I hate predictions, especially dire ones.
I did a double take recently when I heard a group of technology gurus on a radio broadcast predict that Ebook and Ebook reader would eliminate the paperback industry within ten years.
No way! I exclaimed. I like hardback books in both my tiny library and the large public libraries, but I’m addicted to paperbacks whenever I want a totally relaxing read.
Yet, the technology is already here. Anyone can now purchase a book on line and download it to his computer within a short period of time. However, this Ebook hasn’t gained much popularity beyond novelty seekers. Who wants to sit in front of a computer screen to read a novel, no less?
But, the clunky Ebook reader is a small electronic box to which a book can be downloaded and carried around with the owner. Supposedly, this technology will satisfy those who want to read in bed, on a plane or at the beach. I don’t know about you, but I hate reading information off of a computer screen. After a while, the glare gives me a headache. And I wonder, will Ebook Reader fans pass their book along to a friend?
I found it comforting that the media, in reporting on this year’s toy show in New York, didn’t focus on the new electronic books and games. Instead, reporters talked about the resurging popularity of the Etch-a-Sketch and the new pogo sticks whose super high bounce is powered by huge rubber bands.
I gained some more reassurance in a Reader’s Digest report in its February issue. Although the second National Endowment for the Arts study has found that Americans of all ages are reading for pleasure less than ever before and that 38 percent of all employers consider high school graduates deficient as readers, it reports that sales at national bookstores are up for the third straight month. “Hopefully, that’s a sign we’re set to start a new chapter,” comments the editor. Unfortunately, the report also states that “People who don’t read by choice are less likely to succeed at work and less likely to be involved in civic life.”
That mention of high school graduates prompted memories of some statistics I stumbled on in my own work as a teacher. For a decade, a group of us worked with eleventh graders at high risk of failing the language arts portion of the graduation test. Because we had experienced success in remediating students after they had failed the state-mandated test, the principal wanted us to remediate before students failed the first time. And all of us - faculty and students encountered great success.
However, as I kept records on the students, I discovered that the ones who passed writing portion of the test would go on to pass the reading section, also. If they didn’t pass the writing portion, they wouldn’t pass the reading either. I had long known that there is a strong correlation between reading and writing, but those students, year after year, reaffirmed this connection.
Lauren Kessler, author of Dancing with Rose, explains, “Writing is thinking made manifest; thoughts ordered, set down, crafted, honed and polished.”
When students learn to think, to order, to set down, to craft, to hone and to polish their own thoughts, they, in turn, can better analyze the thoughts of other writers.
Kessler also addresses why authors read the works of others. “Reading is a pleasure, a hobby, a form of entertainment, so I must be ‘at play.’ But I’m also at work. I’m immersing myself in language, hearing the sounds of words, swaying to the rhythm of sentences, learning how writers reveal characters, tell stories.”
Brock Clarke, author of An Arsonist’s Guide to Writers’ Homes in New England, and a creative writing professor, agrees. “Grow your writing through reading,” he says. He has discovered that his college students cannot write to their potential, because of the limited scope of their reading.
My defense of paperbacks isn’t a longing for the good old days. I don’t want to go back to ice boxes or root cellars instead of refrigerators. I don’t want to go back to having to iron every piece of clothing. I do not want to give up air conditioning for wooden-handled fans. And I certainly don’t want to forfeit computers and printers for typewriters, correction tape and carbon paper.
However, the importance of reading to one’s well being is so documented that we should do everything possible to encourage everyone to read. If you are an Ebook enthusiast, fine and good. I support your choice to read. But don’t disparage those of us who appreciate low tech books. After all, a good bit of technology has been utilized in their production.
2008
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