Why our future depends on libraries, reading and daydreaming

[G_j]

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/oct/15/neil-gaiman-future-libraries-reading-daydreaming

Neil Gaiman: Why our future depends on libraries, reading and daydreaming

A lecture explaining why using our imaginations, and providing for others to use theirs, is an obligation for all citizens

It's important for people to tell you what side they are on and why, and whether they might be biased. A declaration of members' interests, of a sort. So, I am going to be talking to you about reading. I'm going to tell you that libraries are important. I'm going to suggest that reading fiction, that reading for pleasure, is one of the most important things one can do. I'm going to make an impassioned plea for people to understand what libraries and librarians are, and to preserve both of these things.

And I am biased, obviously and enormously: I'm an author, often an author of fiction. I write for children and for adults. For about 30 years I have been earning my living though my words, mostly by making things up and writing them down. It is obviously in my interest for people to read, for them to read fiction, for libraries and librarians to exist and help foster a love of reading and places in which reading can occur.

So I'm biased as a writer. But I am much, much more biased as a reader. And I am even more biased as a British citizen.

And I'm here giving this talk tonight, under the auspices of the Reading Agency: a charity whose mission is to give everyone an equal chance in life by helping people become confident and enthusiastic readers. Which supports literacy programs, and libraries and individuals and nakedly and wantonly encourages the act of reading. Because, they tell us, everything changes when we read.

..more..

[haikugal]

1. Love Neil Gaiman

Thanks for this...saved for later.

[TBF]

2. He's fantastic! nt

[PETRUS]

3. K&R

[brer cat]

4. I wish I could rec this a million times!

The greatest gift I received as a child (thanks to parents and teachers) was a passionate love of books and reading. I credit reading a wide variety of books for the opportunity to escape developing the same racism and prejudice that was so prevalent when I was growing up in Georgia. It was through books that I learned about people who lived it situations vastly different from my safe middle class background, and developed compassion for those who suffered from inequality, poverty and lack of opportunity. I credit reading for providing the foundation for the analytical skills I had later in life and the ability to "think outside the box." An of course, the countless hours of escaping into a world of pure pleasure, just me and my imagination. To this day, I rarely watch television, I always pick up a book.

[G_j]

6. +1000

[snagglepuss]

5. .

[roguevalley]

7. I got the day dreaming nailed. :D I also write. My mother was a librarian so the reading thing is

nailed. I agree wholeheartedly.

[TeamPooka]

8. Can't rec this enough. K&R

[KoKo]

9. Thanks for the Link! Sounds like a great read.

I have a Nook which I like. But, its a cold flat object in my hand and clicking to turn the page just doesn't have the same feeling of connection as with paper. I don't like that I have to recharge it when I'm in the middle of a chapter just because I forgot to do it ahead of time.

I love the jacket covers of hard books and the graphics of paper backs. I like looking at books on my shelves. They are both old friends and new friends to me and not just clutter or dust catchers as so many seem to feel about them, these days, in our technological age. I like taking a paperback down to the beach in the Summer...and not worrying about the sand or sunscreen lotion messing it up or it getting ruined if an incoming tide wave does a spray on it.

It's said that no one wants books anymore. Our two great used bookstores have closed with in the past couple of years and the one that's left is such a mess that it's not worth time to go into it. Our Borders Books closed and we only have Barnes & Nobel, which I love, but, it's not the same as going down shelves to see if a book that I never thought of reading pops out; or a writer who is out of print introduces me to another time or place that I can capture from the description on the back of the jacket. Same thing with a library roaming through the shelves to see what catches my eye.

I hope we never lose the last of our Book Stores and our Public Libraries to everything that has ever been or being written available only online or downloadable from a cloud.