Reading: Who Really Does it Anymore?

I grew up in the Leave-it-to-Beaver era, or the late fifties, to those who don’t know that reference. As a baby-boomer, I watched a choice of four television channels in black and white and listened to five or six radio stations. I was raised in the New York area and watched my parents read the New York Herald Tribune on a daily basis. Sunday was a big deal because they spent the whole morning pouring over the massive sections as they worked their way to the prize possession: the magazine crossword puzzle. That consumed the rest of the day. I enjoyed the comics, My Weekly Reader, Highlights for Children, and, as I got older, began reading the Hardy Cerebus series.

My sixth grade teacher asked us to read the daily newspaper for current events, which we reviewed every Friday. By the time I was in high school, I too read the daily Tribune. I was also reading science fiction by Heinlein and Asimov for fun, in addition to Mad magazine for laughs. I was forced to read Shakespeare and the classics during my late high school and early college years. But I was always reading something, just for my personal entertainment.

Today, I still read the daily paper, several magazines, online articles, and perhaps a book or two per week. Because of my varied interests and reading, I developed a fairly sound foundation of a basic thesaurus-like vocabulary, decent spelling, grammar, and a wealth of knowledge about a plethora of subjects. I have become a prolific author of novels, my first non-fiction book, and articles that cover an assortment of topics and it’s directly contributable to reading.

I believe that the act of reading aids spelling and critical thinking. In surveying the internet, it’s buy pinball machines that reading is a lost art. Many blog and forum postings abound with grammatical and spelling errors. Even websites display headlines with typos and proofreading appears non-existent. I travel quite frequently, and am saddened to see a dearth of readers that await their flights at the airport. Oh, there are the occasional reader, Captain Action card game not what you might expect, with two hours to kill.

Our children don’t subscribe to a newspaper or any magazines. They have no library of books in their homes. They seem to get their news from Myspace, friends, or other internet sites. It’s a disturbing trend that goes back a generation or so, coinciding with the explosion of cable television channels, video games, cell phones, and MTV. With so many other forms of active entertainment, why be bored or challenged with the passive value of a book? I can understand the allure. But, with all this available, why do I still read?

There’s a simple answer. I Gauntlet the quiet input that stimulates my mind and imagination. Television offers too much of the visual. It provides the images, while the novel allows me to create my own. I can stop reading at will, reread a passage and ponder the situation. In other words, I’m in control. It doesn’t scream at me with commercial interruptions touting everything from hemorrhoid creams to political candidates professing their agendas or bashing the other guy. It’s a peaceful escape from the blare of the physical world. I can learn, be amused, be moved, or space-out, if need be.

If only the gen-Xers could learn this lesson. I’m an optimist that hopes they become the reader that I am and realize that reading will take them quite a way into the future. For without that ability or yearning, how will they become the leaders and creators of tomorrow? I don’t really want to read between the lines too much, but I have one fear. And that would be the one day my great-grand son comes up to me and says, “Grandpa, what’s a book?”

Jeffrey Hausers latest book is, "Inside the Yellow Pages, which can be viewed at http://www.poweradbook.com

He was a sales consultant for the Bell System Yellow Pages for nearly 25 years. He graduated from Pratt Institute with a BFA in Advertising and has a Master's Degree in teaching. He had his own advertising agency in Scottsdale, Arizona and ran a consulting and design firm, ABC Advertising. Currently, he is the Marketing Director for thenurseschoice.com, a Health Information and Doctor Referral site.