…a good thing. We have been told this
for the entirety of our school careers and beyond into higher
education. Reading opens doors into the mind, fosters creativity and
open mindedness, and enhances our knowledge of various topics. The
bad side to reading.... well, I can't really think of one.
So easy a cavem-- I mean, a child can do it. Or in this case smart baby.
For me, reading is a relaxing activity
to be done when I'm finished homework (or when I'm avoiding homework)
or just because, when I want to escape from my own life for a time
and focus on someone else's struggles for a while. I read a lot of
fiction and my favorite genres include science fiction and fantasy,
though generally I will read just about anything. I've even been
known to read a nonfiction book or three. But in general, I love
reading stories about adventures, especially when my own life seems
so mundane in comparison. Go to class, do homework, rinse, repeat.
Reading does a great deal to break up the monotony. It is a calming
activity that inspires me.
This is EXACTLY what I look like when I read.
But not everyone shares my love of
reading. Some friends of mine don't particularly enjoy it, saying
that they do so much reading for their various classes that reading
has become a chore, work to be done for class. This sucks the fun out
of reading. Other reasons cited were that reading is an activity that
requires a lot of time to do, and takes a really long time to “get
to the point”. This suggests that what people that don't like
reading lack is patience. This is not a blanket statement about
character. There are perhaps other connections to modern society as a
whole.
I have a hat just like that one.
We live in an age and in a place where
literacy is incredibly high. But we also live in the age of the
internet. I once read an article in Atlantic monthly
about why “Google makes us stupid.” In it, the author describes a
phenomenon wherein the internet presents so many small bites of
information to us in a relatively short amount of time, that it
diminishes our ability to just sit down and read and absorb
information for a longer period of time. Essentially, the internet is
robbing us of our patience.
This
can have adverse affects not only on the way we spend our leisure
time (as in, we read less), but it also puts us at a disadvantage in
our academic pursuits. Can you remember when was the last time you
checked out a book from the library to do research for some paper or
other and knew exactly how to get the information that you needed
without reading the whole book? These are essential skills to have
both in school and higher education.
"Library porn", as it were.
But
the world is changing. A lot of the information that was once found
in books can now be found on the internet. Is it OK that our
attention spans are starting to slip or should we try to do something
about it? Certainly the internet has been a great help for things
like research and so perhaps changing with the times is the way to
go. But there are just some things that are better done with real
books.
And as
for leisure reading, well, I guess it's not everyone's cup of tea,
but I couldn't imagine a life without it.
Images courtesy of:
http://libraryhubbub.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/reading-woman-w-book.jpg
http://blogs.publishersweekly.com/blogs/PWxyz/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/reading.jpg
http://orgs.svsu.edu/clubs/vanguard/files/40/16/full/books.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/2b/Melk_-_Abbey_-_Library.jpg/300px-Melk_-_Abbey_-_Library.jpg
I like to read--I know some people that find it boring, but I feel like they just haven't something interesting enough to make them enjoy it. Reading is food for thought--there is a lot of rubbish and boring stuff out there, and a lot of wholesome stuff just like there's junk and wholesome foods. I don't really like all of the fiction stuff like the Hunger Games and Twilight stuff, but really like non-fiction reads.
ReplyDeleteReading was originally looked down upon when literature become more widespread (thanks to the invention of the printing press). Now of course, that's changed for the most part.
Vera, you touched on a lot of high points that I can directly relate to. My love for reading has only grown over the past couple of years even though now it is more of a delicacy for me since most of my reading is for classes and scholarly works. But even then I like to look at it as time well spent learning something new -- though I have to admit that reading my statistics book becomes rather cumbersome after awhile.
ReplyDeleteMany people support the eReader technology as it (generally) makes books more accessible, but now with the newer readers coming out a lot of people are worried that the tech aspect of the readers will take over the original purpose, distracting users with apps instead of material.