there’s a lot of elitism in “bookworm” culture
like you’re basically worthless if you don’t like to read and this weird little culture kind of ignores that some people really struggle with reading/can’t read at all
- not everybody has access to books. there was a study done that showed 1 book per every 300 low income children. books cost money. books cost time. reading isn’t going to be a priority if you’re low on these two resources.
- learning disabilities are a thing that exist. i used to love to read when i was a kid, before I developed a mental illness that sometimes functions as a learning disability and makes it so difficult to read books that it often frustrates me to the point of tears and i’ve finished probably one whole book in the past 2 years. many, many learning disabilities specifically affect reading, and you don’t know just by looking at someone whether they have one of these disabilities.
- people learn in different ways. you might be really good at grammar (whoopdefuckindoo) and somebody else might spend all their time watching the news and know everything about current events. maybe that person you think is “stupid” because they said they didn’t like reading is an amazing artist. maybe you suck at art. you never know
Reading honest literature makes you love the world. Knowledge and understanding are love. Reading educates our feelings and enhances our sympathy. When you read for understanding, you are fundamentally changed. You are a different person at the end of the story or the novel than you were when it began.
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| — | John Dufresne (via stuck-betweenstations) |
I’ve never squandered an opportunity to read. There are only 24 hours in the day, seven of which are spent sleeping, and in my view at least four of the remaining 17 must be devoted to reading. A friend once told me that the real message Bram Stoker sought to convey in “Dracula” is that a human being needs to live hundreds and hundreds of years to get all his reading done; that Count Dracula, basically nothing more than a misunderstood bookworm, was draining blood from the necks of 10,000 hapless virgins not because he was the apotheosis of pure evil but because it was the only way he could live long enough to polish off his extensive reading list. But I have no way of knowing if this is true, as I have not yet found time to read “Dracula.
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| — | Joe Queenan, My 6,218 Favorite Books, Wall Street Journal (via mywarsarelaidawayinbooks) |
[Parents should] recommend some books with female leads that your son would enjoy reading. If your next question is “Why?,” then ask your daughter why she liked Harry Potter. She might say it was a good story, great characters, and a fantastic world. Who cares if the main character was a boy? In fact, girls will pick up a book with a hero or heroine equally. According to my excellent librarian resources, boys will actively avoid books with a girl as the main character. What’s the problem? I have no idea. Why should you encourage your son to read books with heroines? That’s easy. You want your son to grow up knowing that a strong female for a friend, wife or boss is normal and good.
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| — | Rebecca Angel (via msandrogynous) |
New year, new you, right? If one of your goals for 2013 is to read more, here are some tips to make your resolution reality.
Take Part in the 50 Book Challenge Or 25 book challenge or even 200 book challenge. You can pick the number. 50 books in a year is approximately a book a week and is…
Reading is very creative - it’s not just a passive thing. I write a story; it goes out into the world; somebody reads it and, by reading it, completes it.
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| — | Margaret Mahy (via matmar7) |
Some have said that writing is a unique way of knowing, but it is a unique way of recognizing. This happens very often in Proust in particular. You read something and you say, Yes, this is true, this is something I have experienced, this is something I have seen, I have felt this, but I wouldn’t have been able to express it the way he has. Now I really know it. That is what the novel does better than any other genre or any other art, in my opinion.
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| — | Javier Marias (via jackrusher) |
Books speak to us from the past and speak for us in the future and should be treated with respect.
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| — | from Institute of Chemistry’s Reading Room (via iamrandommm) |
Maybe loving books is not so simple. Just like a healthy relationship needs work and changes with time, so too does our relationship with the things we own as we try to define ourselves and not be defined by stuff. Simply owning books didn’t make me a reader. What did make me a reader was an insatiable appetite for new stories and the things they have taught me.
I would not be a better person for owning a library; I become a better person because I chose to read.
I would not be a better person for owning a library; I become a better person because I chose to read.
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| — | New Home, Empty Shelves (via bookriot) |
To investigate, neuroscientist Martha Farah of the University of Pennsylvania and her colleagues recruited 64 children from a low-income background and followed them from birth through to late adolescence. They visited the children’s homes at 4 and 8 years of age to evaluate their environment, noting factors such as the number of books and educational toys in their houses, and how much warmth and support they received from their parents.
More than 10 years after the second home visit, the researchers used MRI to obtain detailed images of the participants’ brains. They found that the level of mental stimulation a child receives in the home at age 4 predicted the thickness of two regions of the cortex in late adolescence, such that more stimulation was associated with a thinner cortex. One region, the lateral inferior temporal gyrus, is involved in complex visual skills such as word recognition.
Home environment at age 8 had a smaller impact on development of these brain regions, whereas other factors, such as the mother’s intelligence and the degree and quality of her care, had no such effect.
» via Wired
Our books are us. They are our outboard memory banks and they contain the moral, intellectual, and imaginative influences that make us the people we are today.
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| — | Cory Doctorow (via mindwhatmatters) |
There are a lot of us, some published, some not, who think the literary life is the loveliest one possible, this life of reading and writing and corresponding. We think this life is nearly ideal.
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| — | Anne Lamott (via amandaonwriting) |
Because of [technology], reading culture is booming, which is tremendously exciting. It’s up to everyone who loves books and wants to work with them to find ways to advocate either for authors or readers — or both. If you can do this, you’ll survive, you’ll thrive, and you’ll be part of the future.
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| — | Literary Agent Jason Ashlock: Big Book Publishers Not Innovating Fast Enough from PBS: Media Shift (via lexiewinslow) |
