I have to admit I am mentally challenged when it comes to reading great works of literature. I scanned some good works in high school and managed to get through (somehow!) some serious reading in college, but it wasn't until my early thirties that I took a real stab at conquering some well-known works like 1984, The Great Gatsby and The Death of Ivan Ilyich. What enabled me to truly enjoy reading these and more books was the fact I opted to do without one form of technology for almost two years: TV. I was living in Thailand and decided that rather than getting cable TV I would concentrate on reading. It worked, and I'm all the better for it!
Unfortunately, though, as years passed, TV crept back into the picture (pun intended) and took center stage. Another huge Achilles heel is the Internet, 24/7. Sadly both TV and the Internet are not just affecting my ability to read novels: I don't read nearly as much as I'd like, period. I read articles and e-mails, yes, but not reading that requires any ample amount of concentration, much less imagination. Ironically, it was the online articles below that caused me to delve into my problem a bit more. I hope you find these articles enjoyable too. And, I hope you can make a pledge to read at least one classic in 2010. Mine is going to be The Brothers Karamazov. One reason I have chosen this Dostoevsky work is because Kade and I visited his apartment museum in St. Petersburg in 2007. Seeing the desk where he labored over his masterpieces was awe-inspiring and humbling.
Here are the articles: Reading Novels is Good for You and Is Google Making Us Stupid?
2 comments:
Hi, Allen. I love that you found Is Google Making Us Stupid? as intriguing an idea as I did. I wrote about that same Atlantic Monthly article in my blog: http://keyspeechteach.blogspot.com/2008/06/blame-that-adhd-on-net.html with similar conclusions. An interesting follow up is another AM piece: Get Smarter:
http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200907/intelligence
Sort of the ying/yang of Internet behavior.
good. i will take a look at look at the article links. I wouldn't be surprised if I had gotten the "google article" off of your blog a few months ago. i had this saved in a file to read later...so it's likely I had snagged it from yours! If so, thanks for the idea!
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