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.
You make several good points, and onto what crap they will be pushing on kids, it may be that bad already. With Planned Parenthood promoting sex education to kindergarden kids, books like “Tommy the Talking Condomn” are not too far away.
Plenty. He might be a pinko, but the guy could write. The "self improvement" you get from reading Mailer is being in the company of a master of the English language.
Clearly, in the modern world, there are many activities which people find more pleasurable than reading the literature which is being published today