Me thinks the days of Idiocracy are closer than we realize.
In other news, scientists have declared that water is wet.
To the MSM, NEA, NOW, and the Jurists who wiped out America:
Your mission has been accommplished.
I bet they do their reading on the Internet.
Next up: Scientists to examine whether bears defecate in woodland habitats.
I think they are wrong, due to personal observations. I ride the Metro in DC nearly everyday and I see people reading all the time. Young and old. Maybe the people they see as not reading are not reading the books and materials these idiots want them to read. And about not reading the newspapers, I see this as a good thing. My brother always chided me for not reading the newspaper. I still don't, for the most part, and I am - and always have been - more informed than he.
-we produce disgusting hollywood movies designed to lower standards of hehaviour cheaper than we produce books. Would you read or entertain yourself with a movie?
However, I would also point out that the phenomenon of "reading for pleasure" is remarkably new (and now apparently fading). Once upon a time, people used their scarce leisure time for Self Improvement. As an example, Eric Hoffer, a longshoreman, read constantly and became a notable American philosopher. Yes, he enjoyed his reading -- but he wasn't "reading for pleasure". He was trying to improve his mind. This was what people did for many, many years. I believe Bloom touched on this point in "Closing of the American Mind".
The rise of the novel got people reading fictional stories about the sort of people they might never meet. Pride and Prejudice is a fine book -- and I would say that one can learn quite a bit from it. I would never say that reading Pride and Prejudice was a waste of time! However, from there we slowly devolve into reading "The Jungle" by Upton Sinclair, and "Farewell to Arms" by Hemingway, and eventually "Armies of the Night" by Norman Mailer.
How much "Self Improvement" do you get from reading Norman Mailer, or Toni Morrison?? I would say close to none. Now, we are truly in the realm of "reading for pleasure". And this begs the question: How pleasurable is it?
Clearly, in the modern world, there are many activities which people find more pleasurable than reading the literature which is being published today. And what does that tell us? Well, it tells me that "reading for pleasure" is fading away -- but if we are lucky, the urge for Self Improvement can be retained (if we are wise enough to encourage it).
My fear is that schools will still push "reading for pleasure" by pushing trashier and trashier books. What the schools ought to do is push the concept of Self Improvement by encouraging intellectual inquiry -- but that would put their Leftist agenda at risk, so I don't expect to see that.
Nope. I expect to see more "Captain Underpants" in the lower grades, and more "Beloved" in college. And I expect reading to continue to decline.
Not in OUR household, my daughter reads for fun at least 1 hour or more everyday, and that is after her homework is done! She has read just about every “Harry Potter” book from the school libary, and a lot of different types of books. Now only if I could just get her interested in history books.......
Non-fiction bump...about 20 books/year.
It's not just young people, it's also middle-aged people. They're hooked to these mind-numbingly stupid TV shows like American Idol, Dancing with the Stars, Kid Nation and Survivor XXVII. The show with the idiots singing along to the lyrics makes me want to blow my brains out.
surfing the web = reading
The dearth of reading books is also reflected in the student's writing skills. It is impossible to write well if you have never read good writing. Student's cannot describe even the simplest concepts in writing and totally lack any imagination in metaphors or writing style.
The author must have never heard of the internet.
A lot of the young don’t know how to read. We graduate children who are reading at barely a first grade level. The schools don’t encourage it. And certainly, parents don’t.
I don’t read books as much as I once did....mostly the paper, news online and the like now. But when I was a youngin’ — I read everything. My aunt was a book-of-the-month club member; I read her selections affer she read them. My mother nearly had a fit when my aunt gave me In Cold Blood — I think I was maybe 11 or 12 when I read that. Mom thought it was too adult. It remains one of my favorite books. For his personal traits and demons, Truman Capote wrote one helluva book there.
We, the old uneducated pair have bookcases in the parlor, dining room, office and a small nook we call the Reading Room.
I hardly read at all. But I go through two unabridged audio books a month (ranging from Harlan Corbin novels to history books, and listening to an 18 hour account of the Underground Railroad right now). Wonder how that factors in to the survey?
I’ve yet to see my twenty something step children pick up a newspaper or book. They come to my wife’s and my house for two or three days and do nothing but watch tv. And the worst tv. All the make-over and change your wardrobe shows. Or trashy soaps. Except for one son-in-law they exhibit no intellectual curiosity whatsoever. Incidentally he’s the only Republican.