I’ve been reading for as long as I can remember. I love books. I love the feel of them, being surrounded by them, reading the stories housed within their pages. So when I saw this story on Yahoo saying that a recent AP-Ipsos poll found that only 1 in 4 people have read a book (as in 1 book) in the last year, I was dumbfounded. I just can’t comprehend not liking to read. I’m reading three different books now — Anne of Avonlea by Lucy Maud Montgomery, Marked by P.C. and Kristin Cast, and The Secret by Rhonda Bryne (though I have to say the latter hasn’t really grabbed me yet, despite its status as a huge bestseller). This year alone, I’ve read 36 books — and I’m a pretty slow reader.
I know reading is losing out to other forms of entertainment like the Internet, but there’s got to be a way to rejuvenate interest in reading. There are so many great stories out there to read if we could just get people to pick up the books. The Harry Potter series has done a lot to popularize reading again, but there’s obviously still more to do.
August 21st, 2007 at 4:56 pm
We gotta raise our kidlets to love it, too. During the reading program at the library (during which my DD read 240 hours in 55 days!), I overheard a mom say, “I make my kids read for twenty minutes a day.”
I bet they hate every minute of it.
August 21st, 2007 at 6:23 pm
One of the teachers at school was so proud of herself – she read 3 books this summer. She asked how many I read.
Um.
23.
Ahem. We were actually talking about what Marianne said, about having 20 minutes of reading for homework every night. And they’re talking about Accelerated Reader, which is a testing program linked to library books – you read, take a test, and when you accumulate so many points, you get prizes. Not such a good method, either.
I’d say example, but my mom didn’t like to read, and I know your mom doesn’t, so…..
August 23rd, 2007 at 12:11 pm
I think example can be part of it. Some kids like to escape into books, but I guess maybe the escape into their computers now. I think it’s got to be something that is made to seem like fun and not a chore from the first first, but that doesn’t always work either.
My niece doesn’t like to read, and my sister and I just shake our heads and wonder whose child she is.