Why is a town's library never so popular that they have to open a second one? People dp not read enough. Especially literature. (fiction, biographies, poetry, etc.) What can be done about this? Why should people (particularly adults) read more? How can they make the time? I think this is an important issue, but many people (including myself) don't read as much as they like because of time constraints. Our culture has little sympathy for taking time to read. The people who expect a lot of us (school, work, parents, etc.) haven't built time into our lives to just read something we want to. And, of course, TV takes up some of that time. What are all of your thoughts on how to promote a culture of reading in America?

I'm on the run, but I would suggest that ONE of the best things would be to take truly great books and make truly great movies out of them. A ton of books get read by persons who have seen a really great version and wanted to go back and get at the original story. That original story is usually the novel.

Although I am not a big Oprah fan (gasp), I do feel her original book club got a lot of people, especially women, reading some great books. I also like the "One Book" activity that lots of cities have done for the past year or two. It got people of all ages reading the book, studying the author, and participating in city-wide as well as classroom discussions. I like this trend, but would like to see it expanded. Right now most cities have one book for the year. I'd like to see them change it to a book a month, or at least a book every other month. I also have seen an increase in local book clubs at the bookstores. I know I have within an easy driving distance a mystery book club, a romance book club, a "Great Books" club, and several more. Schools have also started to have their own book clubs. I started one at my own school last year and I know of several other schools that have done so also. I have had about a dozen students in it each year so far. It's a lot of fun, although of course kids that already love to read are the ones that have signed up for it. But that's ok--twice a month we're in our own little book club heaven. Right now we're reading "Ella Enchanted," and planning on going on a field trip to see the movie next week if it's still in theaters. These are some of the trends I can think of that have promoted reading, in answer to the original post.

How about blowing up some tv stations? Or would that be considered an act of mental terrorrism far surpassing the severity of what happened on the 11th of Sept, 2001?
Cheers, Translator

[This message has been edited by Translator (edited 04-14-2004).]

It's not the technology of TV, it's what you do with it. In the UK last year, BBC Television ran a year long event called The Big Read. People were invited to vote for their favourite novel; each week a different classic novel was profiled in a documentary. The result: sales of those books rocketed.

The same thing happens every time the BBC adapts a book for TV or has readings of a book on radio.

groon, most British towns have more than one library. There is usually a central library and a series of smaller ones spread throughout the town. Some towns even have mobile libraries. Is this a purely British concept?

- Phil

Don't tou think that the problem is in that:
TV has no "feedback", and watcher is just a consumer, so TV can control anyone's mind.

And the situation has the chance to be changed with the appearing of WEB, where you have the choise, the individuality, so there is no MASS culture?

No, Phil, that is not a purely British concept! Many larger and even medium-sized American cities have libraries and branch libraries. Some libraries even have more than one copy of more popular titles. As for mobile libraries, when we stayed with our grandparents in rural upstate New York, there was a "bookmobile" whose approach we anticipated more eagerly than any ice cream truck.

I did read several years ago of an alarming trend in America. Supposedly not one library branch closed anywhere in the U. S. during the entire Great Depression. Now a branch closes every week. Presumably during the Depression, when people had the library, the radio, and the cinema (if they were lucky) and that was IT, the library occupied a more central and valuable position than now, with TV, the internet, the mall, video arcades, etc. Did anyone see the recently aired and repeated episode of "The Simpsons" where the library had been turned into a media center, with all the "real" books removed and homeless hanging out? A book with actual pages was greeted by one of the homeless with a cry of, "Oh, boy! Toilet paper!"

Matt Groening does have an effective way of getting his point across, eh?

RE: Mobile Libraries

We still have a bookmobile here, but it only goes to schools. I guess I'm showing my age when I say I can remember when it went into the neighborhoods...I can also remember being 7 and checking out stacks of books taller than I was and bringing them back the next week, all read.

yeah i remember that simpsons episode. and the "young adult" section was changed to "adult section" with all these shady characters going in and out. pornography, eh?

also: i hate reality shows. they corrupt the mind. perhaps we should blow those up

PS: another simpsons episode has a "book burning-mobile" lol.

On the Simpsons topic, my favorite library scene was when they went to the public library's book fair where they were selling some of the old books to make room for new books, and make a little funding for the library itself, as is common in many public libraries. Homer looks at the books for sale and says, "If we didn't want these books when they were free, what makes them think we'd want to pay for them now?"

philnic,
Wow! The BBC's "The Big Read" sounds like an excellent idea!

All,
thanks for the response! Some good ideas!

Yeah, simpsons...I loved them back in the day.
Cheers, Translator