How Leisure Reading Does More Harm Than Good Essay

Larissa MacFarquhar’s essay titled,“Who Cares if Johnny Can’t Read?” , was published in the Slate magazine in 1997, rebuts the misconception that Americans in today’s society don’t read as much as people did in the past. MacFarquhar presented factual information to back up her claim that Americans do read and that they read more now than they ever did. In addition, people do not read classics as much as they read genre fiction and self-help in today’s society. MacFarquhar also stated that reading books is better than television. According to MacFarquhar, she believed that reading can stimulate emotions and allow people to participate unlike television. Later, she acknowledged that certain television can also stimulate emotions and allow people

At this point in my life I find myself in an interesting predicament regarding my attitudes toward reading and writing; more so towards reading. Years ago I used to love reading books for pleasure but nowadays I find myself reading things that little to no effort to digest. This includes the very basic posts on facebook expressing one’s opinion on something or articles and threads on reddit discussing topics I find intriguing. Perhaps it’s the severe senioritis that has overcome me as I enter my last semester at Chapman University. As I’ve gotten lazier I can see it start to reflect in my everyday life. Deep down I still love to read but I rarely find myself getting truly invested into the action unless it relates to something I am very

In one study it is revealed that “literary readers are markedly more civically engaged than non readers… more likely to perform charity work, visit a museum, or attend a sporting event.” Gioia adds this study to her essay because she her audience to know that not reading doesn't just affect your job or work, it affects your daily

They read because they live in an often terrible world. They read because they believe, despite the callow protestations of certain adults, that books-especially the dark and dangerous ones-will save them” (Alexie). Readers use literature as an escape, they use it to get away from their life. Reading literature can distract the

Throughout all of time, literature has played an important role in people’s lives. Books are more than just stories to laugh at, cry with, or fall asleep to, but books can teach. Books can teach a person a simple task such as baking cookies or an extremely complex one such as solving for the derivative of a trigonometric path and its parabolic motion. Whatever the subject, whomever the reader, books can teach people many lessons. One of the most important lessons that a book can teach a reader is a lesson about himself, about the difficulties of life, and about living a good life. As time has passed, so has literature itself. Older books focused on historical events, fictional poetry, and important figures; however, books now have evolved to

Have you ever read such a great book that you became completely infatuated with it? You feel the pain, happiness, sadness that the characters feel; you feel as if you personally know the characters. You begin to forget that what you are reading is just a creative piece of writing because you are so infatuated with it. Reading for pleasure is a way to escape reality, a way to be inspired, a way to become more knowledgeable, and even a way to gain a new identity (Storm). In this day and age however, students prefer not to read for pleasure during their free time, such as summer vacations (McGaha). A major obstacle that students face today is technology. With technology expanding so rapidly, it seems that students are more focused on owning

The youth’s decision of not reading has led to difficulties in their life. The results of not reading is clearly a problem, especially when it comes to entering the work force and applying for a job with a higher paying occupation. As Gioia states, “...Business leaders consistently set imagination, creativity, and high-order thinking at the top”. The description displays characteristic traits literature offers when you invest your time to read because certain information and attributes are a result of reading. Attributes like imagination and creativity are obtain through reading.

Escaping from the severe reality of life helps a person get through their difficulties within life. Whether they have emotional or physical problems, or a person just needs a good story, reading can help a person explore new worlds through their imagination. I loved reading from a young age, and treasured the moments when my mother read to me. She helped me explore the unique worlds that authors try to portray through their writing.

The thin rustic pages scrape past my loose fingers as I sit engaged. My heart pounds harder and faster with every word my eyes pass over. My ears hear nothing, even within booming noise. My complete focus is on the book that lays in my hand with a laminated cover, and I have no choice but to submit to the content. My breath tastes of spearmint and the aroma of fresh paper floats past my nose. I couldn’t resist but delve into the worlds and mysteries that books hold. Once opened, everything around me becomes a distant blur. I am hooked. Books have always created an escape for creativity and fancies to run free. Books are used as a medium for reason. Books are formative to the development of human beings. In my instance, books changed my life.

In this paper, Gioia argues that there has been a major decline in reading among young adults. Additionally he argues that this issue affects not only literature and the arts, but all aspects of life. He creates this argument through the use of relevant facts and examples.

Almost everyone has some kind of leisure time whether it is a couple hours or a couple days. What varies is the type of recreational activities people choose to do during that time. Although leisure and recreation is chosen based on ones unique individual interests, there are many sociocultural factors that influence the type of recreational activities we do, when we do it and how often we do it. These factors include political,

I viewed reading as a chore, was often unenthused, and would mostly annotate on the overarching themes without gathering any meaning from them. Books were merely a series of words printed on paper. This school year, however, I began to understand the allure reading has to offer. I have grown to appreciate reading and the insights a book can offer. When reading our numerous texts, I was able to live vicariously through the characters of the books and relate aspects of their lives to my own. Because all of the books from English I pertain to coming of age, I was able to not only learn about maturation as a process, but understand how it pertains to my own life. Through protagonists such as Holden Caulfield from The Catcher in the Rye or Esperanza from The House on Mango Street, I learned about my “misguided desire to preserve childhood innocence” and to empower feminism similar to Holden and Esperanza respectively (Heart of Gold, Raghuram). Gradually, I have finally developed the ability to relate to novels and its characters amidst writing my own story.Whether it be thematic elements or the details of a case I am working on, I have become more observant to even the most trivial details. Now when I read, I not only look at the themes, motifs, and symbols, but also repeated phrases or situations that parallel each others as well as the symbolic meaning behind some ambiguous phrases or scenes. Reading now, in contrast to last summer, is a

We didn’t only read for education. We also read for entertainment. Just like the ancient romans, we please ourselves with novels, love stories, poems, tragedies,

As printed text becomes more difficult to read, reading as a hobby has gotten a lot less attractive to some people. UCLA psychology professor Patricia Greenfield points out in her studies, “reading develops imagination, induction,

Reading has at all times and in all ages been a source of knowledge, of happiness, of pleasure and even moral courage. In today's world with so much more to know and to learn and also the need for a conscious effort to conquer the divisive forces, the importance of reading has increased. In the olden days if reading was not cultivated or encouraged, there was a substitute for it in the religious sermon and in the oral tradition. The practice of telling stories at bed time compensated to some extent for the lack of reading. In the nineteenth century Victorian households used to get together for an hour or so in the evenings and listen to books being read aloud. But today we not only read, we also want to read more and more and catch up