Column:
Textbooks, lazy readers threaten good books
Published April 22, 2005
For me, there's something a little ironic about college life. It's a peculiar phenomenon. All I seem to do every day is read, but just when I think I'm done, there are still those last 75 pages of "Crime and Punishment" I never finished for my humanities class.
Despite all this reading, I never seem to get any reading done. Well, OK, I get lots of reading for done for class, but I never get a chance to pick up a book and read it just because I want to.
Reading in the United States is no longer regarded as a recreational activity, and I wonder if the heavy amount of assigned reading in college is partly to blame for Americans' tendency to regard reading a book as work or an assignment rather than entertainment.
America's increasing disinterest in the printed word has created a shift in the publishing industry that is unnoticed by most of the population. It's a shift that is slowly leaving people who prefer books to television in the dark. Since reading for entertainment has declined, more and more publishers are choosing only to publish books they know they can sell to anyone, such as sensational celebrity biographies, topically hot thrillers such as "The Da Vinci Code" and anything written by Stephen King.
Of course, most of you are thinking, "So what? 'The Da Vinci Code' was the only book I read last year. They should focus on publishing books people want to read" But what the millions of people who bought "The Da Vinci Code" didn't seem to realize was that it was a remarkably bad book. Still, it seems bad books sell.
As long as people are reading, I support their choices, but when publishers choose to support only mainstream audiences that want the latest Dan Brown thriller and whatever Oprah endorses this week, those of us who read for passion suffer.
We miss out on books written by lesser-known authors who might be our favorites, denied in favor of the latest neon-colored chick-lit book.
What does all this have to do with the excessive amount of reading we're all assigned? If America wants to maintain its reputation as a place of education and intelligence, we need to make reading fun again. By burying college students under piles and piles of dry textbooks, even some of us who love reading are less inclined to ever want to do it again.
There must be some way professors can make reading for class more engaging, perhaps by assigning novels rather than dry textbooks, or by assigning current events articles so that at the end of our four years here, rather than feeling a need to leave books behind forever, students will still feel a hunger to pick up a book and read more.
Once the public remembers the joys of reading a good book, one picked by their own volition, the entire book-reading public will gain. The Dan Brown fans will get more Dan Brown, and the book industry will thrive once again. Publishers will once again be able to publish lesser-known authors to please eclectic book readers.
