READING values

How Do We Get People to Read More?
Of course you know I'm not talking about the sign that says 'enter' or 'Kentucky Fried Chicken'though that's all the reading some people do. Nowadays those signs that are no longer even reading, but almost word pictures.

I'm talking about taking up a book and reading it to let worlds come alive in your mind. To let an entire universe of ideas take shape.

My adopted brother DC asked me the other day to tell him what I see as the value one gets from reading. I hadn't really thought about it before, so maybe I was just a little bit stumped. Hope it didn't show --- but now I'm thinking about it more and more. It's important for me as an author to know why people read. And especially with a novel coming out that will target youths 12 - 15 (though not exclusively) - it's important to be able to say why they (young people) should read. So let's see.

Reading:
- You are in touch with minds that have been exploring great concepts and ideas and you have those thoughts within your eyeline. Let's face it, nobody has only brilliant thoughts all the time. Writers go through the same stuff and issues and grapple with the same idea and problems as anything else. However, when they sit down to write, they are skillfully crafting those ideas for the reader. Is'nt it great to be so considered? I think so.
- Reading is fun - Can be more so than TV. It just depends on how good your mind has become at converting words into moving pictures on the screen of your imagination. And it gets better with practice. Ask any reader of an exciting book that has been converted to film like Harry Potter or The Bourne Supremacy and you will find that most of them say the book is better. Why is that? Because YOUR imagination is better. It's better than the imagination of any director out there can take something and make it come alive. Still, film is really just a different genre of entertainment, and shouldn't really be compared. I just want to make a point. But then, I'm sure I'm preaching to the saved. After all, you are READING this blog aren't you?

But since you are here, drop me a line or comment about how you think we can get more people reading. More reading-less wars- more love. LOL. It's not a fool proof theory I'm sure. I'm sure Hitler was a reader, hell he was a writer.

But let's not get distracted here. Just do something for humanity today. Tell a youth man fi go read a book. That's Jamaican for: go tell a child to read.
Michael Holgate