The Hobbit and Social vs. Individual Reading

This week, I started reading The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien I am absolutely loving it so far. I am up to page 112 of the book and it is quite fast paced and exciting. So far, Bilbo has been taken on a journey that he really did not want much to do with. He is traveling with dwarves and Gandalf and will be acting as a burglar. They then traveled on to Rivendell and stayed there for a few days before moving on with their journey. The company went on up the Misty Mountains and encountered trolls that tried to cook and eat them. Gandalf then saved the day by distracting them long enough for the sun to come up and turn the trolls into stone. They found the trolls cave and acquired some Elven blades that were stashed away there. They moved on into the mountains and hid in a cave from the storm that was going on outside. While they were sleeping in the cave, goblins came through a secret entrance and took the dwarves and Bilbo to their city in the mountain. There, they ended up being saved by Gandalf, but they got snuck up on and Bilbo somehow woke up in a dark cave. He encountered a creature called Gollum and they had a riddle contest for Gollum to show Bilbo the way out of the caves. Bilbo finally wins the contest by asking what was in his pocket. Bilbo found a ring on the ground and put it in his pocket previously. This belonged to Gollum and he suspects that Bilbo stole it. Bilbo puts the ring on a disappears while Gollum is chasing him and Gollum tries to find him by searching near the entrance which leads Bilbo out. Bilbo has some troubles leaving the goblin city, but squeezes out the door barely with the ring on. He then ends up happening upon the dwarves and Gandalf near there and they set off at a quick pace so they can escape the goblins. They end up coming to a great forest and happening upon wolves so they climb up trees to escape. Alas, the goblins are coming and soon arrive to get them out of the trees. However, the day is saved by the great eagles who pick them out of the trees and take them to their nest.

Now for this week's question! Historically, reading tends to be a pretty solitary activity--we usually read books independently and don't often read when we are with others as it can be considered anti-social behavior as you aren't interacting with the people around you. In recent years, that seems to be changing a bit with the creation of book clubs, social media groups like good reads, book blogs, and even reading retreats where a group will go on a retreat with a group of people and spend most of the time reading. Explain whether you believe reading is best left a solitary activity or whether you believe making it social encourages more people to read.

 Reading is definitely a solitary activity. The actual act and experience of reading a book really can not be a group activity unless a book is read aloud. However, talking about opinions and experiences with books can be a group activity. Sharing feelings and things about a certain book can be social and change the experience with books. Even some sort of book group that all reads the same book and then talks about it can be a social kind of thing to go with the independent reading of books. Actually reading something is always individual and personal though. I think that sharing opinions of books is really interesting and different though. Getting to hear what other people think compared to what you saw, heard, and experienced is actually quite cool. So I do not think reading is a completely anti-social because it is something that can be discussed with other people. The act of reading a book is individual though because it cannot be shared unless a book is read aloud.