Reading is so 1900′s…
Do you read? With the invention of movie theaters, televisions, and computers I must say reading has been put on the back burner. Sitting down with a good book is like wearing a girdle. Not many do it anymore, unless they’re older people. But books are making a comeback with the craze of Starbucks and Barnes and Nobles, especially with generation X and Y. Research says reading helps a person’s brain function better. I wonder if this research was prompted and performed by librarians? 
I kid, I kid. But I do wonder what all reading helps with. Does it make a person process and understand a situation faster? Does it give a person a quick sense of humor? Does it help with a person’s patience? Or does it just give a person a bigger vocabulary to spout out? So I guess my question is, why do we NEED to read? And what about books on tape or c-d or now I guess even on ipods?! Is this defeating the purpose of reading?
Now don’t get me wrong I’m not a total lump I have a favorite author and read his books when possible. But I hate how the world makes me feel like an idiot or like I’m loosing my ‘smarts’ if I’m not currently reading a book.
So I don’t know… what do you think? Has reading this blog helped stimulate your brain?
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Comments
True, I love using my imagination as I read. It’s great picturing the scene in my head. And reading can also encourage a person to be more open-minded and seek knowledge… which is a good thing! 
Parenthood brings on completely other issues as well…gotta get those kids reading, so they can learn to operate those I-pods! I think the occupation factor might also come into play here? What I mean is, I work on a computer all day long…sure, gainful employment is great, but the absolute last thing I want to do when I am not at work is look at a computer. I am guessing your job requires lots of reading (just a guess)….couldn’t blame you for wanting someone else to take care of that for you sometimes….
I’ve noticed not only do I complain about that, but many of my friends do too. When we were in school it was that we read for class and didn’t want to read anymore or didn’t have time to. Now it’s the reading at work that makes some of us not big readers.
I’m thinking in the past when a person was a farmer or a housewife there wasn’t a lot of reading going on while at work nor were t-v’s accessible so leisure time was spent reading. Now there are fewer who stay home, etc. so when a person comes home from work it’s easy to let your brain ‘rest’ as you watch t-v.
I am not sure about “loosing” smarts, but you might lose them? All grammatical kidding aside, there is certainly no requirement to read, but I think that finding a book that makes you want to read is a wonderful thing. Reading the book, rather than watching the movie version or listening to an audio book, is like hearing a great band live, instead of on CD (also a relic of the last century). The instant-gratification version is better than nothing, but still not quite the real thing….