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Reading has been on my mind a lot lately. I really started thinking about it in mid January just prior to the start of the semester. I had two alumni give me books and said I should read them. I thought that was great. What better to pass on to someone than knowledge? Then I thought to myself, “I wonder if they think I don’t do enough reading.” Since that time, I have gotten more books that I had ordered late in December and early January. This past week I read a post on sportsinfo101.com (which is in my blog roll and if are not reading it regularly you should) about his “addiction” to reading and it once again got me thinking. I think that we sometimes take reading for granted, for example trying to get students to read not just textbooks, but supplementary materials such as articles in journals or newspapers is worse than pulling teeth. One of my assignments to the students is a topic of the day. The student who is charged with the topic of the day is responsible for finding something non-sport related, of interest that is going on in the world and generate a discussion regarding it in class. Most students get the topic from the television news, not from the internet news sources.
With technology making information more accessible than ever before, reading becomes more important as well. Since individuals don’t have to subscribe to newspapers or carry around books anymore in order to get information/read for pleasure, one would think that it would be more accepted and natural to spend more time reading. The most successful people do a whole lot of reading and they read about a variety of topics. Below are five reasons why reading is critical to one’s success in today’s society:
- With the globalization of the world it is imperative to know and understand events as they happen and to understand their impact on daily life.
- To be considered an expert or a respected information source you have to incorporate current examples regardless of subject manner to maintain credibility.
- You have to be read enough to be fluent and quickly comprehend anything a teacher/employer assigns you to read.
- With the myriad of ways we get information (text, e-mail, internet etc…) one must be able to quickly discern quality information from the many inaccurate items in circulation.
- If you don’t read you won’t pass class/graduate/get the job you want etc…!
In case you were wondering, I do read a lot, but mostly out of necessity. In fact, one of my personal goals in the coming days, weeks, months is to read more of the things I want to read. For now I’m starting with the books given to me by former students since they are top my list to read for fun!
February 1, 2010 at 8:08 am
I read to open windows into new worlds;
To find different ways of seeing
Sometimes to escape, and at other times
To find myself
And be immersed in all that gives meaning to being alive
February 1, 2010 at 3:11 pm
After reading this blog post, I do agree that it is important to read. I, personally, enjoy reading things. However, I usually prefer to read for my own entertainment or knowledge. I am not very fond of reading things that are assigned to me. I especially hate reading a text book. I think that text books are not very stimulating. I subscribe to various magazines and find that they are fun to read and are very informational. I also tend to like biographies or autobiographies about famous people or places. So, essentially, you could say enjoy a good histroy book. Although I do not enjoy reading things that are assigned to me, or as in the blog, out of necessity, I do find that I can learn things by doing so. Obviously that is supposed to be the case with an assigned reading, but sometimes I just do not want to read those “assigned” readings so I begin to read them with the idea that reading them is a waste of time, which usually results in not reading them properly or thoroughly enough. Overall, though, I would much rather pick up a book of my choosing, or article of my choosing, to read. I find this to be very stimulationg and enjoyable. Especially since I have been reading, and have enjoyed reading since I was two years old.
February 1, 2010 at 6:41 pm
Reading has never been on the top of my list, unless it has to do with baseball or any other sports. This is something that I feel like I really need to work on in the near future because the whole world obviously isn’t just about sports. I have always loved to read sports books, but when it comes to anything else I have not been motivated to read. However, the last couple of weeks I have started to read more of the newspaper besides just the sports page. I feel as though I need to learn more about war as well as politics. By reading more about this I will be able to enhance my knowledge about everything in the United States as well as other countries. My goal in the next couple of weeks is to try an not read Sports Illustrated or ESPN Magazine as much, I hope to read more of the paper outside of the sports page as well.
February 2, 2010 at 8:54 am
The most difficult part with reading is setting aside the time to do so. Winter break is one of the most relaxing times of the year for me and one of the few times I am able to just sit down and read a book for enjoyment. As a college student (or at least this is my opinion) I lack the drive and motivation to pick up a novel of choice after just looking through the material for an exam in a large textbook for the past hour. Though I do try to find the time to just sit back and relax and try to get in some good reading, sometimes I find my priorities elsewhere but I would truly like to read more in the future.
February 2, 2010 at 10:14 am
Reading books has not always been something that I have done for pleasure. I continually enjoy reading magazines and internet articles about current information, usually sports. With that said, I still try and make sure that I have some present knowledge about current issues outside of the sports world as well. I am not sure if I can honestly say the last time that I read a book by my own volition. It’s funny that this blog was posted this week because something hit me about two weeks ago and told me that I need to start reading books. I almost felt like I was missing something by not reading books. I’m not sure what it was, but something happened that motivated me to go out and buy not one, but two new books within the past two weeks. I am not sure if I have ever gone out on a whim and bought even one book, but within the past two weeks I’ve done it twice, so I definitely have some reading to do before I buy another. I’m hoping to start the first book in the next few days and hopefully it will be the start of me wanting to read regularly because I feel that reading can give people certain knowledge that other forms of entertainment cannot.
February 2, 2010 at 10:19 am
Although you make many valid points, I feel that you miss one of the most important reasons to read: to improve one’s writing. Regardless of how much education a person may or may not have in areas such as grammar or vocabulary, improvements in writing do not come until this education becomes intuitive, not memorized. I feel that this process only occurs by reading many different styles and techniques of writing. In fact, I would argue that the failure of the majority of students to read regularly is most evident in the subpar writing frequently submitted by such students. Just like any sport, writing is all about getting practice “reps”. Just as a basketball player must spend hours shooting free throws, a writer (aka student) must spend hours reading other writers.
February 2, 2010 at 10:50 am
Very good point!
February 2, 2010 at 11:47 pm
I agree with Bryce’s point that reading does improve one’s writing. After reading Rick Reilly’s weekly essay in Sports Illustrated magazine for years (among the work of other writers), I was inspired to begin writing for my own pleasure, whether it be through the school newspaper, blogging or my own short stories.
Unfortunately, I feel that this may soon become a lost art with the majority of the population due to the above mentioned “myriad of ways we get information.” Although texting/social networking sites are a terrific way of staying in touch with people throughout the globe, it seems as though today’s students are more inclined to articulate themselves using a text message vocabulary as opposed to grammatically correct English. However, this seems to be a necessary evil when having the power of the Internet constantly at our fingertips.
Feel free to visit sportsdudes.wordpress.com – a sports blog myself and fellow YCP student Matthew Tate established.
February 3, 2010 at 1:46 pm
Another important aspect of reading is to stay current. There are always new ways of doing things or new ideas being presented, but one may not know if they do not read articles or books to stay up-to-date on these concepts. The topic that Bryce Johnston brought up was how reading improves your writing is completely true. My brother is an avid reader and has writing skills that I don’t even see in college students and he is only a sophomore in high school. The books that he reads are not always educational to say the least, but he is learning the proper way sentences should be structured without specifically being taught through a teacher. He knows what sounds and looks right by the constant reinforcement through the books he reads. Now I cannot say the same for myself as being an avid reader and having the best writing skills, however I know I should because of how much of an impact it does have. An important aspect of reading that I just learned in my professional development class is that books are amazing conversational pieces. If you are in an interview, bringing up names of current books you have read or authors that you enjoy are great ways to break the ice and get on more of a personal level with your possible employer. My suggestion is for everyone to do my professional development assignment and read a book pertaining to leadership or management in case you are asked in your interview, “So what have you read lately?” and you can be prepared.
February 5, 2010 at 9:17 am
I agree with many points made thus far. Reading is definitely a great way for someone to improve their writing skills. When you see the writing skills that are required to have a book published, you should realize that writing effectively takes a lot of time and skill. Although I do believe reading is very important to become more informed and educated, I also find it very hard to read for pleasure. Like Matt said, reading through a textbook to prepare for an exam is totally exhausting and it honestly makes me only want to read when I have to. I think people use the internet and television sources first because they are much easier. Most of the time you do not have to look very hard to find information on a topic that you are researching. I know that reading is important for developing skills and reading for pleasure is something that I should make a better attempt to do.
February 7, 2010 at 10:23 pm
Reading a book gives me a lot of information that I did not know about and it makes me think what the author is trying to say. However, it is difficult for college students to find the time to read the whole book due to college life(assignments or projects etc…). I would say that most important things about reading is to read a book that you like. For example, I like reading a history book so whenever I am reading a history book, I cannot stop reading. However, if I read a book that I do not like, it will be hard to finish reading whole book because I might not find interest reading it.
February 8, 2010 at 3:32 pm
After reading this blog, it was a good reminder that reading is a very important and critical skill needed to become a successful professional in any field you pursue. I like to read, I read a lot of random books for fun because it’s nice to explore new ideas and to gain new perspectives on the world around us. When I read about my field of pursuit, I gain important knowledge that will help me later in the future. For example, reading about certain problem solving situations that a company faces and learning about what they did as a company to fix the problem gives you great insight and knowledge about that certain problem solving situation, that which could come up later down the road in your life, which by then you’ll already have the knowledge to fix the problem. Reading is important and it must be done to be successful in any professional setting.