How many of you just answered – NO!
For those of you who said yes, I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.
Throughout history the ability to read and write was a rare skill or ability. Scribes were considered holy or sacrosanct in many societies due to their ability to read. Learning to read and write was expensive and time consuming. After the fall of many early empires, the scribes were the only ones left able to read the old records. Languages have been lost because no one was left who was able to read it. In many cultures the right to even learn to read was limited to a specific caste or sex.
Very recently in history, it has become a priority to try and ensure that as many people as possible are literate. We haven’t got to the point of everyone being able to read, but we are getting closer to that every year. There will always be obstacles to universal literacy but where in the past the ability to read was a rarity, now being unable to read is considered rare or even odd.
The reason I asked is that for many people they will say “I don’t like to read” or “I don’t get time to read” or “I haven’t read since I left school and I had to”. For them, being a reader means buying a book, sitting down in a chair or on the bed and reading it from cover to cover.
However, you have just read a few paragraphs getting to this point and there is no book in sight. Daily, people are reading forums, emails, news items, blogs, the newspaper, magazines and catalogues.
Just like any other skill, reading need practice and we are all practicing more and more as information becomes more readily available in a readable format. It’s becoming easier to read anything at any time with books, emails, articles and blogs being downloaded into computers, PDA’s and Internet phones.
We no longer only listen to the radio or watch TV to find out the latest news – instead we check the internet or read a newspaper to find out what’s happening in our world. In order to do this, we need to read.
Next time you are in a place where there is something to read, ask yourself, “Am I a reader?” I hope your answer is Yes.
