Twilight of the Books. According to the writer of this article, decline in reading is a symptom of the decline in literacy. And apparently, if people are not literate, they will fail to develop the cognitive abilities that one might use for analytical thinking. It's mostly a deconstruction of Maryanne Wolf's Proust and the Squid. I think it's really less about literacy than what you do with your free time. If you're only watching stupid TV shows rather than educational documentaries or playing shoot-em-up computer games rather than perusing an online newspaper, then of course you're not going to know anything.
Romance Needs a Makeover. I dislike most of the covers in all fiction--but that doesn't stop me from reading a book. Of course, nobody else follows the maxim to not judge a book by its cover, so I suppose changing current covers might help improve its perception. But I doubt it. (Just as some broccoli haters have never even tried broccoli or some people who assume everyone living in downtown LA is a gangster, people who've never read romance will continue to hate it due to the stereotypes perpetuated since the 1970s.) Like all other genres that get dissed, if you want other people to take it seriously, then take it seriously yourself. Talk about it as a story first. As genre, maybe second.
Reading: Too Much Work, Or Just Too Much of a Chore? I'm at the point where I don't mind "required" school reading. (Science all the time? Coooool.) But high school English classes? Frankly, the reading lists sucked.
* * *
Oh man, I feel a little burned out writing all these book reviews which almost no one reads. I've read them a while back so it's not like I'm on a reading binge now--I just want to write them up before the year is over. Several more to go...
The last article certainly rings true. During my GCSEs, although we didn't go the 'reading list' route, we did read certain books to death, and then slice them to find out what made them tick. By my A levels I vowed never to read those books again.
Which is a shame, because I'm certain they would be decent books had my memories of them not been tainted by school.
Oh and a quick defense- shooter games have been shown to increase perceptive ability and hand-eye coordination. But I agree with you about TV shows. The crap on these days is mind-numbing. I barely turn the TV on these days.
