reading

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Why Don’t Americans Read?


I can answer that with a simple statement, “I don’t know.”

Something has happened within our culture which keeps American, without regard to education, from reading. The most obvious sign of this is how many newspapers have ceased publication in the past 25 years along with formerly daily newspapers which have become three day a week papers.

I am tactile person who likes nothing better than to read a daily newspaper in its newsprint form. Until my wife and I moved to Eastern North Carolina, on Sunday mornings, I went out and bought both the Boston Globe and the New York Times. We sat at our dining room table pouring over these publications with delight. Newspapers’ ability to sustain publication relies entirely on its circulation. As across the nation those numbers have decreased, the ability of the newspaper to get much needed advertising has also declined. Newspapers, even though they print news that you may have heard 12 hours earlier on the television, offer something that television news reports do not; their coverage of a story is far more complete. Additionally, television news cannot give the same amount of news as a newspaper does. But this is where the non-reading public comes into play. I suspect that a large portion of the American public will say that they do not have time to read a newspaper. But for most of them the real truth is that they just cannot be bothered to do so.

Fifty years ago, in any city of any size that you ventured to, had at least one bookstore, and, in most cases, there were multiple bookstores. In larger cities the used bookstores were easy to find. That is not true any longer. My wife and I are avid book readers. My wife reads them electronically and I buy the hardcover book. Either way, we read a lot of books. But independent bookstores are shuttering their operations more and more. There simply exists little call for what they sell. Where I now live, Barnes & Noble is my refuge.

I know from the experience of having worked for many years in public school systems, that reading is a major part of their curriculum. But for some reason, people who go through those systems may be looking at reading as something they did not like to do in primary and secondary schools and so why should they continue?

And then there are our public libraries. If such figures existed, I suspect the foot travel into these institutions has dramatically decreased. And those books are free which means that people on limited budgets cannot use the excuse of not having the funds to buy books.

I read a lot as a way to escape the realities of our world into the world of fiction. I also subscribed to the Boston Globe’s electronic version just to stay abreast of the news of a state I called home for most of my life but also because it is the only daily source of that type of news available to me here in Eastern North Carolina. We have two “daily” newspapers, as their masthead declares, that come out 3 days a week, have about 8 pages of mostly advertising, and are overpriced, $2.00 per copy.

It is my belief that Americans have lost sight of the value in reading the printed word. The last time to general public got into a reading frenzy was when the various Harry Potter books were published. Since then, everyone has reverted back. Are we heading to being a country of illiterates? To some degree, yes. Are we becoming a country which is ill-informed of the news of the nation and the world? Most definitely!

I have no idea how to get the general public back to reading except to write my blog about what I see as a problem. And of course, my blog, and others like it, appeal mostly to people who read.

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Five Books That Are Must Reads


I probably read at least 25 books a year.  In this day and age, I would say that is a bit unusual.   The closing of so many book stores, most recently the national chain Borders, tells me that people just do not buy books as much as they used to.  There are those who claim the internet and electronic media are to blame.  I am sure that is true in part, but I think technology is getting in the way of people feeling like they need to read anything at all.

That said, I want to offer up five books, all classics, that I consider must reads.  These are books that I think have a timeless quality to them not to mention how well they are written compared with today’s pulp fiction.  I read a lot of that pulp fiction and truly enjoy it.  But the manner in which these old classics were written is beyond compare.

1.  Silas Marner by George Eliot —  The author George Eliot is the pen name of Mary Ann Evans.  At the time of its publication, 1861, female writers were not taken as seriously as their male counterparts.  Silas Marner is the story of an English peasant who one day finds a very young girl who has been abandoned by her mother.  It tells of how Silas brings up the girl and his reception by the townspeople and the local nobility.  At the time of its writing the novel was considered quite risqué because of its bluntness in dealing with human relationships of all sorts.  It is also a love story, a murder mystery, and an editorial of English society of the day.  Once started, I think this book is a real page turner by anyone who undertakes it.

2.  Main Street by Sinclair Lewis — I remember hearing about this book way back when I was in high school and my attitude towards it was that it must be boring.  But recently I decided to expand my mind a bit by reading accepted classics and this was one of my first.  Main Street is the story of a doctor, Will Kennicott, who is one of three doctors who attended to the city of Gopher Prairie Minnesota.  Lewis, himself a trained physician, takes on the social mores of the day and drapes them over the people of the metropolis of Gopher Prairie.  The good doctor per chance meets Carol Milford, a librarian in St. Paul.  What you get is a view of small town America as seen through the eyes of these two people, Carol, who longs for city life and all it offers, and Dr. Kennicott, who assures Carol that Gopher Prairie offers so much more than any city.  What we get is an excellent view of early 20th century life in middle-America.  Lewis places many moral and ethical questions in Dr. Kennicott’s path as he moves through his life.  The style of writing is exemplary and makes you wonder if such well-written prose is taking shape today.

3.  The Financier by Theodore Dreiser — Dreiser is one of my favorite authors and as such it was difficult for me to pick one of three of his books which I love, Sister Carrie and An American Tragedy.  The Financier is the story of Frank Algernon Cowperwood and based on the real-life story of C.T. Yerkes, a magnate of the late 19th century.  This was to be the first of a trilogy Dreiser had planned but never completed.  His second book, The Titan, finishes the life of the inimitable Cowperwood.  The story starts with the teenaged Frank A. Cowperwood deciding he need to do something with his life that did not include any more formal schooling.  He quickly discovers he has a talent for making money in the buying and selling of commodities in Philadelphia, his hometown and the setting for this first novel.  Cowperwood’s genius for financial gain quickly lands him in the good favor of those trading on the local stock exchange.  Cowperwood’s life takes off from there as he decides early on that he is going to be rich.  Dreiser treats us to the shady inner workings of financial manuevers of the 1860s and 1870s and Cowperwood’s unscrupulous dealings.  Once done with this book you will most likely want to tackle The Titan to find out what happens.

4.  Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton — Wharton is reknown for her commentary on late 19th Century society.  Ethan Frome is the story of a man, Frome, in the New England town of Starkfield.  Frome’s wife, Zeena, is a cold and sickly character who Ethan attends to but moves through life as it were a heavy burden.  One day, however, the home is visited by Zeena’s cousin Mattie.  Mattie is everything Zeena is not.  It is the story of how these three live together and their relationships to one another develops.

5.  Space by James A. Michener — This is an historical fiction of the first magnitude.  To understand how well it is written, the reader should first look to the rear of the book.  Not to find out how it ends, but to take note of the many pages of footnotes Michener has made that shows a high degree of research that went into the writing of this book.  That alone makes it stand out.  Michener takes us from the Nazi German research facility at Peenemunde where the V-1, V-2, and V-3 rockets were developed and how, at war’s end, the Nazi scientists, Werner von Braun among them, came to arrive in the United States and champion the U.S. space effort.  He also starts us at the battle of the Coral Sea giving a riveting account of how a glorious ship’s captain emerged victorious facing overwhelming odds, and came to be an astronaut after the war.  What we get is an extremely inciteful account of the beginnings of NASA, the research scientists involved, the astronauts themselves, and all the politics that goes along with it.  He takes us through the Apollo 18 space mission.  Michener wrote the book after the actual final Apollo mission, number 17.  In reality NASA had planned out 21 missions so Michener’s playing out an 18th mission is by no means a stretch.

I hope these are five books you may never have contemplated reading either because more well-known classics have shadowed them, or because you just have not considered them.  Regardless, they are each worthy of reading and each is relevent to today.  None is too dated to be considered.

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Ten Must Read Books


I am an avid reader.  I have about 14 books on my Kindle and another five or so hardcovers waiting to be read.  I will get through all of them well before spring, most likely.  Most of what I read are murder mysteries although I occasionally vary from them when I find something that looks and sounds appealing.  But here are ten books I consider must read classics, in no particular order.

1.  Silas Marner by George Eliot — In the early 19th century women were not generally accepted as serious novelists.  Mary Anne Evans changed her name to George Eliot to circumvent that problem.  Eliot is known for many novels.  Her best, I think, is Silas Marner.  This is the story about the love of a reclusive and poor man who adopts an orphaned young girl.  How does an unmarried hermit raise a young girl is beyond comprehension of the locals but that is only part of the story.  Set in 19th Century England the story takes on the lives of farmers and their local aristocracy.  This book is an absolute page turner and I cannot recommend it highly enough.

2.  Waiting For Godot by Samuel Beckett — Vladamir and Estragon are two men waiting along side a road outside the city.  They are waiting for a man named Godot to come to them and save them from their problems.  This play has the two men discussing if they should continue waiting, how long they should continue waiting, and what will happen once Godot comes.  To say anything more gives away too much of this remarkable play.  It is short, easy to read, and fun.  But it is also somewhat philosophical but not in a heavy-handed way.  Read this play.  You will not be disappointed.

3.  Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton — Ethan Frome is a man living in a small New England town  He is renting a room from a man and his wife.  The story, written in 1911 but set many years earlier, and deals with the relationship between the three of them.  Wharton’s book is something of a breakthrough for its day in dealing with marriage, infidelity, and love.

4.  The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway — This is a story of a man who is making one last fishing trip to get that big catch.  Can he get the biggest fish he has ever caught and what will he do with it once he catches it.  Seldom is a story written with a single character that rises to the level of a classic but this is definitely one.  It is a study of the human will and the human mind.

5.  Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger — This book is one that is not easily nailed down as to its intent.  It is a coming of age book.  It is a book about the character of a young man.  It is a book about social mores.  Although it is not a difficult read, most people find themselves reading it at least twice to get a better perspective.  When first printed in 1951 the Roman Catholic Church put it on its banned book list which, of course, made it an instant best seller.  It would have done well regardless.  It is a classic that holds your interest.

6.  The House of the Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne — This is one of Hawthorne’s great books.  The book is set in 19th century Salem at a real house you can visit today.  People have surmised that Hawthorne wrote the book, in part, because of his family’s part in the Salem witch trials of 1692.  Hawthorne starts the story by telling of a curse placed on the house and events that followed.  The book gives wonderful insight into everyday life in mid-18th Century America.

7.  An Occurance at Owl Creek Bridge by Ambrose Bierce — Bierce was noted for his commentary on 19th Century politics and life.  This story is set at the time of the Civil War and a man who is about to be hung.  Through his eyes we see all that is dear to him but with a twist.  It is the twist that makes this story an absolute classic, and it would not surprise me if Alfred Hitchcock had read it and used it in his stellar career.

8.  The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald — Fitzgerald wrote this book about the excesses of the rich played against the problems of the poor and the interactions between the two groups.  Even though it is set in the 1920s, it could easily happen in any other decade as the characters in the book have certain timeless qualities about them.

9.  Ghettostadt by Gordon Horwitz — This book, written in 2008, is about the life of the Jews in the Polish city of Lodz (pronounced Woo – je).  The Warsaw Ghetto starting in 1940 is one of the most written about however it was not the only city such atrocities were visited upon.  Lodz Jews suffered the same experience.  This book gives the stunning and stark details of the lives of the Jews in the Lodz ghetto.  We are told what they did, what they thought, how they survived, and what happened in the end.  It is very well written and not so academic as to be dry.

10.  One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexandr Solzhenitsyn — This book was first published in 1962.  It is the story of one man in a Soviet gulag prison.  Solzhenitsyn himself was a prisoner in such a camp and the story is doubtless an account of what he encountered.  While Solzhenitsyn, like many Russian authors, is known for his long novels, this book is fairly short.  But the details of prison life he relates sound more like a Hollywood movie fiction than fact, but fact it is.  The depressing and hopelessness of daily life in the prison is related in stark detail.