Joan Didion on reading:
What book do you recommend?
“I actually can’t answer this question. One person’s “must read” is another’s “already been there” and a third person’s “don’t care”. Sometimes I think reading is our last entirely personal activity.”
From a great interview on Flare.com.
However, I do think reading has become less personal with the idea of the lit blog, book blog and personal journal-type blogs. I mean, everyone here knows exactly what I think about every single book I read. The only part I don’t share are all the books I don’t read to the end, because I don’t think it’s quite right to list them until I’ve finished them entirely.
But the act of reading is intensely personal, any more so than watching a movie or television? Maybe not, but if only because so much of it takes place in the mind, in the imagination, I can kind of totally agree with what Didion is saying.