"I don't read any more. I just talk to people who have." - Dr Tom Malloy, University of Utah, quoted by Paul B Hartzog at Many2Many.

Hartzog continues

When two people have a conversation, they act as proxies for the many ideas in their heads which are drawn from the many things they have read. In effect, a conversation is a many-to-many interaction that is both mediated and moderated by the participants. The individuals catalog, sort, tag, and filter ideas as they are drawn into the shared space of the conversation.