Posted on 06/05/2017 4:49:53 AM PDT by Kaslin
The average American child will spend 405 hours this summer watching TV and internet videos: Be a great example and read. Reading is proven to make us healthier, happier and wiser. So grab a cold Corona (keeping this example to yourself, at least for now) and pick up a book!
One evening while staying at Sea World Orlando, I looked up from dinner to notice a family of four eating beside me. All four were peering at smartphones or tablets (including the children who both appeared to be under the age of six).
Now I’m certainly guilty of checking my phone while out with friends. But, fortunately, mobile phones and Wi-Fi weren’t yet mainstream when I was six years old. Dinners with my parents and four siblings—while often chaotic!—were memorable. We were present with each other, and I believe this was possible because: A) technology wasn’t tempting and B) we spent more time reading.
Today, children (and adults) are being short-changed in terms of the interpersonal opportunities that reading offers: such as learning to think independently and analytically and to converse with other human beings in real-time.
Science shows a plethora of benefits to reading. Who knew, for example, that reading novels can make you more empathetic and personable? In contrast, a study published in the American Journal of Epidemiology found that using Facebook as a vehicle to express your feelings (i.e. by clicking “Like”) makes you feel glum. Makes sense: reading is active; social media is passive.
Perhaps we wouldn’t have so many hyper-sensitive “snowflakes” on college campuses if children grew up reading books like Huckleberry Finn where young protagonists innovate and form friendships against all odds. Instead, today’s young people ingest a steady stream of Photo-shopped and politically-correct images on social media.
The summer is a great time to discover or re-discover your love for reading. Here’s some suggestions to get you started this summer:
101 Things All Young Adults Should Know by John Hawkins. A great read for Millennials. Hawkins wrote this book using his trademark sense of humor that you’re accustomed to if you read his Townhall columns. Plus, he wears his heart on his sleeve, sharing valuable life lessons he’s learned—in hopes others can learn them even earlier. Note: parents may wish to read this book before sharing with adolescents (occasional adult content is employed for constructive advice).
Confessions by Saint Augustine of Hippo. Every time I read this book, it touches and teaches me anew. In this autobiography, Augustine shares his how he succumbed to common temptations that we all face—like following the crowd and materialism—and how he then took a new path to reform his life and find objective truth.
The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. A short and gripping classic mystery that is so well-written that it retains its relevance and holds suspense even today. Warning: it’s a page-turner!
Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson. If you are interested in history, technology or public policy and have only heard the mainstream media and Hollywood’s accounts of Jobs’ life, be sure to read this book. Isaacson writes objectively, showing readers Jobs’ good and bad sides alike.
At heart, you’ll learn that Jobs was a capitalist who believed that actions—his own and others’—have consequences. You’ll see how he ultimately makes amends for what he considered his biggest personal regret—and how he loves his wife and family. And you’ll be inspired by how he fearlessly tells politicians—from Bill Clinton to Barack Obama—to be honest and stop playing political games.
Little House Series by Laura Ingalls Wilder: A great series to give or read with a young person. Learn about the history of American pioneers while reading engaging stories. Young people can learn from the struggles, adventures and retro fun that the Ingalls family shared together.
My parents read the Little House series to me and my siblings. Reading united our family, giving us common stories and mysteries to discuss. On our own, we each read as well. Reading expanded our horizons and vocabularies and helped us develop a healthy sense of wonder about the world.
I came to love reading so much that—when I finished my books—I would even read my father’s political and Second Amendment magazines! Eventually, I found myself interested in American politics. With the help of reading, a little girl’s heart was stirred with a fire for freedom.
I don’t know where you were last summer—but I do know what you’re reading this summer: great books!
I read the whole Little House series. Somewhere in my stack of stuff is a first printing of LHOTP. It’s in very poor condition.
A few weeks ago, I was teaching a continuing education course to about 75 people in my industry and referenced something I had learned reading Laura Ingalls Wilder when I was a kid.
Welcome to the “New Age” America.
When I was a kid in the 50’s we did not have TV in the earlier part of the decade (nor air conditioners) and all kids played together in the neighborhood and concentrated at the single movie theater in town...especially on Saturdays. EVERYONE KNEW EVERYONE ELSE...including the adults.
Then came the TV. and after that Air conditioning. That is when our society started to crumble. People started to stay in their homes and maintain a comfortable climate while watching TV. Kids quit playing outside because most of the other kids were inside watching TV. The other reason was that it was too hot to play outside any longer.
Then came the “age of games” and children simply started to sit in front of whatever the games were played upon and spent endless hours and days without any contact with the “outer world” of other kids who were sitting at home playing games on the TV.
Then came the computerized games and now they have developed into little robots (along with the grown children of earlier ages) completely changed into slaves of the cell phone and computer gaming systems.
We can thank the parents that suddenly realized that electronic devices were the surrogate parents their children needed, which freed up mom and dad from their responsibilities to raise their children to conform to the social norm.
From Day Care facilities as children, to public school systems, to colleges and on to politically correct organizations and causes, we have DESTROYED the individual and the new generation looks like a school of fish in an aquarium, following the leader and doing what the leader does...no matter what.
The American society has now become a society in which everyone is expected to be “his brother’s keeper” and to “hold harmless” any (and all) actions of our younger society simply because they have become isolated from reality and live in a world of make believe and in total ignorance of what responsibility for one’s actions means.
Anything that happens to them is caused by someone (or something else) and not by their own hand. They live in a dream world that the liberals have painted for them.
Unless this scenario changes, we are doomed as a society. We have already become a society in which one neighbor does not know their next door neighbor. Children are raised in day care centers and public indoctrination centers we call schools. After that, the lucky ones get to spend 2-4 years in really “high pressure” indoctrination centers called college. We see the result of this today...the collapse of individual thinking, responsibility and social skills.
I’m reading FR, the Bible and then whatever other books interest me.
I loved the Little House series and read it to the kids and then they read it themselves when they got older. My girls went through a Little House phase, complete with prairie dresses and bonnets.
“A few weeks ago, I was teaching a continuing education course to about 75 people in my industry and referenced something I had learned reading Laura Ingalls Wilder when I was a kid.”
Don’t leave me hanging — how did the audience react? Did they connect to your point? Did they look at you like you’d just grown a third eye in your forehead?
There’s even a “Little House” reference in an Audible book I’m listening to now, “Killers of the Flower Moon”, because the Ingalls family lived among the Osage Indian tribe when both were in Kansas. The book details a serial murder plot to get to the oil riches of the tribe on their Oklahoma lands.
That’s a very good essay. You should post that separately.
We have the trilogy but for some reason my son didn’t care for the book. Unfortunately. I have tried the Hatchet series with him but that was a no-go as well.
As for me, I’m finishing up “My Name is Mahtob”, Mahtob Mahmoody being the little girl from Michigan who was held against her will in Iran by her father (her mother wrote “Not Without My Daughter”). Next on my list is “On the Beach” by Nevil Shute (Australians in a beachside community are waiting for nuclear fallout to reach them in a few days).
Ahhh, right now it’s “A Torch Kept Lit” by James Rosen, Mere Christianity, and Wuthering Heights.
I didn’t actually reference the books, just a point that Laura Ingalls made when living in the Midwest in the 1870’s.
The class was on residential window installations and I made the point that in the 1870’s, glass was a huge luxury outside the big cities.
Because I cycle through it every couple of years, I'm constantly reading it so never remember to mention it when talking about books.
I should, though.
I really am tired of these whining.
On my list for Summer are:
‘The Cultural Lives of Whales and Dolphins’, Hal Whitehead; and ‘An Instance of the Fingerpost’, Iain Pears, which appears to be a murder mystery set in the 1600s at Oxford in England. I think I first saw it on a Freeper’s page and it looked very intriguing:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00PNL8X5K/_encoding=UTF8?coliid=I1V5Q52HUP56TK&colid=21PJYO6PGW6HV
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0425167720/_encoding=UTF8?coliid=IEPMAICIDWS79&colid=21PJYO6PGW6HV
Charles Dickens: His Tragedy and Triumph, Volumes One and Two by Edgar Johnson.
Thanks but no thanks
I'm not familiar with Sultan Knish. I remember when many in here were poo pooing NRO last year
I used to read a lot when I was younger, not anymore.
I finished David Clarke’s “Cop Under Fire,” am starting one of Ann Coulter’s older books, “Mugged,” and am waiting for Sharyl Attkisson’s “The Smear.”
I finished David Clarke’s “Cop Under Fire,” am starting one of Ann Coulter’s older books, “Mugged,” and am waiting for Sharyl Attkisson’s “The Smear.”
My book list for the several months include:
The Nightingale
A Man called Ove
The Shack
The letter
The Black Echo
All the Light We Cannot See
I can find all I want on youtube. I don't like supporting CNN with satellite or cable if it was available. Most of my news feed comes form here. Facebook is my cousins channel. Fox is my liberal connection.
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