Has reading become a past time?

We have numerous books in our house-- you know, those things that contain letters, words, stories, imagination, adventure? They sit on our looming bookshelf, lonely and dusty, peering at us as we are consumed by our nightly shows on the computer. With the lights off and the neon glow of the screen, our books are easily forgotten about. Even with our normal day-to-day, they are forgotten about. With the ease of wifi, computers and pretty much all technology, books have become displaced; put away in the dusty attics, left alone under beds, trashed and given to Goodwill. The world has seen the Amazon Kindle, no matter that it could potentially put printers out of business. Don't your eyes hurt from looking at that screen for so long?? And what happens when your battery dies? Your book is gone and you are left screaming with your hands to the heavens because you were at that one spot of the story where she....  With websites like Spark Notes, you don't even need to buy that book from the syllabus! Just read the notes online. Not only that, when was the last time someone genuinely encouraged you to read a book, and you actually read it?

People just don't read anymore. According to The Literacy Company nearly half of America's adults are poor readers, or "functionally illiterate." They can't carry out simple tasks like balancing check books, reading drug labels or writing essays for a job. This is sad sad news. Even reading the simplest of books can increase your vocabulary and analytic thought process. Unfortunately, it seems as though books have become something of the past. Sitting at a coffee shop now, there are at least 12 customers and no one is reading a book, newspaper or magazine. There is one man on an ipad, a couple people on their computers, women are chatting and one man scribbling notes.

Well I just finished a book. Yes, an actual printed, written and published novel. It was amazing. You may have heard of "A Million Little Pieces" by James Frey. He endured a lot of scrutiny for lying to Oprah about the non-fictional validity but I don't care, it was awesome. The details of a drug addict and alcoholic going through the messiest time of his life, on the verge of death and surviving through his painful withdrawals kept me turning each and every crispy page. The pain and suffering he describes somehow crept into my own body and allowed me to feel what he felt, even for just a moment. It is also somewhat educational in the sense that you are able to see firsthand into the life of someone (although "fictional") who drank everyday since high school until he blacked out, smoked so much crack that he couldn't go a day without it and who ruined every opportunity in his life to become someone of character and stature. I cringed, I cried, I gasped and I felt sick. I also give a big hand to James Frey for writing such an awe inspiring book that rings so true to so many people.

So here it is, go buy a real book every once in a while. Give the technology corporations a break in making profits off something that will break in a few years or become outdated in a few months. Instead, support the novelists and publishers and printers that have kept alive a tradition and way of life since the beginning of time. A real paper book never dies, rarely breaks, never out dates itself and is always a nice friend on a cold winter night. Pin It