Everyone Who Reads Books Is Related to Each Other

Reading, often perceived as a solitary pursuit, is in fact a powerful force for creating shared history and fostering community, argues Josefin Olevik. She likens the collective experience of reading to "campfire TV," advocating for the celebration of "mycelial literature" – the vast network of stories that bind individuals together through common experiences.

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Reading can look like a solitary activity, but then one deceives oneself.

Olevik illustrates this point by recounting her search for a specific scene in a Maria Lang novel. She discovered that the memory of a strangled woman found under a spruce tree, a detail from a 1949 detective novel, was shared by numerous readers. This shared recollection, even of a minor detail in a seemingly obscure book, offers comfort and a hopeful path toward social cohesion.

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Just as we talk about campfire TV, we should celebrate mycelial literature.

This phenomenon extends to widely read works such as "Pride and Prejudice," the Harry Potter series, the Quran, "One Hundred Years of Solitude," the Bible, and "All That Glitters." Olevik suggests that these books create a collective consciousness where ethnicity and political affiliation become irrelevant. The only dividing line is between those who read and those who do not. For those who understand that literature enriches life, they are connected in an organic network of memories.

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This is not only a great comfort for those with a bad memory, it also shows a hopeful path towards cohesion.

Olevik finds comfort in the idea that mentioning a madeleine cake can evoke the scent of linden tea for an entire "mycelium" of readers. This interconnectedness, built through shared literary experiences, highlights the profound and unifying power of reading.

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If a small genre book from grandma's dusty shelf exists in so many other people's consciousness, think then of widely read works...