I was never a novel reader. I read more since I retired. In fact I use to make up my own books and hand them in for book reports in HS … no teacher could call you out if they could never find the author or the book … you just needed a few characters and a small plot and you were finished…. The funny part I always got an A or B on the book report !!!
My sister didn't make up books, but I remember on more than one occasion she wrote a book report based solely on the information on the book jacket, and got a pretty good grade. I remember my mom getting annoyed by this because she didn't think it was fair that I would read a whole book and write a report and my sister could get the same grade without doing as much work. Of course these days I've heard there are students out there having AI write their reports for them. The more things change, the more they stay the same!
I work at a library and I'm happy to report that people are still checking out books. (Also,, they're borrowing a ton of e-books and e-audiobooks!) If anyone is worried about people losing their attention spans, try listening to a 15 hour audio book and then get back to me :)
I forget where I read this but the message was essentially that without books, people will never grow to learn empathy and compassion. Every book tells "a story" whether it's fiction or non-fiction. The person who wrote it feels the need to "tell" something. A surprising author to read is Richard Feynman. Two titles that were high on my list are "What do You Care what Other People Think?" and, "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman." These books contain not only "scientific" information but the nature of love. No lie. I actually cried in "What do you Care..."
I had to wait a pretty long time for the last book I put on hold from the library since I was far from the only one who wanted to read it. So, there's still quite a few of us out there reading books!
I was never a novel reader. I read more since I retired. In fact I use to make up my own books and hand them in for book reports in HS … no teacher could call you out if they could never find the author or the book … you just needed a few characters and a small plot and you were finished…. The funny part I always got an A or B on the book report !!!
My sister didn't make up books, but I remember on more than one occasion she wrote a book report based solely on the information on the book jacket, and got a pretty good grade. I remember my mom getting annoyed by this because she didn't think it was fair that I would read a whole book and write a report and my sister could get the same grade without doing as much work. Of course these days I've heard there are students out there having AI write their reports for them. The more things change, the more they stay the same!
Congratulations to your sister beating the system!
I work at a library and I'm happy to report that people are still checking out books. (Also,, they're borrowing a ton of e-books and e-audiobooks!) If anyone is worried about people losing their attention spans, try listening to a 15 hour audio book and then get back to me :)
I forget where I read this but the message was essentially that without books, people will never grow to learn empathy and compassion. Every book tells "a story" whether it's fiction or non-fiction. The person who wrote it feels the need to "tell" something. A surprising author to read is Richard Feynman. Two titles that were high on my list are "What do You Care what Other People Think?" and, "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman." These books contain not only "scientific" information but the nature of love. No lie. I actually cried in "What do you Care..."
I remember reading and really enjoying these books a few years back. He really had a gift for making science interesting and relevant.
This is sadly true. Hopefully there will be more novels written and read in the future.
I think there definitely will be!
Pray novels are not becoming a thing of past. Nooooo. Students must buckle down and read!!! My thoughts. Barb
I don't really think there going anywhere any time soon!
Two thoughts.
1-a half decent EMP will have everyone reading again, albeit by kerosene lantern.
2-Libraries don't seem in danger of going out of style. (I picked up 4 books that arrived via interlibrary loan yesterday).
I had to wait a pretty long time for the last book I put on hold from the library since I was far from the only one who wanted to read it. So, there's still quite a few of us out there reading books!