For the love of reading…
At LearnNext, we want to celebrate the joy that books bring us! Starting today, we’re launching a book review contest called SmartRead for our dear student community. We hope you enjoy the books as much as we do.
A book is not so much about the author as it is about the person who reads it. More than words or style it is the reader’s perspective that brings a book to life. And you can only engage with the work if some part of it resonates with some part of you. Which is a really good thing because there is so much to read out there, you will almost always find something that interests you.
There’s a book for everyone
Basically, the secret to enjoying a book is to choose one that talks about something of interest to you. If you are into nature and wildlife then John Grisham may not appeal but Kenneth Anderson surely will. If you haven’t heard of him before, well, now you have. And you found that out by reading. Alternatively, if you are interested in mystery, suspense and twisty plots then you have a wide range of book starting from Enid Blyton’s mystery books (Famous Five, Secret Seven, Five- Findouters, Three Investigators) for the young to Agatha Christie (Miss Marple, Hercule Poirot) and Arthur Conan Doyle (Sherlock Holmes, Professor Challenger) to even Stephen King or Dan Brown. Fantasy fiction, of course, is another widely read and popular genre. The popularity of the uber- successful Harry Potter series and that iconic trilogy, Lord of the Rings, along with the associated blockbuster movies they spawned, clearly indicate a prevalent interest in fantasy fiction. And these books aren’t just entertaining but also very well written. Both books are widely used in class rooms around the world as accepted text. These books and other like them show a wonderful fusion between entertainment and literature. A very educational hook for the reluctant young reader.
But when you want to combine good literature with side splitting humour and constantly shifting plots there is no author to equal P. G. Wodehouse. He is internationally renowned and recommended as a master of the English language and his sense of humour is legendary. Quirky characters like the dim- witted but good humoured Bertie Wooster and his faithful valet Jeeves or the kooky Lord Emsworth and the goings on in Blandings Castle are household names, entertaining audiences for generations. If you want a few hours of side splitting entertainment and at the same time develop a good vocabulary P. G. Wodehouse ought to be your first stop.
Where do I start reading?
Returning to the theme of developing a reading habit, we can declare outright that reading can be boring. If what you read about bores you. Identify your area of interest and once you do that look around, and you’ll find tons and tons of literature that works. But hey don’t take our word for it. We could be making all of this up. You don’t know. But our sincere suggestion is to go and find out. Walk into a library or a bookstore. Browse for a while, pick up something that looks interesting and give it a go. If it doesn’t do the job, try another one. Keep trying. Because once developed, this is a great habit that will stay with you, your entire life. It will also develop your writing skills and expand your imagination like anything.
Why reading is good for you…
We will also let you in on a secret. A reading habit can get you a job. A lot of employers today take as much interest in your general knowledge and hobbies as they do in your marks card. A well-read person has a significantly higher chance of getting a job than an ill read person with better marks. It will also help you make intelligent conversations about a wide number of topics and maybe even open up areas of interest that even you didn’t know you had.
But, in the end, the motivation to read has to come from the inside. You can, quite proverbially, take a horse to the water but you cannot make it drink. We asked a Teja, a relatively new entrant into the world of reading, what motivated him to read and this is what he had to say- “Knowledge is power. This statement stimulates the interest in me to read more. I have a wide range of interests. When I find a book that matches my interest I wouldn’t wait any longer to pick up the book and read.
Reading gives me confidence. When I complete a book, I feel more even more happy and content.”
There you are. Simple but effective reasons why you should get up right now from in front of this screen, walk out the door and make a beeline for the nearest repository of those great works of art called books.
