You are preaching to the choir! :) I love reading , and I love writing too. There's so much to learn in the story of others, and we have certainly - and biologically evolved around a campfire where story, reading and discussion on story is a foundational method for gaining knowledge and wisdom.

I don't see readers out in "public" often, but I have gone to become a part of my local area's writing group, and hearing their stories in our short little 15-minute prompt based exercises, for a moment, lets me hear the complex noise that goes on in their minds and to "Test" my own writing too.

And maybe, somewhere along the way, we will draw a connection between the disconnected, and all learn something new.