Why books are important (personal take)
Susan Buchholz
Books are important for me for a few reasons. One would be that they give so much more details into the personal lives of the person you are reading about and they provide folks with a place to use your imagination and produce images to make that book meaningful to them. I wouldn't know half of what I know about Ben Franklin had I not read his autobiography or Einstein if I hadn't read his some of his essays. I wouldn't have known Opal Whiteley existed at all if I hadn't read the amazing story written by her in her childhood entitled: "The Singing Creek Where the Willows Grow". I would have missed out on this amazingly intense, wise and beautiful girl's life.
Some of my fondest memories of my childhood were the times Mom would pull out a big old book and say: "Story Time!" My sister and I would race down the hall to whichever room had been prechosen to read in. We always sat on our beds on one of our bedrooms. (Mom's was the best because we could all fit and be cuddly). One of my favorite books from childhood was Julie Andrew's "The Last of the Really, Really Great Wangdoodles". Has anyone ever read this book? Oh, it' is such a joy and so exciting! Talk about imagination! What fun!
We would be so excited about Story Time because that was our special time to cuddle after a lousy day at school or being apart due to other duties and because it inspired so much discussion and play. From these books, plays were inspired that we would put on with neighborhood children who had not had story time with their families or who hadn't read those books. We also got fantastic ideas to produce our own stuff because something that had been read to us inspired us to do so. ***If I may, another fantastic incredible book is: "The Neverending Story" by Michael Ende. It blows the movies clean out of the water and is really not much like them at all. It's an incredible adventure and has strong meaningful lessons about friendship, loyalty, knowing oneself and becoming a loving person by getting to understand those around you and why they do what they do.
Anyway, books were the most amazing journey to us that later in life when I learned to read and write clearer (explain that in a minute), we began to write our own stories to each other to thrill each other or tell each other something we had not been able to speak or show but could only convey in poetry or story (my sister would produce beautiful drawings and paintings to go along with these writings). This inspired me to start a family newspaper with my son. We put on some music and each picks what they would like to write about (or who!) and my son is also the official comic strip producer for the paper and all our memories are on these pages forever to be read in later life and to give to his children if he chooses to have any.).
Another thing that made reading very important to me is that I am dyslexic. I was deemed unteachable by the school I attended. Back then (at least in our neck of the woods) folks didn't know so much about dyslexia. Well, I watched everyone else around me reading all these books while I missed out on it. It made me so upset and I felt like a failure because I couldn't read that much and didn't understand why. I had no idea how to describe what I saw in print when I tried to read. I could read a bit and when I wrote down words, they seemed to make sense to me but not too many other folks could read my writing. So... I taught myself to read and I began writing every single day for hours on end. I'm proud of what I taught myself and I have found a whole new world open up to me because of books. Not everyone likes to read, but for me, reading is a huge part of my freedom. It means I can pick up any book about any subject and get a very detailed understanding of someone's ideas of
something or how to do something. Then I can use it to apply what I would like to my life and not to worry about the other stuff I found inconsequential.
When I began to read, I discovered how different people thought and lived and in great detail. I found out about other cultures from individuals who lived in them. I found out about things I never thought I'd have the opportunity to learn about unless someone else read it to me or if I happened to catch a special about something on TV... but that wasn't satisfying. It got me "thirsty", so to speak, for more information that I could not readily access. Learning to read gave me freedom and the ability to grow in a way I really longed for.
And as for my son, his nose seems to always be in a book when he's not doing something else. He read and reads and laughs and laughs and comes up with new ideas for his comics, games, writings, and art. Not saying he's not influenced and inspired by other mediums, but he does dearly love a good book. And I love it when he shares those books with me and he loves it too or he wouldn't do it. A family tradition passed on. :-)
Peace,
Susan
---------------------------------
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Yahoo! Search presents - Jib Jab's 'Second Term'
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
Some of my fondest memories of my childhood were the times Mom would pull out a big old book and say: "Story Time!" My sister and I would race down the hall to whichever room had been prechosen to read in. We always sat on our beds on one of our bedrooms. (Mom's was the best because we could all fit and be cuddly). One of my favorite books from childhood was Julie Andrew's "The Last of the Really, Really Great Wangdoodles". Has anyone ever read this book? Oh, it' is such a joy and so exciting! Talk about imagination! What fun!
We would be so excited about Story Time because that was our special time to cuddle after a lousy day at school or being apart due to other duties and because it inspired so much discussion and play. From these books, plays were inspired that we would put on with neighborhood children who had not had story time with their families or who hadn't read those books. We also got fantastic ideas to produce our own stuff because something that had been read to us inspired us to do so. ***If I may, another fantastic incredible book is: "The Neverending Story" by Michael Ende. It blows the movies clean out of the water and is really not much like them at all. It's an incredible adventure and has strong meaningful lessons about friendship, loyalty, knowing oneself and becoming a loving person by getting to understand those around you and why they do what they do.
Anyway, books were the most amazing journey to us that later in life when I learned to read and write clearer (explain that in a minute), we began to write our own stories to each other to thrill each other or tell each other something we had not been able to speak or show but could only convey in poetry or story (my sister would produce beautiful drawings and paintings to go along with these writings). This inspired me to start a family newspaper with my son. We put on some music and each picks what they would like to write about (or who!) and my son is also the official comic strip producer for the paper and all our memories are on these pages forever to be read in later life and to give to his children if he chooses to have any.).
Another thing that made reading very important to me is that I am dyslexic. I was deemed unteachable by the school I attended. Back then (at least in our neck of the woods) folks didn't know so much about dyslexia. Well, I watched everyone else around me reading all these books while I missed out on it. It made me so upset and I felt like a failure because I couldn't read that much and didn't understand why. I had no idea how to describe what I saw in print when I tried to read. I could read a bit and when I wrote down words, they seemed to make sense to me but not too many other folks could read my writing. So... I taught myself to read and I began writing every single day for hours on end. I'm proud of what I taught myself and I have found a whole new world open up to me because of books. Not everyone likes to read, but for me, reading is a huge part of my freedom. It means I can pick up any book about any subject and get a very detailed understanding of someone's ideas of
something or how to do something. Then I can use it to apply what I would like to my life and not to worry about the other stuff I found inconsequential.
When I began to read, I discovered how different people thought and lived and in great detail. I found out about other cultures from individuals who lived in them. I found out about things I never thought I'd have the opportunity to learn about unless someone else read it to me or if I happened to catch a special about something on TV... but that wasn't satisfying. It got me "thirsty", so to speak, for more information that I could not readily access. Learning to read gave me freedom and the ability to grow in a way I really longed for.
And as for my son, his nose seems to always be in a book when he's not doing something else. He read and reads and laughs and laughs and comes up with new ideas for his comics, games, writings, and art. Not saying he's not influenced and inspired by other mediums, but he does dearly love a good book. And I love it when he shares those books with me and he loves it too or he wouldn't do it. A family tradition passed on. :-)
Peace,
Susan
---------------------------------
Do you Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Search presents - Jib Jab's 'Second Term'
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
Pam Sorooshian
On Feb 19, 2005, at 7:27 AM, Susan Buchholz wrote:
you thought that it was in contrast to watching tv or what? But I
suspect you're preaching to the choir here, Susan. People who read
lists like this are also likely to be people for whom the written word
is important - those who love books and other print material. We once
thought we'd try to count how many books we owned at my house - we got
up into the mid thousands very quickly and then got distracted by the
piles of books we'd pulled out to read (while we were counting) and
never finished actually counting.
Freedom of TV - no time limits set by adults for kids - doesn't at all
mean kids won't become voracious readers and book lovers as you've
described yourself.
My kids read and write a LOT. All three have written complete novels,
as a matter of fact. They never leave the house without books. We take
books to Disneyland to read in lines. A funny moment was when we were
on a ride and it broke down and my kids whipped out their books and
started reading - they didn't mind waiting.
There is something in the juxtaposition of your posts that makes it
seem as if you think tv freedom and voracious reading and writing are
somehow in conflict with each other, but that's really truly not the
case.
-pam
>I'm not sure if you shared your ideas about books and reading because
> And as for my son, his nose seems to always be in a book when he's not
> doing something else. He read and reads and laughs and laughs and
> comes up with new ideas for his comics, games, writings, and art. Not
> saying he's not influenced and inspired by other mediums, but he does
> dearly love a good book. And I love it when he shares those books with
> me and he loves it too or he wouldn't do it. A family tradition passed
> on. :-)
you thought that it was in contrast to watching tv or what? But I
suspect you're preaching to the choir here, Susan. People who read
lists like this are also likely to be people for whom the written word
is important - those who love books and other print material. We once
thought we'd try to count how many books we owned at my house - we got
up into the mid thousands very quickly and then got distracted by the
piles of books we'd pulled out to read (while we were counting) and
never finished actually counting.
Freedom of TV - no time limits set by adults for kids - doesn't at all
mean kids won't become voracious readers and book lovers as you've
described yourself.
My kids read and write a LOT. All three have written complete novels,
as a matter of fact. They never leave the house without books. We take
books to Disneyland to read in lines. A funny moment was when we were
on a ride and it broke down and my kids whipped out their books and
started reading - they didn't mind waiting.
There is something in the juxtaposition of your posts that makes it
seem as if you think tv freedom and voracious reading and writing are
somehow in conflict with each other, but that's really truly not the
case.
-pam