HOW SOCIAL NETWORKING IS READING?

Is reading a social networking activity? Or is it more a solitary adventure? 

I've been in a real reading group only once in my life and it hasn't been a totally rewarding experience, especially because not all the readers in the group shared my passion for the author we were reading: Jane Austen. That can be disappointing, you know. 

I also read books and discuss them with my teenage students, but also in those cases disappointment can come, and not unexpected. Not many teenagers love reading or appreciate literature. My job is quite challenging, my task is to "convert" them to liking it. I personally like challenges and I like my students too,  but it is difficult to really share with them the experience of reading a book. I love listening to their comments, they are sometimes very personal and heartfelt but ... generally,  they just avoid reading, they simply say they hate it.

Thanks to blogging, my personal outlook on reading has recently changed and what used to be a solitary experience for me - enriching and formative but completely isolating from the rest of the world -  has eventually turned into a more social networking passtime. How's that possible? 

Thanks to my blogs. I have read more and with a different attitude to books, widened my scope to many different genres, shared my opinions and musings with so many different readers, discovered new authors, familiarized with e-books and e-readers, discovered more about the world of writing/publishing, I've virtually made the acquaintance of  writers and readers from all over the world. 

For me reading has become a social networking activity, since I've been able to create a web of connections with so many people and reading become a much less solitary experience. Do you want to get to the same goal? Here are a few tips for you:

- Share your  impressions on books or your favourite  quotes from them on your twitter, facebook, blog /site, forums and chat rooms.

- Post about what you buy,  what you have read or are going to read

- Create a virtual library (you can start yours at Library Thing or Goodreads among many great sites)

- Take part in online reading groups/clubs, read-a-long or marathons,  reading challenges

- Leave your comments on book blogs featuring book reviews and author interviews, share your musings on sites and blogs you like.

Your reading and sharing will let you enter a huge web of contacts  which will make the entire experience more exciting and rewarding, especially because you will certainly find the right people to share your enthusiasm, passions, fondness, interests with. No matter the distance between you and them. Remember: Caring is sharing.