My dear friends, do you remember when we were little?
Sitting in Mommy or Daddy's lap following along as they pointed to the words as they read us our beloved picture books, politically incorrect as they may have been? Most of us would beg our parents to read us stories before bed, and often even go so far as to insist that we really really couldn't fall asleep until they read us Goldy Locks and the Three Bears at least one more time.
As we got older and could read on our own, how many of us fell in love with Clifford the Big Red Dog, Goosebumps, and the Harry Potter series? Who can still remember the enthusiasm with which we searched the library for our paper back treasures and how eagerly we ran to our room as soon as we got home to turn it's slightly musty smelling pages?
Now though, when was the last time you read something that wasn't assigned? What was the last book you simply could not put down?
Something that I've noticed in my peers is the stubborn refusal to even pick up a book, much less finish one. I know the excuses, I've used some of them myself. I don't have time, I have too many classes, a huge paper is due tomorrow, I have to study for an exam. How is it that we are able to make time for video games, parties, television, and other such diversions, yet we can't make time to engage in something more.....intellectually stimulating, so to speak.
The intellectual depravity that runs rampant in my generation is astounding, the staunch refusal to enrich ones own mind is appalling. I'm not sure about the rest of you, but I am no longer satisfied with mindless chatter over celebrities, video games, and crappy movies. I yearn for conversation that actually means something, that leaves me feeling as though it was time well spent as opposed to time that should have been spent on something useful.
Is anyone else as frustrated as I am?
Absolutely i generally read at least a good size novel a week but probably average at about 3-4. In high school i asked some new friends if they'd read any good books recently. They said that the only thing close to a book they'd read in about 3 years that wasn't assigned for class was a magazine. i was shocked. I read the news or watch it when i can't get a paper. I thirst for substance in what i read. I could care less at which celebrity is divorcing her husband or adopting a third world baby. I talked to my boss who is a few years older than me. He owns a business and yet hasn't read anything in a long time.
ReplyDeleteAlthough there are such things as junk books which do nothing to enrich the mind... stuff that is poorly written and panders to the same sort of sensationalism that the other mediums do as well. Romance novels are a prime example of this but so are spy novels and whatnot. Unfortunately, although i dearly love them, the only thing fantasy books do for me is enhance my vocabulary and give my imagination a work out.
and i will give credit where it's do. these people who won't read a book can be well informed and well educated. They can converse intelligently on political theory or ethics without having taken courses in them. I've also learned so much about what i know from the world by watching saturday morning breakfast cartoons and picking little things from them.
Sorry for rambling, my point is that we should be focusing more intellectual stimulation itself and not the source.