Let me count the ways.

In reading clubs each member reads the decided upon book at home and when the group meets it then discusses it. That's a social activity, but I'm not sure that it can really be called social reading. And it's hard to relate to classroom reading - that quiet period often before the start of the day during which each pupil takes out a book and reads to him or herself - as social. It's a good guess that most pupils would rather be doing something truly social, like passing notes. But back in high school I have very fond memories of a group of friends getting together on Saturday evenings to sit in a circle and read a book out loud, and that was most definitely a social act. Readers who come to book stores to hear authors (usually on promotion tours) read a chapter from a new book are clearly, and purposefully, taking part in a social activity. Poetry readings aren't as popular as they once were, but these were clearly social (not to mention Homer reciting his epics). Today's slam poetry evenings keep up that tradition. One of the best known examples of social reading is probably Cuban cigar factories where the lector would read literature and/or the newspaper to the rollers. None of these prove anything, but they at least suggest that while for most of us today reading is a personal (if not necessarily "isolated") activity, there are times when it can be social.



Go to: All (sort of) together now.