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Rank: Advanced Member
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Location: Helsinki, Finland
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Yesterday I spent some most intriguing moments in our local library. I was called to share my experience on reading world literature, as part of a campaign to encourage young men in Finland to read (and write, too). The reason for the campaign was that the statistics tell only 30% of the library users of the age class 15-25 years are men. Reading is not considered trendy among young folks and reading poetry stamps you as a freak nerd.
There were nearly hundred young men gathered to the library, some young women, too - mostly from two nearby high schools. I told them how I found the treasure chest of literature ever since I learned to read. I told them how some books and authors had made permanent marks in my thinking and personality: Little Prince, Hermann Hesse, T.S. Eliot, Tolkien, P. Mustapää, Mika Waltari...
I told them how in my youth as a locally famous DJ young women thought I was even more sexy because I was known to reading and writing poems. I told them how reading can increase your vocabulary and skills to communicate, the skill you need as an Army trainer even more than the skill to use some weapon.
My presentation took some 15 minutes. The discussion after that took more than an hour! And when I walked home I had company of nearly ten youngsters who were willing to know more.
I don't know half of you half as well as I should like; and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve.
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Kudos to you!
Every man has a right to his opinion, but no man has a right to be wrong in his facts. Bernard M. Baruch 1870-1965
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Rank: Advanced Member
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You old dog, you! (or young dog!) But kudos to you for getting out there and sharing  I think sometimes both school and cool put people off reading (although maybe not the Finnish system so much!) and sometimes people are not interested in reading at that point in their lives, but they might be in the future, and it is important to keep that option open. And for people not to equate reading with slogging through a turgid classic because that is 'proper' literature! Reading is like drugs - a little dabble sometimes leads you into the hard stuff and you are hooked, others just continue to dabble with their area of choice. No right and wrong! I myself vary between not reading anything not study related, reading a few old friends and safe authors, and occasionally challenging myself with something outside my comfort zone (although probably not often enough!). Presumably relating to my mood and life, although sometimes just by chance. I remember once I got my sight good enough to read I read everything - I soon got through all the kids books from home and small village school and started on my parents' books, everything from Shakespeare, Voltaire, and chemical engineering, to how teachers can spot child abuse. Most of it highly unsuitable for kids, but I read it all because I could! I think maybe I was just a bit weird  But reading the first book that kicks you and challenges your ideas is an experience everyone should go through. Writing though....I have stories running through my head all the time to amuse myself, but never the time (?) or confidence to write them...
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Rank: Advanced Member
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Bring your campaign to America. Have one of our billionaires who do not pay their fare share of taxes fund your efforts.
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Rank: Advanced Member
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Location: Alaska
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Good for you being a spokesman for reading. Kids need good role models to follow and you set a good example. I, too, am a reader. I cannot go to sleep at night until I have read something. Usually it is for a short while, but occasionally I get lost in a story and cannot turn out the light and go to sleep. This began when I was very young and has stayed with me all my life. Yes, reading is addictive. My daughter was read to by me from infancy on, until she learned how to read on her own. It was the best gift I could give her.
Any person equipped with skills in reading and mathematics can achieve anything they set as a goal. Those are the enablers in life.
"Always wash your hands and say your prayers for germs and Jesus are everywhere." -Naomi Judd
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Rank: Member
Joined: 7/23/2011
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Location: Canada
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JJ that was a great read. And like TL Hobs I have tried to get all the children in my life to become readers as well. My son is, and now I always include a book with every gift to nieces, nephews and grandchildren for birthdays and Christmas. And when they are old enough to choose for themselves I now can give gift certificates from bookstores. Easier to mail too.
Way to go!!!
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Rank: Advanced Member
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Well done you! I wish I had known you - or someone like you - when I was a boy. I was always put off by anything that looked like more than a single paragraph. Even now I have to force myself to read. You did some good yesterday.
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Rank: Advanced Member
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Drastically underachieving in their daily work –if it is missing.
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Rank: Advanced Member
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Thanks for telling us of that experience J.J. I too am an avid reader. I could not enjoy life with a mate who wasn't a reader. There is something so sublime about sitting together with a fire burning,a glass of wine (vodka) and quietly reading together. I dated a wonderful man who hadn't read a book since college (he bragged). It was obvious because one needs to constantly fill the reservoir of knowledge in order to be an interesting conversationalist. It's also a matter of the vast amount of information and experiences the world offers and reading helps to access much of what we will never actually touch. I think a love of reading is shared by many of us here. Look at us reading the thoughts and ideas of folks across the world from where we sit. I love it. I know reading started shaping my world view from the time I was very young. I always have two books I'm reading. Usually, a morning read and an evening read. Unless, it's so thrilling that it's one of those that you even take into the loo in order to squeeze in a few more pages. Arent you just thrilled to have become a pied piper to these young people? I visited Helsinki. So, I pictured you walking down the street there with a gaggle of youth following and throwing questions at you. I don't think you live in Helsinki. That's just where I picture you because that's my only experience of Finland. I do remember the wonderful photos you've posted here a few times though.
Feed Your Head-Grace Slick
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Rank: Advanced Member
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AJC,
I was born in Helsinki and Stadin Slangi is my mother tongue.
I don't know half of you half as well as I should like; and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve.
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Rank: Advanced Member
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Nice work, JJ. I was impressed with the hundred - if you tried that where I live you'd be lucky to get half a dozen.
My relationship with my library is like that of a snail's with its shell : it is my home, my refuge, my ever-present companion and, in many ways, my defining characteristic. Its contents inform everything I do, and fill all the spare moments in my life that might otherwise slip away unnoticed.
Reading paints pictures on the walls of minds that might otherwise remain blank.
Sanity is not statistical
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Rank: Advanced Member
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Oh, the library. I love the library. It offers so much. JJ, congratulations to you. I too am impressed with the turn out. And you should to feel very fulfilled about what you accomplished today.
I am not a reader yet I love the library. I fall asleep due to a sleep disorder everytime I try to read. So I check out Books on CD to listen to in the car. I just adore them.
I work as a volunteer at our library 3 days a week. I "pull holds" among other things. That is going into the shelves and putting on a library cart the books that people have asked the library to hold for them to come pick up. They do this through the computer. I and others pull the books and they are put in a hold section where patrons can pick them up.
Libraries are wonderful. Our library in my home town received the best library of the year award in U. S. right after the turn of the century.
In the spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt.--Mar Atwood
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I salute you all. No wonder your contributions are so electrifying!
I can not certify myself as a book-reader. But I go through these very intently. And this is enriching me. THANK YOU ALL.
The worth of a book is to be measured by what you can carry away from it.
~James Bryce
Ravindra
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Rank: Advanced Member
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a wonderful experience JJ and all the posts that followed, truly inspiring Quote: “To read is to fly: it is to soar to a point of vantage which gives a view over wide terrains of history, human variety, ideas, shared experience and the fruits of many inquiries.”
- A C Grayling, Financial Times (in a review of A History of Reading by Alberto Manguel
I live in my own little world, but it's OK - they know me here...
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Rank: Advanced Member
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Location: Helsinki, Finland
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excaelis wrote:Nice work, JJ. I was impressed with the hundred - if you tried that where I live you'd be lucky to get half a dozen. Most of the audience attended by force (their teachers ;-) The chief librarian, wonderful and beautifully matured lady, has known me and my reading habits since I was nine years old. That's why she asked me to participate. I took it as an honour.
I don't know half of you half as well as I should like; and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve.
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Rank: Advanced Member
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Location: United Arab Emirates
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Very good discussion on a very important topic.
You cannot get knowledge or improve your vocabulary unless you read frequently.
MY children have the books to read all the time.Their teachers insist only reading reading and only reading at the early age as the stuff you learn at this stage is never forgotton.
The things i read when i was a young are still in my mind and are very helpful at this stage.
Thanks.
A friend in need is a friend indeed.
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Rank: Advanced Member
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Location: Greece - again
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Well done JJ. I hope that you have inspired some of those young people. I wish I had the convenience of a library here. Well, there is one but it is small and the books are all in Greek. So I lug some from Canada, borrow or buy over the internet.
I started reading when I was quite young. I remember going into the school (Elementary) library and picking up a book and starting to read it. I became hooked. Like TL, I have to read before going to sleep. But I also have the problem of getting too interested and not being able to sleep so I read something "heavy" or in Greek or Norwegian. They are a bit more work and help me sleep.
It is a shame that many young people are not so interested in reading. They do not have the patience I believe. They are so used to the immediate satisfaction they get with films (and film versions of books) and all their technological devices. They miss out so much.
I have often asked Greek youngsters about their reading habits (in the course of lessons) and I always get the same answer. They have too much to read for school and tutoring in the evening so the last thing they want to do in their free time is pick up a book!
One girl was an exception. But she wasn't reading so much as writing. She published a book at the age of 13. Definitely an exception!
"Ignorant men don't know what good they hold in their hands until they've flung it away." - Sophocles
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I used to read a lot back in high school when reading pocketbooks was like a craze. Those are not intellectual books but mostly are fun to read. I remember pretending I was asleep very late at night to read my, then, favorite pocketbook series because my grandmum didn't approve of it. I remember she burnt the Mills & Boons ones, lol. Funny crazy days....
I have short attention when it comes to reading books especially the classics. I will just tend to read the last part to know how the story ends. But I'm glad I've read some, no matter how few :p
Back in college, if my memory serves me right, I had 4-6 hrs three days a week break before the next class starts. My friends had different schedules so I was left alone most of the time. To kill time, I go to the library and pick up some books to read - visual books at first, then became very interested in Greek Mythology books (different versions), then I started reading Bram Stoker's Dracula and The Secret Garden (lots of words I just ignored but I liked the book.) Many thanks also to my best friend back in college, I actually enjoyed reading Harry Potter and the suspense-thriller, Valentine. Before she left abroad 5-6 years ago, she gave me Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre as a gift. I read the first 2-3 pages but it bored me to tears. I decided to finish reading it after a year and a month when I got in the mood reading - which I'm glad I did! I loved the book and loved the characters. No more classics after that but I'm still keeping that option open.
One thing people are not much into books nowadays is because of the internet. I'm glad to read about that experience, JJ.
Ako ay ako, ikaw ay ikaw.
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To Day you can Hear ABC Interview Ken about Radio For All Australians just click on http://what-next-you-bastard.com/RFAA.htm =Radio For all Australians 
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Rank: Newbie
Joined: 10/10/2011
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Location: El Salvador
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Learning to read.
I live in a country where reading is the activity least spoken of. I remember my childhood playing with toys and hangging around with my little friends. In the town where I grew up there is not a public library, because people don't like to read. They are more busy thinking about what they are going to eat the next day.
In the third world is very difficult to invest time in reading when you have to work and learn to survive since you can stand on two legs. Even though, I started with short stories of some local writers. I am a Spanish Native Speaker but I am learning English just because I realize that is not the same to read a book in the original languague than a translation.
I would like to have grown up in other conditions.
By reading I am starting to see the world.
Sorry for my bad and poor English.
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J.J.,
It was so great to bring up such a hot topic in this time of electronic gadgets that young kids waste precious time instead of reading. Personally I think there is no substitute of the values of reading.
Old latins say: "In omnibus requiem quaesivi, et nasquiam inveni nisi in angulo cum libru".
STRENGTH IS BUILT FROM ONES FAILURES NOT FROM ONES SUCCESSES –COCO CHANEL
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quote=noeguerrero]Learning to read.
I live in a country where reading is the activity least spoken of. I remember my childhood playing with toys and hanging around with my little friends. In the town where I grew up there is not a public library, because people don't like to read. They are more busy thinking about what they are going to eat the next day.
In the third world is very difficult to invest time in reading when you have to work and learn to survive since you can stand on two legs. Even though, I started with short stories of some local writers. I am a Spanish Native Speaker but I am learning English just because I realize that is not the same to read a book in the original language than a translation.
I would like to have grown up in other conditions.
By reading I am starting to see the world.
Sorry for my bad and poor English.[/quote]
Please do not ever again apologize for your English - it is totally understandable.
I am very impressed and somewhat jealous of your zeal because I have thought it would be
"nice" to know Spanish, I have been way too lazy to do it.
Your post is a great reminder to those of us who take for granted our libraries and
computers and access to books and information of all kinds, that this is hardly a
universal thing.
Stay around and remind us to appreciate our blessings!
Thank you JJ for starting this thread. It has brought back memories of my very first
"real" job at 14 as an assistant in our village Carnegie library. I only got the job
because the librarian knew I was a reader and lived at the library after school.
The idea that not every town has a library makes me very sad.
Read on McDuff!
Yours truly,
NancyLee
Learning is its own reward, and it's fun too!
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[ quote noeguerrero]
Well done -it makes all the difference. Congratulations.
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NancyLee wrote:quote=noeguerrero]Learning to read.
Please do not ever again apologize for your English - it is totally understandable.
I am very impressed and somewhat jealous of your zeal because I have thought it would be
"nice" to know Spanish, I have been way too lazy to do it.
Your post is a great reminder to those of us who take for granted our libraries and
computers and access to books and information of all kinds, that this is hardly a
universal thing.
Stay around and remind us to appreciate our blessings!
Yours truly,
NancyLee
Thanks!!! I think there's still too much to do. Though I have been "studying" the languague for a long, I have a lot to learn. That's why I am here, afortunately I have access to internet now. "The idea that not every town has a library makes me very sad." The real problem is not the lack of books, but the lack of willingness to read. 
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Now go to JJ's post What are books for? in Literature.
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When I was a student, there was a time I often had Goethe or Nietzsche's book with me in a subway or cafe or wherever because it looked cool, and I still haven't read them.
That's exactly the lack of willpower to read.
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Reading is wonderful, words and the languages they communicate have become an obsession. Books contain literal magic in the stories they share. I wish that I had studied more about writing and literature in school when I had the chance.
I almost hijacked your post, sorry bout that, I do see the importance of keeping organized and why something off topic should be a different thread.
Memory without recognizing the familiar member, is not necessarily re-membering (5/19/2012)
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I also want to be a part of you guys conversation. but you people have great thoughts and knowledge which i learn from you...:)and i have nothing to share 
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Rank: Advanced Member
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Shane and Dusty,
reading and learning is the thing.
After being learning English some 45 years I'm still not a master in it.
You can only imagine how well I can manage with my Finnish ;-)
But we all can share, however little that is, or however little we ourselves think that is. Every little bit is counted and every thought is valuable.
I don't know half of you half as well as I should like; and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve.
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