Reading Retreats Suggest A Massive Sacrifice of Privacy

3quarksdaily: "So why not plan a vacation devoted exclusively to reading? Twice annually, Bill Gates schedules a week-long 'reading retreat' during which he does nothing but pore over the books and papers he's set aside during the year." The idea that one needs a social basis for reading strikes me as a massive invasion of privacy. If reading is essentially the great opportunity we have to fathom things in the precious privacy betwixt ourselves and the text, the notion that this can and should be turned into a social outing is ludicrous. There is nothing more private and rewarding that one's intimacy with a book. Well maybe one thing. But that makes my point.

Global Online Privacy