Reading is cool!

I've been website-hopping recently, looking at.. oh, all kinds of things. Interior decorating, snaps of people's homes. Sometimes I get frustrated, not knowing what I want to do with various rooms, and the more ideas I can put in my brain the better, right?

One thing I really don't get, though. A lot of these shots feature bookcases, of course. But these bookcases, so often they don't hold actual books! They're used for ornaments, or amazing DVD collections, or the cat's cushion is in there, or... whatever. But don't people actually read anymore?

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying Television Is Evil or anything. I watch shows and movies - admittedly I do so rarely, and I do realize I'm at the far end of the bell curve for 'normal' television consumption.

I know that not everyone reads as prolifically as I do. I learned to read very young (I was about two), I was reading chapter books by the time I was five, I inhaled almost every book that my primary school library had, and by the time I was at intermediate, my teacher was using me as a teacher's aide to teach a couple of kids remedial reading (no, seriously - I never realised how inappropriate it was at the time, and I kinda enjoyed it).

I love reading. I always have. I get immersed in universes, I fall in love with characters. As an adult, I read less than I used to - I have a Tobermory, a job, and a house to care for, after all - but even then. My coworkers know that I will be completely oblivious to their presence on my lunchbreaks, because I will be reading a book, either deadtree or ebook* format. TheLinguist regularly checks various fine points of English against my knowledge, not because I hold any formal language qualifications, but because I have inhaled books so voraciously that I have a very accurate sense of grammar**.

I know I'm a reading freak, is the point. But... aren't children taught to love books any more? I deal regularly with high school graduates who are working for my company to make a few bucks over summer, and the simple amount of fail inherent in their reading abilities terrifies me on a regular basis. They just don't appear to have basic reading comprehension, and even when that fails, the idea of reading the sentence aloud to themselves to figure out if it makes more sense that way is apparently too hard. TheLinguist has commented on the lack in some of the students that he's taking sodding language papers with! (Thankfully, mostly they're failing.)

All my friends read, as far as I'm aware. Tobermory isn't as much of a reader as I am, but that's more because he has an excellent memory, and so his tolerance for re-reading isn't as high as mine. In some cases, we've struck up friendships over books, using those as a common point of reference to start a conversation. For that matter, I have a vague idea that Tobermory and I spent quite a few of our early conversations comparing notes on authors. And those in my circle who have children are certainly teaching their little ones to read.

But then I return to the Internet, and see all those screeds and screeds of homes without books, and with so many many many DVD's. I just... don't get it. Books are such an innate part of my life, something I don't think I could do without.


* The iPhone/iTouch application Stanza wins for ebook reading. Drains battery a bit quicker than I'd like, but it's glorious, and it means I can tote several hundred books with me at any given time, hallelujah the relief on my bag space.
** This doesn't necessarily cross over to my writing. I've noticed that since I started working in helldesk roles, the terrible grammar/spelling/punctuation I am exposed to on a daily basis in user-emails has rubbed of on my inherent language abilities. It's kind of sad, but I guess it's understandable.

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