I stumbled across this blog awhile ago: “…and we also read.” URL: http://readkl.blogspot.com/search/label/at%20a%20cafe
Its premise is to capture people reading, all over the world.
When I visited this morning, the Live Feed included:
Philippines
Australia
Jakarta
Petaling Jaya, Kual Lumpur
Johor Bahru, Johor
Ulm, Baden-Wurttemberg
Singapore
and those were the ones just on the screen.
This young man was waiting to get an x-ray because of his headaches: he was reading Richard Pryor, an American comedian, to pass the time and hopefully to laugh, to get his mind off of his health problems. I can’t tell from the post where he’s from, but it’s not the United States, (although we tend to think we are the center of the universe).
One can only guess at what the center of his universe is. Perhaps he has a girlfriend he’d like to marry; perhaps he helps support his mom and siblings; maybe he just gets migraines occasionally, and the doctor will fix him right up.
Notice: he could be playing a GameBoy, or PSP, or watching movies on 3-G phone. But he’s not. He’s reading a book. Richard Pryor passed away in 2005; and I can tell you, although his humor was definitely R rated, he was really funny. He had many personal demons of his own, as many comedians do.
The founders of this blog are on a mission: to find and photograph people reading, all over the world, for many different purposes. They’re not teachers (I don’t think-there’s nothing on their blog that would suggest this), they seem to be interested in people reading, and their reasons for reading; perhaps they are interested in others’ burning questions, and this is theirs:
Why do people choose to read?
Make sure you have that choice, too, and that freedom.
