On the importance of reading
Okay, perhaps I'm preaching to the converted posting this on a site called Goodreads. Still, I believe that as the percentage of Americans who read regularly drops (and the percentage of Americans who watch television skyrockets) we lose a little piece of our culture. It's not something that's talked about often, but I thought we would sit and discuss this issue for a minute.
To start, it's important to highlight the differences between reading and watching television or a movie.
Both are forms of entertainment, to be sure, but television and movies are a visual medium. We are only given what is right in front of us.
Reading is a mental medium. It engages are brain in a way that television never could.
That's not an indictment on television, just a fact based on the limitations of the medium.
When we read we engage our imaginations. The writer isn't the only one creating a world. Sure, it's the writer's world we are experiencing and the writer is directing the action, but we're making that world our own. No two people will a seen a character in the same way, no two people will imagine a building or a bush or a cigar in the exact same way. We are putting our own personal touches on the world of the author. That use of imagination makes reading a unique type of medium.
It is interesting to think how, as entertainment evolved, it moved away from the engagement of imagination and more towards the explicit.
Reading is the purest form of entertainment (in terms of imagination) then came radio, which was only an auditory medium-you had to picture the actors and the action. Then came movies and television, which eliminated the need for imagination completely.
Reading also enriches your vocabulary in a way that no other medium can. When you are reading you have nothing but the words on the page to guide you. That puts you in contact with the language and broadens your ability to both use words in context and helps your expression.
Reading keeps your mind active. I've read articles about how doing a crossword puzzle can help people prevent Alzheimer's disease and reading follows the same principle.
For writers, I believe that reading is essential. The passion for reading is most often the extension of a passion for reading. That connection that occurs between author and reader is a strong bond and as you continue to read, some people feel the desire to form their own bonds with others. That is the essence of writing.
A writer who does not read is a writer who can't possible understand the craft. It is through the work or others, both good and bad, that we see the structure and the beauty of written communication. Mistakes are often better teachers than successes in this situation and a writer who fails to read is doomed to make the mistakes of all those who came before him-and probably continue to repeat their own mistakes having no context to learn from.
Finally, the emotional connection of a well-written book is something that can't be duplicated by any medium. A book takes you through a journey by looking through someone else's eyes. It is literally walking a mile in another person's shoes. At best, television gives us a kind of "bird's eye" view of the action, but there is a distance to that kind of viewing. A book puts you right in a person's head. You think what they think, you feel what they feel.
The novel has been through the wringer. From the top dog of entertainment to being declared dead to rising, phoenix-like, from the ashes. The beauty and simplicity of the art form has kept it alive for thousands of years. May it live for thousands more.
To start, it's important to highlight the differences between reading and watching television or a movie.
Both are forms of entertainment, to be sure, but television and movies are a visual medium. We are only given what is right in front of us.
Reading is a mental medium. It engages are brain in a way that television never could.
That's not an indictment on television, just a fact based on the limitations of the medium.
When we read we engage our imaginations. The writer isn't the only one creating a world. Sure, it's the writer's world we are experiencing and the writer is directing the action, but we're making that world our own. No two people will a seen a character in the same way, no two people will imagine a building or a bush or a cigar in the exact same way. We are putting our own personal touches on the world of the author. That use of imagination makes reading a unique type of medium.
It is interesting to think how, as entertainment evolved, it moved away from the engagement of imagination and more towards the explicit.
Reading is the purest form of entertainment (in terms of imagination) then came radio, which was only an auditory medium-you had to picture the actors and the action. Then came movies and television, which eliminated the need for imagination completely.
Reading also enriches your vocabulary in a way that no other medium can. When you are reading you have nothing but the words on the page to guide you. That puts you in contact with the language and broadens your ability to both use words in context and helps your expression.
Reading keeps your mind active. I've read articles about how doing a crossword puzzle can help people prevent Alzheimer's disease and reading follows the same principle.
For writers, I believe that reading is essential. The passion for reading is most often the extension of a passion for reading. That connection that occurs between author and reader is a strong bond and as you continue to read, some people feel the desire to form their own bonds with others. That is the essence of writing.
A writer who does not read is a writer who can't possible understand the craft. It is through the work or others, both good and bad, that we see the structure and the beauty of written communication. Mistakes are often better teachers than successes in this situation and a writer who fails to read is doomed to make the mistakes of all those who came before him-and probably continue to repeat their own mistakes having no context to learn from.
Finally, the emotional connection of a well-written book is something that can't be duplicated by any medium. A book takes you through a journey by looking through someone else's eyes. It is literally walking a mile in another person's shoes. At best, television gives us a kind of "bird's eye" view of the action, but there is a distance to that kind of viewing. A book puts you right in a person's head. You think what they think, you feel what they feel.
The novel has been through the wringer. From the top dog of entertainment to being declared dead to rising, phoenix-like, from the ashes. The beauty and simplicity of the art form has kept it alive for thousands of years. May it live for thousands more.
date
newest »
newest »
My two cents.