I was surprised to learn that there were at least three other people with similar reading habits in my company (about 200 people), which is why I have some of that. My copies of the Economist and New Yorker are highly prized, and I maintain a waiting list.

Nat Torkington sent us a lot of books through his Northern Colorado Books for Soldiers project, and I know what people liked out of those, so I would like to see where our boundaries lie. I imagine I must be in the middle of at least a small island on that surface.

I am also very curious about how people migrate through these clusters as time goes on. Most people might stay in the same place, but I have a feeling that if people get a new job, move to a significantly distant place, or start a new hobby (ballroom dancing, bicycling, whatever), those social groups exert pulls. So what are those forces? I know that most of my reading list comes from either what I see in the Economist or hear about on either Fresh Air or This American Life. However, my wife has injected quite a few things into my list, too---stuff that I would never had even bothered with if I did not live with her.

I wonder if we could quantify such a migration and then map it geographically, although I do not think the islands of movement would be that surprising.

Still, I probably am an exception since not too many people submit work to both the Sun and Soldier of Fortune, and get excited about really geeky graphing projects.