26/12/2010

What you read is what you are



"Eating anything you come across does not contribute to good health; the content of what we eat is of vital importance. The same is true of reading. ...

It is less the act of reading that reaps benefits and rather the content of what is read. Beyond a basic grasp of grammar, reading baseball reports is fundamentally different from reading Jane Austen.

And too often teachers and librarians are unwilling to assume their core responsibility — to guide young people to acquire knowledge. Too often books recommended to students today have limited value and are incapable of helping young minds navigate today’s social complexities. In fact, they make the passage through adolescence, a time when identity is being developed, even tougher.

Certain authors may need to aim at the most commercially viable, lowest common denominator of modern society. What is dispiriting is that librarians and educators largely acquiesce..." SOURCE

A writer writes what readers read, and what publishers publish.

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