People do not have much time for reading anymore. Their time is taken up with working, household repairs, TV, radio, computers, e-mail, video games, the Internet, DVD’s cell phones, texting, shopping and sleeping.
Newspapers are becoming obsolete. My most recent morning edition of the Philadelphia Inquirer had more advertising space than news, a kind of newspaper infomercial. TV and the Internet present the news almost instantaneously along with video recording and streaming video. The cell phone has made talking and texting almost a 24-hour continuous activity.
TV and movies provide the entertainment that novels and short stories used to supply.
So why read? Ideas! Words, sentences, paragraphs, chapters and books produce ideas. Ideas result in reflection and understanding. The visual electronic media do not give the viewer time to reflect. Reflection enriches lives.
People will read if they are immersed in what they read. The purpose of this section of Teaching English, How To.... is to tell people how to become immersed in reading.
The books and ideas listed in the last part of this section on reading give some samples of the ideas that I have found in books over the years—books in which I became immersed because of the techniques I have experimented with and learned and shared with my readers. For me, ideas are the treasure to be found in books. Ideas have enriched my life. They have raised and answered my questions. They have helped me think about and understand the world around me. They have especially helped me understand me.
I hope these techniques and ideas will help you to become readers again.
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