Last night I spent time reading in a Discord group. That means about seven members of the community got together on the platform, set a timer for 45 minutes of quiet reading, then had a discussion after we finished. A couple of things stood out.
- The host provided the platform and played music to read by.
- The online chat was turned on but not many commented after saying hello. We each went about our business: various permutations of reading.
- The point of the gathering was to have one more thing to do together in the established online community. Reading is good.
- We didn’t all share what we were reading. My book was A Freewheelin’ Time: A Memoir of Greenwich Village in the Sixties by Suze Rotolo. Rotolo was an artist widely known as Bob Dylan’s girlfriend from 1961-1964, according to Wikipedia. Dylan acknowledged her influence on his music.
- I was the oldest person, by far.
- We had a voice discussion about public libraries. The group likes libraries. I mentioned they are easy on the pocketbook. In particular, we discussed process: visiting in person, using online tools, the value of checking a book out vs. buying, and placing reserves. The others were not that different from me in terms of process. I wrote about that here.
The time went quickly, and it was fun to know others were reading while I was. The after reading discussion was positive. A community event in a life where we need more of those.
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