Do you have friends and family to share books with? Discuss them with? Does it matter to you?
My husband and I only occasionally read the same books, but we manage to talk about books all the same. Or rather, I make him listen to passages I’m reading, and I discuss. He listens well! We have a lot of books in our home, and we both enjoy reading.
I sometimes talk books with my daughters, but they don’t always really want to talk about books with me—I think because I’m an English teacher. All of my children love reading, and I’m grateful for it.
I sometimes talk about books with my sister, but we don’t read a lot of the same books, either. She often asks me about books.
I will never, ever recommend another book to my mother. She and I are apparently so different in our preferences that we have a strong dislike for each other’s favorites.
I talk about books with friends all the time. Being an English teacher has its perks in that you generally get to work with people who love books. We talk books frequently. I also discuss books with students. We have a faculty book club, too, which has been a lot of fun because some of our most voracious readers are in other departments.
I share books with students a lot, but I don’t often pass along my books. I have loaned out my Jasper Fforde books to a colleague this year, but books loaned to students sometimes don’t return. 😥 Now that I’m doing quite a lot of reading on my Kindle and my iPhone (audio books in iTunes), it’s harder to pass on a physical copy to someone else.
It does matter to me to have the ability to discuss books with someone. I was so glad when my dad began reading the Harry Potter books. Where our interests coincide, such as Harry Potter or Tolkien, he is perhaps the best person to discuss books with that I know.