I always thought reading was a dying past time; people just don't pick up a book, sit down and read. I'm a victim of the same crime. It's been years since I've read a book outside of academics. Between work and school, it's hard to find time and when I do, I'd rather spend it doing something else. But Gardener in Reading and Writing about Literature suggested that we read lots more than we are inclined to think. There's the bumper sticker on the car in front of me or the subtitles scrolling across whatever foreign show I'm currently watching. On average I read plenty more than I think I do, which is interesting. Our society isn't as keen on books as it once was, but we're far from being illiterate. Because of all the reading we do from advertisements, magazines, or bumper stickers, we may read even more so than we did in the past. Our whole society functions on our ability to do so. It shows just how important the ability to read in our current society is. Without it, we would be lost. Something as simple as reading the directions for putting a bookcase together wouldn't even be possible. This is what Manguel hints at in A History of Reading. Reading is key to the function of our society and I never realized it before. I always took it for granted as every other aspect of daily life.
Gardener does differentiate between what we read everyday and literature however. Even though as a society we probably read more than we did fifty or sixty years ago, we don't read literature. Our time spent reading is limited to trivial things such as advertisements or a junk piece of mail; we just don't read literature anymore and it stresses its importance. In a society where literature is being cast aside, literature is becoming all the more important. The ability to analyze it and gain its full meaning is essential and literature has so much to offer from an interesting new take on a common idea to an imaginative journey in a dangerous, far away land. The literature becomes a part of you and who you are and it feels like Gardner is encouraging me to pick up a novel and get into the habit of reading once again.
You make a good point! Many people don't read for fun anymore, only when it's necessary. I barely had the chance to read for fun until this past summer; then I remembered how much I loved reading. I also think that many of us assume that reading is directly related to an actual book – the physical object. We don't take into account everything else we read throughout the day – it could be as trivial as a bumper sticker, as you said, but it still counts. I feel that many of us aren’t very fond of reading literature – sometimes it’s hard to understand, other times it’s hard to analyze (which is my personal problem). From now on, though, I’m going to try my best to not let literature defeat me and actually enjoy reading it!
ReplyDelete{Reading routine things verses Literature = sentence structures and movies}
ReplyDeleteRemember when you write a short essay on the importance of reading books and when you should make a special notes about how reading improves your grammar and spelling. Now think about the last book you may or may not have read that is now on the big screen. Those issues come to mind when I think of route reading verse literature. Now think about if no one wrote the next epic comedy where would we get our movies from? Or even the advice we receive from self-help books and learning lesson from our past with historical books. I believe we (society) just need to be reminded of those things. See we make time for the things we want to do and yes what we have to do. It may become a necessary evil to read literature so we can become a better society. Less violence and plainly have greater tolerances/appreciations for each other. Plus do we really read everything we see for example a STOP sign, wow; what would the police have to do before and after lunch. (Lol).
I would have to say that I feel reading, and the ability to read, is one of the fundamental stepping stones to being a functional society. You never truly consider how much a person has been through just to be able to read a newspaper, or even send a text. Years and years of learning have helped to cultivate our society into what it is today. Without this continued forward progression, without literature and English education, we will cease to have the capability to change our status in life and have to accept the hand we are dealt at birth.
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