Posted
by Joel Mathis
November 19, 2007 at 7:36 a.m.
The case for reading
I've tried not to be a reading snob, but I can put that away now. [The New York Times][1] today offers up proof that reading is a good thing for your brain:Harry Potter, James Patterson and Oprah Winfrey's book club aside, Americans - particularly young Americans - appear to be reading less for fun, and as that happens, their reading test scores are declining.*The study also examined results from reading tests administered to adults and found a similar trend: The percentage of adults who are proficient in reading prose has fallen at the same time that the proportion of people who read regularly for pleasure has declined.*In seeking to detail the consequences of a decline in reading, the study showed that reading appeared to correlate with other academic achievement. In examining the average 2005 math scores of 12th graders who lived in homes with fewer than 10 books, an analysis of federal Education Department statistics found that those students scored much lower than those who lived in homes with more than 100 books.And for you bottom-line people, it matters because:The new report also looked at data from the workplace, including a survey that showed nearly three-quarters of employers who were polled rated "reading comprehension" as "very important" for workers with two-year college degrees, and nearly 90 percent of employers said so for graduates of four-year colleges. Better reading skills were also correlated with higher income.I have two reactions here:¢ That it's possible this study is measuring all the wrong things -- that "reading," in its strictest sense, is no longer the primary way of consuming information, but instead is one of an array of skills used to do that processing. It's like comparing sprinters to decathletes: Sprinters are great at the one thing they do, which is sprint. Decathletes, on the other hand, are merely good - or, at least, better than average - at the many things they do, one of which is sprinting. A decathlete will never beat the sprinter in the 100-yard dash, but the decathlete will probably beat the sprinter in nine other competitions. Maybe it's possible that we're becoming a culture of information decathletes.Certainly, as guy in what used to be called the "newspaper" business, I can tell you there's less and less room all the time for sprinters in the newsroom. We're looking for decathletes these days.¢ On the other hand, maybe we're just not reading all that much, and we're getting dumber as a result.My split-the-baby nature suggests to me that both conjectures are probably true.All of which leads to this: What have you been reading lately? [1]: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/19/arts/19nea.html?th&emc=th
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lori (anonymous) says…
His Dark Materials trilogy. Extra smarty points because I'm reading it aloud to the kids. Before the movie comes out.
Joel (Joel Mathis) says…
I've just completed "The Known World" and "The Yiddish Policeman's Union" in the last couple of weeks.
"The Known World" won the Pulitzer a couple of years ago. It's a novel based on the true (but rare) case of several free black families owning slaves themselves in Virginia before the Civil War. A good read.
"The Yiddish Policeman's Union" is nearly Michael Chabon's latest (he already has another novel out, his second this year). It's an alternative-history pastiche in the style of Raymond Chandler; in this world, many Jews were allowed to leave Europe and settle in Alaska prior to the outbreak of World War II. Now it's the 21st century, Palestine never became Israel after the war, and the Jews are once again facing diaspora -- this time through expulsion from the Great White North. In the midst of all this, a gay heroin junky -- who may or may not have been the Messiah -- dies a violent death in a fleabag hotel. A hardboiled alcoholic detective, Meyer Landsman, decides to solve the mystery and descends into a murky underworld of Jewish gangsters and neocon American politicians. It's at this point that Chabon gets a little tired and obvious about the point he's trying to make, but you've still got to admire the ambition. Plus, my knowledge of Yiddish was greatly expanded by reading this book.
Now in the slot: "Too Far From Home," the true story of the two astronauts and one cosmonaut stuck at the space station following the Colombia disaster in 2003.
frankt (Frank Tankard) says…
"Snow White" by Donald Barthelme
El_Borak (Bill Hoyt) says…
"Washington's Crossing," by David Hackett Fischer. Excellent, excellent, excellent study of Washington's adaptation of British martial discipline to free American troops who would simply not put up with such a thing. It's almost like the American militia was the world's first "4th Generation" army, even before the Germans invented 2nd and 3rd...
Ethnology of the British Islands - Latham
The Irish Version of Nennius - Henthorn
The Conquest of Britain by the Saxons - Haigh
Those three might serve as the first actual dipping of the toe into a master's thesis. Might.
Plus I recently dug out a bunch of old Conan stories. While reading them for the millionth time since I was 13, I recently realized I haven't read any new* fiction in almost 10 years, probably since I received "Executive Orders" for Christmas in 98 or 99. I was surprised by how little that discovery bothered me...
* By which I mean reading it at the same time many are reading it for the first time.
ihatejohntravolta (anonymous) says…
Maybe it doesn't quite count as reading but I've been...looking at "A History of Violence". Also I just re-read "No Country for Old Men"...so excited for that movie.
Dazie (Aileen Dingus) says…
I'm re-reading old pulp. "More Tales of the City" was my bubble bath entertainment last night, I finished "The DaVinci Code" again yesterday.
My brain just doesn't want to wrap around "literature" at the moment. I'm hoping the fog lifts and I can get back to my Civil War tomes soon.
dolores2175 (April Fleming) says…
"The New Kings of Nonfiction", edited by Ira Glass...
is there any measure of how much more people may be reading online?
El_Borak (Bill Hoyt) says…
That's a great point, April. "Reading" should not be limited to books and such, lest we complain that our kids are too busy reading blogs to read anything and too busy writing email to write letters to people...
emawkc (anonymous) says…
I second IHateJT's motion on No Country. Wanted to finish it before seeing the movie. I've got about a hundred pages left in McCarthy's Blood Meridian (as suggested by John B.) then I plan on taking a break from McCarthy for a while.
While I'm reading about the same amount as always, over the past couple of years I've been writing much more (although I'll grant that you have to use a pretty loose definition of the the word writing to apply it to what I do.
Joel (Joel Mathis) says…
... especialy when you forget to close the parenthesis.)
lazz (anonymous) says…
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i got yer back, emawkc...
lazz (anonymous) says…
"The Discovery of France," by Graham Robb
highly recommended.
DOTDOT (anonymous) says…
I'm reading a blog based on jokey euphemisms.
Joel (Joel Mathis) says…
Really? Because I'm writing a blo....
Wait. Nevermind.
Glennric (anonymous) says…
I am reading "The William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition, 1985-2000, Problems, Solutions, and Commentary."
Thought I would poke my nose into the Joely blog. Haven't been here for a while.