{"id":43110,"date":"2025-04-25T20:16:46","date_gmt":"2025-04-25T16:16:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/?p=43110"},"modified":"2025-05-02T21:09:02","modified_gmt":"2025-05-02T17:09:02","slug":"encouraging-reading-books-from-a-young-age","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/encouraging-reading-books-from-a-young-age\/","title":{"rendered":"Encouraging Reading Books From A Young Age"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thoughts & Reflections<\/u><\/span><\/p>\n

By Dr R Neerunjun Gopee<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

In an age where the electronic screen in the form of the smartphone in the hand has become a universal phenomenon, available to all age-groups as early as toddlers! \u2013 it would seem an anachronism to write about reading books. It is a fact that reading in electronic format has become so ubiquitous now as to replace the actual reading of material in the traditional form of print \u2013 books, magazines, newspapers.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/span>Encourage reading in your home. Pic – Southern Living<\/span><\/p>\n

Versions of the latter, including some of the most prestigious titles in the world, have had to close down and go digital instead. This is true for our local newspapers also, which are now read mostly in digital form, a trend which gained traction during the Covid pandemic and has since become standard. No doubt this is a reality we cannot get away from and represents the future mode for the current and coming generations.<\/span><\/p>\n

Those of us of the earlier generations still clamour for print versions, and many subscribers to this paper known to me used to ask me when the print version would become available again once the Covid pandemic had passed.<\/span><\/p>\n

It is also a fact that many bookshops have closed down, which is indeed a pity. Because the electronic format may replace but is no substitute for a book. The former can disappear at the touch of a click, but a book is forever! A book is like an old, trusted friend. To whom you can go back again and again.<\/span><\/p>\n

As the Roman philosopher, statesman, and writer said, \u2018A room without a book is like a body without a soul.\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n

The electronic format undoubtedly presents certain advantages, such as quasi-instantaneous and widespread access across the world to a larger audience. However, the pleasure of reading a book can never be matched by doing so with the digital equivalent. Curling up with a book in your lap as you doze off, especially on winter evenings, is not the same as doing so with a tablet or a laptop \u2013 besides the fact that this can be positively dangerous!<\/span><\/p>\n

When I see the millions of people looking down at smartphones in their hands, most of the time, head bent forward and the back somewhat stooped, I am given to wonder whether at some time in the distant future if this trend continues, we will have generations born with hunched backs and heads down instead of looking up, and shortened fingers! A kind of unintended consequence of science and technology, which the French geneticist Albert Jacquard described as \u2018les effets pervers de la science\u2019<\/em> in an article with the same in Le Monde Diplomatique<\/em>. In this case a physical habit would have become a hereditary trait, in line with Darwin\u2019s Theory of Evolution. Though I hope not\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n

In our time as schoolchildren, at both primary and secondary levels, books were our prized and precious possessions, carefully covered and passed down to younger siblings. Our teachers used to make us read aloud from them, and reciting poems learnt by heart not only sharpened our memories but also improved our articulation.<\/span><\/p>\n

At the college, there used to be a library period once a week, when we would all go to the library and read in silence, choosing from magazines that were neatly displayed on a rack, or from books that lined the bookshelves in rows. Books on all subjects, catering to everybody\u2019s taste.<\/span><\/p>\n

I genuinely feel that this custom, that is the library period, should be introduced again if it is not done. And also reading aloud, and reciting poems. They will make for more rounded personalities in the students and reduce the risk of mental health issues which plague modern society, according to frequent reports that one comes across.<\/p>\n

I include magazines as well as books, many of which have influenced the course of human events. One such book is \u2018Nineteen Eighty-four\u2019 by the English writer George Orwell, which I had read many years ago from the library and read afresh when I bought a copy some years ago.<\/p>\n

And just a few days back, while clearing a box of magazines, I picked up an old issue of The New Yorker<\/em> (January 18, 1999) which carried a long article on him. Going through it, I learnt for the first time that he had a career as a journalist too. It was interesting to read that he \u2018showed what can only be described as intellectual heroism\u2019 and that because of \u2018his unpalatable opinions\u2019, he had \u2018restricted access to mainstream publications \u2013 most of his commentaries were written for Tribune<\/em>, an influential but small-circulation weekly newspaper backed by the Labour Party\u2019s star heavyweight, Aneurin Bevan.\u2019<\/p>\n

Aneurin Bevan was the architect of the National Health System, and the current Labour Party there is a caricature of the original one, but that\u2019s another story.<\/p>\n

It was also quite revealing to read, further, \u2018when he (Orwell) argued, in the columns of the Tribune<\/em>, that the mass-circulation newspapers forced slop on their readership,\u2019 a correspondent responded that \u2018it was really the readership forcing slop on the newspapers.\u2019 Hence tabloids and page 3 scandals that make the headlines, I wondered.<\/p>\n

It is noteworthy that restriction to mainstream access didn\u2019t stop him from becoming one of the most famous and widely read authors, to this day, in the world, with his two most well-known books,\u2018Nineteen Eighty-four\u2019 that came after \u2018Animal Farm\u2019 (1945).<\/p>\n

I am sure that readers will have their own favourites. One of the websites that I visit regularly is \u2018BigThink\u2019 which has recently come up with a new feature, introduced as follows: \u2018Hi, I\u2019m Kevin Dickinson, and welcome to the first issue of Big Think Books! Every month, I get the privilege of exploring the ideas and authors changing how we understand our world. But I don\u2019t just want to tell you what\u2019s new on the shelves; I want readers to engage with the conversations these books spark and the questions they leave us with. If you\u2019re someone who loves to read and indulge their curiosity, you\u2019re in the right place.\u2019<\/p>\n

Similarly, the science magazine Nature<\/em> carries every month an online review of five recently published science books which allows one to keep up with ideas and questions to ponder.<\/p>\n

Nothing better than to conclude with some quotations about books and reading:<\/p>\n

\u2018One glance at a book and you hear the voice of another person, perhaps someone dead for 1,000 years. To read is to voyage through time.\u2019 \u2013 Cosmologist Carl Sagan<\/p>\n

\u2018Show me a family of readers, and I will show you the people who move the world.\u2019 \u2013 Napoleon Bonaparte<\/p>\n

“Writing and reading decrease our sense of isolation. They deepen and widen and expand our sense of life: They feed the soul. When writers make us shake our heads with the exactness of their prose and their truths, and even make us laugh about ourselves or life, our buoyancy is restored. We are given a shot at dancing with, or at least clapping along with, the absurdity of life, instead of being squashed by it over and over again. It’s like singing on a boat during a terrible storm at sea. You can’t stop the raging storm, but singing can change the hearts and spirits of the people who are together on that ship.” \u2013 Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird<\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018Books and doors are the same thing. You open them, and you go through into another world.\u2019 \u2013 Jeanette Winterson<\/p>\n

\u2018Literature is the safe and traditional vehicle through which we learn about the world and pass on values from one generation to the next. Books save lives.\u2019 \u2013 Laurie Anderson<\/p>\n

\u2018The reading of all good books is like a conversation with the finest minds of past centuries.\u2019 \u2013 Rene Descartes<\/p>\n

“That\u2019s the thing about books. They let you travel without moving your feet.” \u2013 Jhumpa Lahiri, The Namesake<\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018You think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read. It was books that taught me that the things that tormented me most were the very things that connected me with all the people who were alive, who had ever been alive.\u2019 \u2013 James Baldwin<\/p>\n

\u2018A book is a gift you can open again and again.\u2019 \u2013 Garrison Kellor<\/p>\n

\n

Mauritius Times ePaper Friday 25 April 2025<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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