Calvino makes You, The Reader the hero of his book. In large part, the book is a love letter to readers and booklovers everywhere. But it's not uncritical -- Calvino seems to be warning of a time when readers are sheep: He talks about people who read only to confirm or amplify what they already believe, like Lotaria (and quite a few bloggers), people who read for escape, people who read to discover, people who read to be reminded, people who read to analyze, etc. Then there's the people who break books down into lists of word frequncy, those who are create computer programs to ape a bestseller's style, etc.
At the same time, he describes and dissects that various ways people read, and implies that in the end, all reading is in essense solitary -- you can be reading the same book beside your lover in a double bed, but you're still alone in your book.
Do you believe that? Or do sites like this make reading a more shared experience? And how and why do you read?
