When I was younger, I read every book my elementary school library had. My father called me a couch potato, and tried to bribe me to do something else. It never worked, and he eventually gave up, accepting how much I love it. Then one summer we started going to the public library. I loved it, and we went fairly regularly, about once a week. I had enough books to last me through the summer. When school started up again, it became a problem for me. I had to beg to go to the library. Correct me if I'm wrong, but don't most parents WISH their kids would read more? Study more? Focus on school work more? Not mine- they try to get me to watch T.V. I don't understand. Reading is good, its an enjoyable hobby for many people. I would make time to read, still fitting in schoolwork and family obligations, as well as friends. It felt like I got punished for liking to read- no library vists would be a punishment for me.
Even my friends act this way. I have one friend who, every time she calls me, I'm at the library. Her mom is a librarian, and yet she cannot understand the appeal to reading. Why is reading being looked down upon now? Has our culture shifted this way, or is it just the people around me?
Is Reading a new EVIL?
By MeEncantaPollo - Posted on May 9th, 2008
Tagged: kids and reading
• Reading
You'll ultimately be better off for having read so much. Vocabulary size is the best indicator of academic achievement and future career status. I think its sad that so many people don't understand the joy or benefits of reading.
Common sense is as rare as genius. ~Emerson
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I agree with Esuffern. Reading opens your mind to the minds of the great thinkers who have gone before you. Without reading, our world would descend into ignorance (wow, that sounds depressing!), and we would not be able to share ideas that have been passed from generation to generation.
I don't have time to read when i am at school, but if i find interesting books, i keep my nose in them for hours a day until i'm done. My mom goes, we haven't seen you, you're always in your room, come down and drink tea or something. I'm like yea one minute and i keep reading. I find reading as a way to escape reality. Its that and sleeping. The Harry Potter books really had me going. I spend my summers reading too. I go to the library and just pick up a whole bunch of novels. I don't think there's anything wrong with reading. It opens up a door to your thoughts. Whether true or fiction.
I'm going to make a reading recommendation for you- if you like the Harry Potter books, the Inheritance Trilogy: Eragon, Eldest, and the third book isn't out yet. The author is young but very good and the magic is much more develped than in Harry Potter. The movie Eragon, if you've seen it, is nothing like the book and was a huge dissapointment. Check them out- the books are awesome.
Thanks for telling me : ) i've always wondered if there were books out there just as good as Harry Potter. I didn't know that there was a book Eragon. I've seen the movie and your prolly right that it was a dissapointment. Though what got me to read Harry Potter was the movies. But i know that books will always be more detailed than films to me. Maybe cause my imagination tends to build on the empty spaces.
I'm adding to the reccomendations! I'll be honest about how I feel about Eragon and Eldest...the plot is excellent, but I don't feel they were written very well. I'm an avid reader, and I'll read anything, and it seems to me that if Christopher Paolini had taken a little more time to edit and revise the two books, they would have come out a lot better.
But...if you like fantasy...especially Harry Potter...try to read anything by Tamora Pierce! She is, in my opinion, one of the greatest fantasy writers around! She tends to write in Quartets...I found her through the Circle of Magic quartet. The first one got such a hold on me, I never wanted it to end. Ever. The characters are so real, and her style is easy to runderstand, and it flows so well...
Okay, okay, I'm done advocating her books! xD Just go read them!
And that's comin' at ya' from yer local redneck hippie.
Tamora Pierce rocks my socks. I first read the Circle of Magic series too, but the Alanna series was my favorite.
Common sense is as rare as genius. ~Emerson
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thanks again :-) Imma check out all the suggestions. Sometimes you need to read to get away from the internet and television. It feels like you're in a dream but not sleeping. Reading is great. Sometimes though you really do need to put the book down, cause you forget everything around you (i do that all the time) but it can't hurt.
The thing about Paolini is that he was 15 when he wrote the first book, and his parents were the publishers. So, while it is a frickin' amazing book, the technical aspects were pretty much ignored.
As my favorite teacher so eloquently put it, "The only reason he got published is because his parents had connections!"
I feel that's not a reason to ignore the technical aspects...honestly, if I were in his position, I would demand a good editor or two went through it with me to make sure it was as good as it could be. I want my writing to be always at its prime, and if that makes it harder to get something published, so be it.
*fumes*
THis is totally one of my pet peeves...I'm going to stop talking now...
And that's comin' at ya' from yer local redneck hippie.
Yeah, but you have to respect him for using those connections. So what if its not 100 percent perfect- the book itself is extremely good. I think that makes up for it myself. And the second book was much better in that respect, so it is a sign that he is growing and improving. The third book comes out Sept 20, and its bound to be even better. I know I'm looking forward to it.
I'll admit, I'm probably over-critical of a lot of books I read.
And I don't agree that his second book was better. The first half of it just went on and on until I wanted to throw the book across the room, which is a rare occurence for me. There was too much wasted space, and the story was too slow for too long.
And I don't approve of using "connections" to get published. That just leaves people like me who have a passion for writing struggling while he, and others with connections, get their books put on the fast track to being published. It really, really irks me, and is one of the few things I actually have an opinion on. *fumes*
And don't worry, I have just as many issues with Stephen King. My inner editor is a maniac... -_-;
And that's comin' at ya' from yer local redneck hippie.
I didn't mean good as in a good read, I meant as in the technical writing mechanics. The second book was a lot more boring than the first, but I have high hopes for the third book.
Well...maybe a little. I'll give him that much.
Maybe he heard all the agonized cries of inner editors across the nation...
>.>
...
xD
And that's comin' at ya' from yer local redneck hippie.
No, Eragon wasn't that good. It was entirely too dragged out and could have been accomplished a lot easier with a lot more enjoyment in much fewer pages. I haven't read Eldest yet, but I suspect that it's much the same.
~C
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I'm an avid reader too! I love just sitting down and reading a good book. Once I pick up a good one, it's really hard to put down. I've been known to stay up all night reading books! When people make fun of me for this I just laugh at them because while they were sleeping I got to forget my worries and transport into an amazing book!
I got the same thing: I was taught by my grandma to love reading, come to live with my parents, and was/am yelled at for reading around my dad. My punishments are taking my books away from me and making me watch TV.
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http://progressiveu.org/062647-ohmigawd-did-you-hear
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Okay. Wow. Have you seen the movie "Idiocracy?" That's where we're headed if people start punishing kids for reading.
http://www.progressiveu.org/blog/ediblewoman
Its not that they punish me for reading, its that they want me to be doing something else. Punishments are no library visits, or something like that.
The library thing has its hold on my life, too. My parents don't mind me reading, but I NEVER get to go to the library. It's out of the way, a pain in the butt to take me there, etcetera...
The solution...I beg for books. Everywhere. Book swaps, random yard sales we stop at, holidays...even any books anyone's giving away, I'll take. So now my mom is relenting a bit on not taking me to the library...she's worried about the fact that my bookshelves are filled to overflowing. xD
And that's comin' at ya' from yer local redneck hippie.
I have to regularly clean out my bookshelves from books I don't read- I have like 10 big boxes in my attic! My parents don't know what to do with me!
I have alot of books and stuff but everything i have whether i use it or not has some value to me because of memories so i hold on to them. I guess its good to keep stuff though. Its like looking at a past you. Feels great ;-)