Reading Books Remains A Novel Idea Among College Students

The Minaret Published January 27 2009


‘It takes too long!’
‘I read slower!’
‘I don’t understand what I’m reading!’
‘This doesn’t have anything to do with my life!’
The idea of reading a book or a newspaper has become almost unthinkable to many young Americans. ‘
Increased media consumption from computers, movies, video games and other gizmos has made the prospect of reading a novel unappealing, even a waste of time.
‘
And most of those excuses come after only from reading the first page.’
When a professor assigns a 300-page text, many students grumble about having to read all those pages, which is followed by mentioning of ‘Spark Notes’ after class.
The student-reader mentality is negative from the beginning.’
It may be from being forced to read for a class or from never being open to the prospect of enjoying words on a page.
It’s not a big screen with actors and intense drama or a music track with a high-octane beat.
It’s exploring characters and plot with every turn of the page.’
It’s reading in your head quietly.
This quiet may be in fact why reading unnerves some students to the point where they depend on audio books to get them through classes.’
Audio book popularity has taken off because they’re easy to get a hold of and even easier to play on an iPod or on a computer.’
Even more appealing is the ability to do many other things while listening to a book.’ It’s like baby sitting sleeping kids: no work.’
The problem with audio book multi-tasking is how more attention is being paid to other activities than the book being read aloud.’
For an audio book to be of good use, students should be actively reading along in the text to retain key information.
Different media outlets have led our generation and younger ones to depend upon the ‘WOW’ tactics that are produced causing novels to be classified as boring and old.’
To most students, reading is dreaded instead of appreciated.’
This has led to the creation of an entirely unimaginative group of individuals that will someday rule the country and the world.
Is imagination important?
Most certainly.’ On the scale of one to ten, it’s an eleven.’
Where is imagination acquired? Novels.
Novels that can take us into different worlds and out of comfort zones, to the past and to the future.’
Reading is one of the most important skills necessary for any job or any daily activity.’
The more one reads the faster you’ll be able to read and the easier it become to discover meaning in the text.
It builds vocabulary and improves grammar skills.’ Do yourself a favor and take a chance.’
Find a book you are interested in.’
Pick a day when you have nothing to do and read for fun.’
It doesn’t have to be all day, try an hour at first and you might be surprised at how enjoyable reading becomes.’
Soon the pages will be turning and you’ll learn more at the end of it than you would from a video game or from Spark Notes.’
I’m sure of it.