Have been enjoying a bit of a readathon these last few days. The book review comes shortly, but today I just wanted to revel in the sheer pleasure of reading. My memories of reading go back a very long way. In fact, I could read a fair bit before I started at primary school. And once school started it was a tremendous incentive to good behaviour to be amongst the few who finished their work in time to give them some space in the book corner.
I was fortunate growing up in a home where both my parents were readers. They belonged to the local libraries, both Local Authority and private. If I remember rightly it was Boots the Chemist who had a small library of books that were more modern than the public one. The fee was each time you changed a book so that produced its own limiting factor. Looking back, I remember my mother as liking slightly old fashioned novels, whilst my father had to read books on economics and commerce as part of his external degree. That was a time when returning soldiers were being encouraged to better themselves by gaining all sorts of qualifications. Dad was part of the occupying forces in Germany and became interested in transport infrastructure there. Mum kept me going by suggesting writers like Rider Haggard and Edgar Rice Burroughs. Tales in the style of Indiana Jones, what fun.
Throughout my life reading has been a constant and abiding solace. It is a tragedy when people leave school without the ability to enter into a marvellous world of education and entertainment. A recent study suggested that online communication and the internet is reducing the attention span of students. There is a tendency to fact-hop and scan chunks of information and surf from site to site. There is even a trend of thought that advises how to discuss famous books that you’ve never read. What a waste.
Happy reading.
I so agree with you. I hope my little grandson will love reading. I want him to be able to read for pleasure. Sometimes the schools take that away from students. I’m a firm believer not all children are ready to read when the schools say it’s time to read, sometimes causing reading to be a stressful experience for some children. What a shame.
Amen Sister on the reading. Very few things give me more pleasure than being in the middle of a good book.
Critical thinking skills and contemplative thought. There is a recently published book on this and it has the word ‘Shallow’ in the title, although I cannot remember the full title.
I’ve been reading avidly in recent months. When I went to college and grad school in my 40s, I had little time for reading anything but text books, and I learned to read in excerpts. I found that I could not read a book cover to cover as I once did. Then in December my daughter and her family gave me a Kindle, as I was scheduled for surgery in January, and somehow, that has restored my ability to read in quantity, once again. Since then I have read nearly 100 books! Hurrah!!
The Kindle idea is something I had not thought about much, however, I have been experiencing problems with small print and bad light….. ie older eyes…… so maybe an adjustable device would help with that too.
Freda, I find the print far more clear and crisp, so even in the smaller prints, I can read it better than usual print in a book. But when I am tired, I sometimes enlarge the size of the print and it helps a lot. it is the easiest reading I’ve done!
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