Power of Reading
By zandi458
@zandi458 (28102)
Malaysia
December 9, 2008 9:46pm CST
Don't know what to do during the holidays? How about reading? I have always loved to read. Reading a book. I am so absorbed that I literally lose myself. sometimes I have no idea how much time has passed. I look up the clock as if by accident and only then do I discover how much time has flown. Because I read practically every night even while surfing, I keep needing books to feed this habit of mine. I am fortunate the community library is not too far from where I stay. Its modest yet modern collection of books has more than satisfied me so far. To top it up, friends of mine will willingly loan me books and magazines to read. I am a happy woman I tell you.
Reading to kids and encouraging them to read is a key element in the lives of successful kids. Books are described as "central to a family's life. I read anything and everything. Books for leisure, books for entertainment and books for knowledge.
If you're a teacher or lecturer or a young mother reading this, I'd say this to you. Do read as much as possibly can. Also do read as much as you can to your children. Make books, magazines and pamphlets available within reach. Read out stories, jokes and anecdotes. Share them directly when ever you come across good ones. Surround them with books and get their noses into books. Get books into their hands and into their lives and watch the magic happen.
In the Readers Digest, I read with interest of his mother's influence on US incoming president, Barack Obama. He remembers this of his mother. When he was living in Indonesia with her, she would wake him up before dawn with English lessons from a correspondence course. Do you see the pattern? The emphasis on language? On reading? The success that a superior reading ability brings. The investment its worth?
So,if you'd like your child to be a better writer, start by making him an avid reader first. Start this holiday season. Don't put it off anymore. Read and the force will be with you! Do you believe that the power of reading can have a great impact on your life, you become more knowledgeable and smarter?
2 people like this
14 responses
@SaviourV (260)
• Malaysia
11 Dec 08
Saviour-V teleports in...
Haven't been reading too heavily off late. Unless you count the stories I've read at FanFiction.Net. Sometimes, there are rather interesting stories.
Even for something ordinary, such as manga, there are better story-tellers than the original authors themselves. For instance, "Love Hina" is a harem-plus-romance manga, with plenty of fanservice for most males, but "The U Project", featured on FanFiction.Net, puts a Bourne Identity-esque spin on the whole thing.
Gems such as this make me come round time and time again, to witness the rest of the magic that each person weaves into their stories.
Apart from that, I sometimes manage to get my hands on back-dated Reader's Digest issues. One of the best articles I've read so far would be the one about the Chocolate Wars - Mars and Hershey's go way back with regards to this.
I don't really remember everything I've read, but sometimes, a stray word can bring back very familiar memories. So I do believe that the written word has its own magic. Keep reading, people!
Saviour-V grins, and teleports out...
1 person likes this
@SaviourV (260)
• Malaysia
11 Dec 08
Saviour-V teleports in momentarily...
I think you've got it wrong. Here in Malaysia, there is a magazine called "Mangga" which translates to "Mango" in English, and yes, that's a comic + scandal rag. I don't bother with that junk myself.
What I was referring to was the Japanese word "manga", which basically means "Japanese comic books". Those, I read fairly often. A lot of the Japanese "anime" or "cartoons" are TV adaptations of manga, in fact.
Here in Malaysia, we have to settle for heavily censored versions of the original Japanese manga, so I usually go to places such as OneManga.com or Mangafox.com to get my fix of Japanese manga. Properly translated (in most cases), and usually without all the censorship that we have to go through otherwise.
Saviour-V grins, and teleports out again...
1 person likes this
@Jody20 (887)
• Netherlands
10 Dec 08
In the past i was a real bookwurm, i couldn't live without books. Nowadays i dont have the concentration to get past the first page, when im on the second page i've already forgotten what i have read on the first one. It really irritates me, so i have stop reading but i must say that i miss it. I currently trying to improve my concentration so i can enjoy books again. I learned my daughter to read when she was 4 years old, so she was ahead of the rest of the kids at school.
1 person likes this
@zandi458 (28102)
• Malaysia
10 Dec 08
How sad to have lost that important part of reading. I think you need to revive your reading habit and be on the right track again. Children if given the right coaching should be able to excel especially when they have been exposed to books at an early age.
@savypat (20216)
• United States
10 Dec 08
I'm addicted to reading and most of my family is also. It's one of our main sources of entertainment. We use the local library and also the exchange bookshops.
I never buy a hard back book unless it's reference, even so the house overflows with them. If I get a spurt of energy I need to go thou our books and clear out the ones that are out of date.
1 person likes this
@rick_d (213)
• United States
10 Dec 08
I'm not much of a reader anymore but I use to read to and with my kids when they where younger, I have always thought about how much reading enables your imagination. when my kids where 4 & 5 I really started noticing how much tv they where watching, I had them close their eyes one day and listen to tv but imagine there own picture of what was going on.( this was done just as a game for them) I would see them doing this once in while after that. anyway 12 years later I walked into my sister living room and noticed her 5 year old son watching cartoons but had his eyes closed, I asked him what he was doing, he tells me that he was playing a game that Kayla( my daughter)had shown him and went on to tell me how "kool" of a game it was.come to find out, she had been sharing this with all the kids in our family and they all played "the game". I've kind of gotten off track with this story but kids don't read as much anymore and I just think that it is interesting that they would play this game that makes them use there imagination.
@riyasam (16556)
• India
10 Dec 08
Reading is a means of language acquisition, of communication, and of sharing information and ideas.Reading books is generally regarded as being a relaxing pastime, while at the same time requiring the brain to process text so it can be stimulated. Because of this it is sometimes considered to cause at least a temporary increase in one's mental faculties
@ajrox1810 (992)
• India
10 Dec 08
I completely agree with you, to make a good writer, first be a an avid reader. I have myself read a lot of books and have experienced my writing style to be very similar to that author.
The power of reading is amazing, it drastically improves your literature, spellings, and writing style. I am also trying to get all my favorite magazines and some new novels to read this holiday season, only if I get some time-off myLotting.
Regards,
AJ Rox.
1 person likes this
@snowy22315 (170140)
• United States
10 Dec 08
I have had a lifelong love of reading and believe that it has enriched my life substantially. There is alot of postive information in your little article and your premise is one that I totally agree with. I think reading is a way to inform, entertain and exercise your mind. It is a great pasttime.
1 person likes this
@jewilim (495)
• Philippines
14 Dec 08
You could actually gain unlimited knowlege if you just know how to read and if you always read. Being able to read is a very powerful tool because just being able to read you could gain all sorts of knowledge and you can learn almost anything you like especially now that almost everything is already in the internet. Being able to read is already an achievement but it would be nothing if you would not be putting it into good use. So i think it is really a very good idea to have your kids get used to reading especially as young as they are to make it a good habit because we could actually get lots of knowledge from reading. Reading is for everyone that is why we have some public libraries around to provide us with good sources of knowledge and information.
@Ganesh44 (5547)
• India
15 Dec 08
Dear Friend
Yes reading is directly linked to learning I think reading is directly porportional to learning and vice versa ,so a learner is a big reader and a reader is a big learner .
I read to learn more and more ....
Happy Mylotting
Take Care
Ganesh
I read to learn more and more ....
Happy Mylotting
Take Care
Ganesh 
@Daydreamer2 (470)
• Philippines
14 Dec 08
I'm always interested into books especially adventurous books. I was also called a walking dictionary and they also commented how did i memorize that easy and how can i explain the whole book after reading? People always commented that way. I became knowlegeable you're right! asking questions by my own colleagues is not too hard for me.
Being a bookworm speaks a lot you make people amazed by your abilities.
@savak03 (6684)
• United States
10 Dec 08
Reading is indeed the cornerstone to education. A love of books is most effectively instilled in the very young. My children always had books of their own even before they could understand what books were for. Even before they were born I would read aloud to them. Hand in hand with reading is the ability to do research. This was brought home to me by a teacher that I at first despised.
I was in college and for my second year english class we had a new teacher that had originally been a third grade teacher. She would dance around the class and tell silly stories as if we were in grade school. But she taught us a lot and kept stressing that we should take notes and keep them. At the end of the semester for our final exam she told us it was open book and open note. We all, of course, made an A. When she handed us our grades she said the words that my children can now quote from memory. "It's not what you know, but if you know how to look it up"
1 person likes this
@zandi458 (28102)
• Malaysia
10 Dec 08
The teachings in schools can only provide us the foundation and the basic knowledge, by reading and doing research on our own it gives us wider and in dept knowledge of what we have been taught in school. Knowledge and learning is a continuous process and only by reading we be able to learn more. Nice to know that you have instill the reading habits to your children. It something that we parents should all do as part of our parenting.
@zandi458 (28102)
• Malaysia
10 Dec 08
Great you found love in reading. Yeah, mylot has stolen some of my time spend for reading but I can still do it while surfing while waiting for it to upload I can just turn my attention to one paragraph of the book and continue surfing again. It is multitasking, or killing two birds with one stone.
