Meanwhile, my count for the year is 93 out of my goal of 65. Too bad it only counts the first time I read a book. Then again, I am 66 and had an excellent third grade teacher who motivated me to read.
"... And there was a time in this country, a long time ago, when reading wasn't just for fags and neither was writing. People wrote books and movies, movies that had stories so you cared whose ass it was and why it was farting, and I believe that time can come again!"
Meanwhile, read this and weep.
Either Linda McMahon was asleep at the switch—or the tech bro interests steamrolled over her.
I complimented a young man’s handwriting. He was angry he had to learn cursive. Total waste of time, he said. I told him no knowledge was wasted. Think of how much more sophisticated you are over your peers. My comment caught him off guard. You could see his thought of, Oh, yeah, on his face. But, boy, what a shocker. We’re on our way to “Idiocracy.”
Do the k8ds stoll have to read ‘Silas Marner’? That was a slow one.
Do the kids still have to read ‘Silas Marner’? That was a slow one.
My whole family were readers. Traveling to CA by train my problem was being able to carry the weight of the books. I had to mail them back in Denver. But when audio books came in, the switch was inevitable. The early 3 hour books just covered my commute if I stopped in a rest stop for 15 minutes. Then unabridged books came in and it was buy everything all over again. I’m still not totally back to the printed page, and I’m rarely interested in new books because there are so many books that have my heart that I read over and over and over again.
My great nephew was going into the Marines, so I gave him the DVDs for JAG. He loved them. Then I gave him all the books from the Marine series of WEB Griffin. He didn’t open a single one. I’m thoroughly disgusted that there’s a generation of our family that doesn’t read. How can that be?
I read a ton of books. Currently I’m working my way through the Louis L’Amour books.
CliffsNotes saved me from a lot of reading back then.
If that is the case, then there is no need to be concerned about all of those schools in the country that have under 30% of students reading at grade level. They won't need to read much anyway.
Here's one:
Here are some of the books I read on my own as a teenager. None of these were assigned by teachers.
The Last Battle by Cornelius Ryan (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1966)
—An account of the Battle of Berlin in 1945
Whirlwind: An Account of Marshal Tito’s Rise to Power by Stephen Clissold (New York: Philosophical, 1949)
A Puppet No More: The True Adventure of Tony Kemeny and His Life-Long Quest for Freedom by Tony Kemeny (Buena Park, Calif.: Thomas Litho & Print, 1963)
—The story of a Hungarian refugee who became a puppeteer at Knott’s Berry Farm
The Fate of Admiral Kolchak by Peter Fleming (New York: Harcourt, Brace & Co., 1963)
—The story of a White general who fought the Bolsheviks in the Russian Civil War
This Kind of War: A Study in Unpreparedness by T. R. Fehrenbach (New York: Macmillan, 1963)
—A narrative of the history of the Korean War
Up Ship! By Charles E. Rosendahl (New York: Dodd, Mead, 1931)
— The case for the the US Navy to retain its rigid airships
The Ragged, Rugged Warriors by Martin Caidin (New York: Dutton, 1966)
—The story of Americans who volunteered to serve as combat pilots in China before and during World War II
Way of a Fighter: The Memoirs of Claire L. Chennault by Claire Lee Chennault (New York: Putnam, 1949)
—Memoirs of the commander of the American Volunteer Group and the China Air Task Force, later the Fourteenth Air Force in China
Jutland by Donald Macintyre (New York: Norton, 1958)
—The story of a 1916 naval battle
The Great Pacific War/H. C. Bywater
—A novel about an imaginary war between the USA and Japan that begins in 1931
Total Terror by Albert Kalme (Newyork: Appleton-Century, 1951)
—The story of the Soviet occupation of the Baltic States
Challenge of the Pacific: Guadalcanal: The Turning Point of the War by Robert Leckie (New York: Doubleday, 1965)
—Narrative history of a World War II battle by a participant
The Greatest Thing Since Sliced Bread (New York: Putnam, 1965)
—A young adult novel set in Cleveland in 1944—the only YA novel that I read as a teenager
Fighter Over Finland: The Memoirs of a Fighter Pilot by Eino Luukkanen (London: Macdonald, 1963)
—Autobiography of a Finnish fighter pilot who served during World War II
None Dare Call It Treason by John Stormer (Florissant, Mo., Liberty Bell, 1964)
—A campaign book laying out the case against big government at home and interventionism abroad
Out of the Night by Jan Valtin (New York: Alliance, 1941)
—Memoirs of a Soviet agent
America: Listen! By Frank Kluckhohn (Derby, Conn.: Monarch, 1963)
—A polemic against the John F. Kennedy administration
The Conscience of a Conservative by Barry Goldwater (New York: Hillman, 1960)
—A manifesto calling for a return to small government and constitutionalism
You can read faster than you can listen. Videos and tapes are too slow.
I found many of the assigned books in 7-8 grade for my son were thinly disguised romance novels.
I’m the Luddite opposite of today’s people.
Thrilled to get my first library card as a child in the mid 1950s and to get special permission to get adult books with it. Used it for the three volume complete history of the FDR era by Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. And then science fiction. And those Landmark series books (Constitution, founding fathers, history of American wars).
I was never a reader. I hated all the books we were assigned to read in school just out of spite. We were told WHAT to think about a book rather than what WE as students thought. They were all boring.
Yeah, sad, my problem is I try to read so many books at the same time.
Even the classics need to be reworked and rewritten before being worthwhile.
The industry is filled with editors who can't write and freelance authors who can't write either. The publishers just "move product".
Writers in the past studied great writing in multiple languages, including Greek and Latin.
Last year I read over 80 books. I have not read near that this year. Too much home stuff going on.
Had an English Literature class in HS 1974. Consistent with reading books in class and writing a summary of the contents/themes. Loved it.
Welcome to the party, you are late, all the guest have left.