Back to my blog - I really do love this opportunity to let you know what I'm thinking, and I so do appreciate everyone who takes the time to visit, to read and to comment. It means everything to me.
Before I write today's blog, just a quick comment on my own personal "media ban". A number of people have asked me how it's all going, so I'll give you a quick heads up. Last Friday I ceased all interaction with the news media, as an experiment. After six days of ABSOLUTELY NO NEWS, I can report this. I think I may have stumbled upon one of the greatest ideas ever. I did it, as an experiment, to try to stop the never-ending negativity of the news from messing with my head, but it has quickly become more than just a media fast. I have given up television almost completely (except for my beloved volleyball of course).
What I have discovered is I have so much more productive time on my hands. Time to read, time to interact with other authors on social media and most important, time to work on my own personal development. It truly has been a revelation. Often I would visit other Author's websites and promise myself I would return and read their stuff at a later date - but, of course, I never did. Now, I have the time and I do read and I do learn so much from them. It's really great.
It is true that I don't know if China have invaded or not! Maybe they have, but their troops just haven't made it to Novaliches yet. Oh well, I'l deal with that when they arrive. Don't forget to message me if something big does happen - The Second Coming, or something of that magnitude. Will keep you informed of my ongoing progress.
Before I write today's blog, just a quick comment on my own personal "media ban". A number of people have asked me how it's all going, so I'll give you a quick heads up. Last Friday I ceased all interaction with the news media, as an experiment. After six days of ABSOLUTELY NO NEWS, I can report this. I think I may have stumbled upon one of the greatest ideas ever. I did it, as an experiment, to try to stop the never-ending negativity of the news from messing with my head, but it has quickly become more than just a media fast. I have given up television almost completely (except for my beloved volleyball of course).
What I have discovered is I have so much more productive time on my hands. Time to read, time to interact with other authors on social media and most important, time to work on my own personal development. It truly has been a revelation. Often I would visit other Author's websites and promise myself I would return and read their stuff at a later date - but, of course, I never did. Now, I have the time and I do read and I do learn so much from them. It's really great.
It is true that I don't know if China have invaded or not! Maybe they have, but their troops just haven't made it to Novaliches yet. Oh well, I'l deal with that when they arrive. Don't forget to message me if something big does happen - The Second Coming, or something of that magnitude. Will keep you informed of my ongoing progress.
My actual blog today is about something I am both passionate about and inextricably linked to - books (and here I'm actually talking about the hold in your hand, turn the page, real, paper books). As an Author, clearly I have a vested interest in books - they are my lifeblood. But, if writing books was all about creating revenue for myself (and it really isn't) then what would I care whether the customers bought electronic EBooks or the old-fashioned paper variety? Clearly I wouldn't - revenue is revenue; right? The truth is I have loved books in all their guises for as long as I can remember. All my life, I have read voraciously; fiction, non-fiction, it really didn't matter - as long as I could get my hands on them. Books have always been the one constant in my life.
This whole discussion came about because my wife and I made a conscious decision a few months ago to not give our grandchildren toys anymore for their birthdays and for Christmas, but to give them books instead. Although no-one actually said it out loud, I could definitely sense a feeling that books were not seen as such a great gift. The prevailing attitude seems to range from; "Books, oh, they're so last century." to "If someone wants information these days, all they need to do is 'Google' it."
That got me to thinking, was there still a place for books in today's electronic, information age. My daughter, who is no slouch in the brains department, often comes to me and asks me for information on something - even before she will try to 'Google it'. She said to me one day; "How come you know so much about things?" I remember just smiling and saying something along the lines of; "Because I read so much." The more I thought about it, the more I realized just how true that was. Most of my base knowledge about the world was gained from two sources; books and stamp collecting (as a child). Stamp collecting gave me a great geographical overview of the world and a base knowledge of nations and where they sat in the world, both physically and geopolitically. Whenever I discovered a stamp from a country I wasn't aware of, I would invariably hunt up our good, old encyclopedias and check it out - absorbing some useful information about the country and its people at the same time.
This whole discussion came about because my wife and I made a conscious decision a few months ago to not give our grandchildren toys anymore for their birthdays and for Christmas, but to give them books instead. Although no-one actually said it out loud, I could definitely sense a feeling that books were not seen as such a great gift. The prevailing attitude seems to range from; "Books, oh, they're so last century." to "If someone wants information these days, all they need to do is 'Google' it."
That got me to thinking, was there still a place for books in today's electronic, information age. My daughter, who is no slouch in the brains department, often comes to me and asks me for information on something - even before she will try to 'Google it'. She said to me one day; "How come you know so much about things?" I remember just smiling and saying something along the lines of; "Because I read so much." The more I thought about it, the more I realized just how true that was. Most of my base knowledge about the world was gained from two sources; books and stamp collecting (as a child). Stamp collecting gave me a great geographical overview of the world and a base knowledge of nations and where they sat in the world, both physically and geopolitically. Whenever I discovered a stamp from a country I wasn't aware of, I would invariably hunt up our good, old encyclopedias and check it out - absorbing some useful information about the country and its people at the same time.
When it comes to books, my tastes in reading were so wide and varied that I couldn't help but absorb a myriad of information about different places, different social structures, different cultures and different ideas. Certainly, as a child I broadened my knowledge way beyond that of my peers, and that knowledge has stuck with me to this day. As a for instance; I have never formally studied anything about Ancient Egypt, but I remember as a child reading a series of books about life during that period. Now Authors are often painstaking in their research of an historical subject, in order to create authenticity (one of the reasons I don't write historical novels). This authenticity has given me an exceptionally broad knowledge of the Gods, the Pharaohs, the social structure, the customs, the mores and the life of the early Egyptian civilization. I believe I am much the richer for that.
I do sense a frustration among young people today that they are required to specialize so much, in their education and in their employment that they don't have an opportunity to gain a broader knowledge of the world and life in general. Reading widely will give them that. This, of course, is a great argument against the current trend among higher education providers to remove pure humanity courses from their curriculum and focus instead on the sciences and task oriented education - but that argument is for another day.
Having said that, acquiring a broad base knowledge is not the major reason for reading books - it is a byproduct, albeit a very useful and rewarding byproduct. In my mind there are two critical reasons why one, we should impress on our children the importance of reading books and two, why we as adults should never abandon the reading of books in favor of the instant gratification offered by the internet and it like.
I do sense a frustration among young people today that they are required to specialize so much, in their education and in their employment that they don't have an opportunity to gain a broader knowledge of the world and life in general. Reading widely will give them that. This, of course, is a great argument against the current trend among higher education providers to remove pure humanity courses from their curriculum and focus instead on the sciences and task oriented education - but that argument is for another day.
Having said that, acquiring a broad base knowledge is not the major reason for reading books - it is a byproduct, albeit a very useful and rewarding byproduct. In my mind there are two critical reasons why one, we should impress on our children the importance of reading books and two, why we as adults should never abandon the reading of books in favor of the instant gratification offered by the internet and it like.
The first reason why I believe books are so important is because I absolutely affirm that the most important thing we as parents and grandparents can impart to our children is an inquiring mind. If our kids get nothing else from us, they should get the desire and ability to question, to seeks answers to, and to try and solve problems. All of this starts with an inquiring mind and books can give us that. We recently gave one of our grandchildren a book about Dinosaurs, which he loved of course, as all kids love Dinosaurs. If reading that book opens him up to seeking more information, going to the internet and searching, reading and becoming interested in paleontology, or science in general, then we have done our jobs. Even if it doesn't result in his increased awareness of science, it doesn't matter - we can have the satisfaction of knowing that for at least a short time, he wasn't playing games on the computer or mindlessly watching television - instead he was actively engaged in challenging his mind.
The second most important reason why we should read as children, and continue to read as adults is simply because it is rewarding in itself. Personally I don't know of a more rewarding and relaxing past-time than curling up with a good book and reading it. One of the most common arguments I hear against this, especially from young people is: "Oh, that's easy for you to say. You didn't have anything else to do when you were a kid - reading was all you had." To those poor, deluded youngsters I say this - BOLLOCKS! (an old English expression which means pretty much "what a load of b***s**t").
It is certainly true that for a time, as a child, I didn't even have a television to watch, let alone a smartphone, a tablet, or the internet - these were still all just fantasy dreams of the future. The time you now spend on the internet, texting or chatting on your phone, or watching television; we spent playing games with our friends (in person), bike-riding, building tree huts in the neighborhood bush, playing sport etc etc. We had the same amount of leisure time and options as you have now - we just had different ones; and yet some of us still found time to read widely and well.
It is certainly true that for a time, as a child, I didn't even have a television to watch, let alone a smartphone, a tablet, or the internet - these were still all just fantasy dreams of the future. The time you now spend on the internet, texting or chatting on your phone, or watching television; we spent playing games with our friends (in person), bike-riding, building tree huts in the neighborhood bush, playing sport etc etc. We had the same amount of leisure time and options as you have now - we just had different ones; and yet some of us still found time to read widely and well.
Reading allows us to indulge in dreams, in fantasies, and allows us to be transported back in time to ancient Rome, or forward in time to brave, new, worlds that we can only imagine exist. The skill of a great author is to engage his or her reader in such a way that for a brief few hours, the cares of the world are left behind as we imagine ourselves in the very places they describe. Reading allows us to identify with the characters, to feel what they feel, to bleed when they bleed. Reading is not reactive, it is interactive. We become one with the story and one with the characters. Reading allows for a much deeper engagement with the characters and the plot than television, movies or the internet. It forces us to be creative, to picture the situations being written about, in our mind - not just to see them with our eyes.
One of the problems of our modern world is that our children appear to have even shorter attention spans than before - it has spawned a whole new industry of child psychologists and mood altering drugs. I won't pretend that reading is the answer to all of our children's ills, but I am certain that a child who is encouraged to read and read often from a very early age will have a much more focused and disciplined mind than would otherwise be the case. I'm certainly not trying to minimize in any way the real issues some parents do have with their children, but I do question how valid some of the diagnoses can be.
I have to admit to being a bit of an "old wet blanket" on this particular one but when I see one and two year old children playing with Ipads and smartphones, I shudder. I truly struggle to see what development skills any child will get from doing this. Now, I know many people would disagree on me in this, but I guess we'll just have to agree to differ. In my mind, introducing technology that young is abrogating your parental responsibilities - unless of course you are doing it together using interactive learning software, but as a way to just "shut your child up", I find it unsatisfactory.
One of the problems of our modern world is that our children appear to have even shorter attention spans than before - it has spawned a whole new industry of child psychologists and mood altering drugs. I won't pretend that reading is the answer to all of our children's ills, but I am certain that a child who is encouraged to read and read often from a very early age will have a much more focused and disciplined mind than would otherwise be the case. I'm certainly not trying to minimize in any way the real issues some parents do have with their children, but I do question how valid some of the diagnoses can be.
I have to admit to being a bit of an "old wet blanket" on this particular one but when I see one and two year old children playing with Ipads and smartphones, I shudder. I truly struggle to see what development skills any child will get from doing this. Now, I know many people would disagree on me in this, but I guess we'll just have to agree to differ. In my mind, introducing technology that young is abrogating your parental responsibilities - unless of course you are doing it together using interactive learning software, but as a way to just "shut your child up", I find it unsatisfactory.
So, do I see the demise of the written word any time soon? Absolutely not. I am certain that books, in whatever physical form they may take in the future, will always be a major source of both information and escape for us all. I would strongly urge anyone who is not an avid reader to just give it a go. If need be, disconnect for a while from social media, television or whatever it is that rules your leisure time. Allow yourself to be captivated by the Author's vision and moved by the character's adventures.
One thing I know for a certainty - I have never been bored, depressed, lonely, sad or upset when I've spent a few hours just reading. Isn't that reason enough to give it a try?
Books truly are our windows on the world and on our fantasies and dreams.
From just one Author to all the potential readers out there:
READ A BOOK! BUY A BOOK! GIVE A BOOK!
One thing I know for a certainty - I have never been bored, depressed, lonely, sad or upset when I've spent a few hours just reading. Isn't that reason enough to give it a try?
Books truly are our windows on the world and on our fantasies and dreams.
From just one Author to all the potential readers out there:
READ A BOOK! BUY A BOOK! GIVE A BOOK!
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