we are both interested in or something, but mostly, I'd want to get on with the reading.

In general, if I can talk about reading, its highly probable I could be reading instead, and I'd rather do just that.

[Lirael]

I have no need nor want for "social reading."

I read because I want to either derive some entertainment from it, to experience escapism, or to learn something for myself, not to analyze it all to hell and back and go over it with other people - I did enough of that in school, thanks!

I just finished reading two books tonight, and I have many thoughts about them. Shall I write you all a poorly-spelled and badly-punctuated term paper on them, complete with my half-baked philosophical musings? Or make notes in the books' margins that copy, verbatim, the sentence they're right next to, as though that somehow adds a deeper level of understanding? (Got that one once...) More to the point, would any of you actually want to read that? I sure don't!

I feel like any attempt "social reading" is destined to be just like other social media - Jane Doe can post all she wants, but the only person who cares about Jane Doe's thoughts on what Jane Doe is doing, thinking, eating, or reading at any given moment is Jane Doe herself, and the rest of us don't want it cluttering up our screens.

[VaporPunk]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

RE Social Networking sites: I figure if I can't manage to stay in touch with someone in the real world... we must not really need/like each other all that much.

Generally speaking, a valid point. Unless you live on the other side of the real world from some of them.

As to the OP, I'm sure you'll find some readers that will enjoy your site. Good luck with it.

My 2 cents, let them's what wanna be social, be social. And leave the others alone. By the way, isn't MR a form of social networking? What are all of us introverts doing here?

Originally Posted by VaporPunk

By the way, isn't MR a form of social networking? What are all of us introverts doing here?

MR is a bit of a paradox: a bunch of people socializing to figure out how to make the world a more antisocial place ... at least judging from this thread.

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by BWinmill

MR is a bit of a paradox: a bunch of people socializing to figure out how to make the world a more antisocial place ... at least judging from this thread.

Well... not so much anti-social, as much as, just a little less over-the-top-silly Facebook/Twitter-social.

[carpetmojo]

Originally Posted by Apache

I am definitely not social, nor do I want to be, when I read. To me that would seem just like going to the movies and having people talking all around you.
Apache

AND probably with large bags of potato crisps, popcorn, crinkle-wrapped sweets, slurpy ice-creams, smoothies with straws, and nice fizzy cans of pop..........


Grump..........mumble......... grump.......

[Belfaborac]

Originally Posted by carpetmojo

AND probably with large bags of potato crisps, popcorn, crinkle-wrapped sweets, slurpy ice-creams, smoothies with straws, and nice fizzy cans of pop..........


Grump..........mumble......... grump.......

This why I've almost stopped going to the cinema. These days there's always half a dozen people in who simply can't shut up, except when they fill their gobs with the noisiest snacks available. Usually they sit in a cluster right behind me. In the old days they'd have been shushed once, told off directly once and then thrown out on their arse by the attendants, but these days no-one gives a toss.

The world is going to the dogs, there's no getting around it.