Free Reading and Reading Critically
First the positive. Open Culture has links to over 600 free ebooks: http://www.openculture.com/free_ebooks
Many are public domain, but some are more recent: samples from Neil Gaiman for example. They also have links to some more extensive sites like project Gutenberg, and I found this link through another article about the entire Harvard Classics collection now being available for free as downloads.
There are a number of studies that relate reading to all sorts of positive mental, social, and financial benefits and certainly it helps expand vocabulary. But what you read can be as important as how much you read. And whether you are reading a book or watching TV it's important to exercise critical thinking skills.
We're going to pick on 50 Shades of Grey for a moment. The book has already received a lot of criticism for portraying abusive behaviors as romantic, and a new study from the University of Michican has found:
"Young adult women who read “Fifty Shades of Grey” are more likely than nonreaders to exhibit signs of eating disorders and have a verbally abusive partner," - from the Summary Article on the University of Michigan website (or read the Full Study Report from the Journal of Women's Health).
From the article: "...kids and young adults should be taught to consume fiction, television, movies, magazines and other mass media with a critical eye... We recognize that the depiction of violence against women in and of itself is not problematic, especially if the depiction attempts to shed serious light on the problem....The problem comes when the depiction reinforces the acceptance of the status quo, rather than challenging it.”
This is true of 50 Shades of Grey. It's also true of Plato, Nietzsche, and the local news article that ran this morning. We should be hesitant to accept anything we read, hear, or view purely at face value. Fiction and news articles in particular tend to thrive on conflict and drama and often portray people doing the most dramatic things rather than the best or smartest thing.
And in this critical reading effort, I hope you include anything that my co-author and I say. While we write in the hopes of sharing useful tips and information, there are few pieces of advice that work equally for every situation. Take what is useful to you and feel free to reject what is not.
Many are public domain, but some are more recent: samples from Neil Gaiman for example. They also have links to some more extensive sites like project Gutenberg, and I found this link through another article about the entire Harvard Classics collection now being available for free as downloads.
There are a number of studies that relate reading to all sorts of positive mental, social, and financial benefits and certainly it helps expand vocabulary. But what you read can be as important as how much you read. And whether you are reading a book or watching TV it's important to exercise critical thinking skills.
We're going to pick on 50 Shades of Grey for a moment. The book has already received a lot of criticism for portraying abusive behaviors as romantic, and a new study from the University of Michican has found:
"Young adult women who read “Fifty Shades of Grey” are more likely than nonreaders to exhibit signs of eating disorders and have a verbally abusive partner," - from the Summary Article on the University of Michigan website (or read the Full Study Report from the Journal of Women's Health).
From the article: "...kids and young adults should be taught to consume fiction, television, movies, magazines and other mass media with a critical eye... We recognize that the depiction of violence against women in and of itself is not problematic, especially if the depiction attempts to shed serious light on the problem....The problem comes when the depiction reinforces the acceptance of the status quo, rather than challenging it.”
This is true of 50 Shades of Grey. It's also true of Plato, Nietzsche, and the local news article that ran this morning. We should be hesitant to accept anything we read, hear, or view purely at face value. Fiction and news articles in particular tend to thrive on conflict and drama and often portray people doing the most dramatic things rather than the best or smartest thing.
And in this critical reading effort, I hope you include anything that my co-author and I say. While we write in the hopes of sharing useful tips and information, there are few pieces of advice that work equally for every situation. Take what is useful to you and feel free to reject what is not.
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