PERHAPS the most fantastical story of the year was not “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,” but “The Uncommon Reader,” a novella by
Alan Bennett that imagines the queen of England suddenly becoming a voracious reader late in life.
At a time when books appear to be waging a Sisyphean battle against the forces of
MySpace, YouTube and “American Idol,” the notion that someone could move so quickly from literary indifference to devouring passion seems, sadly, far-fetched.
The problem was underscored last week when the
National Endowment for the Arts delivered the sobering news that Americans — particularly teenagers and young adults — are reading less for fun. At the same time, reading scores among those who read less are declining, and employers are proclaiming workers deficient in basic reading comprehension skills.
So that’s the bad news. But is all hope gone, or will people still be drawn to the literary landscape? And what is it, exactly, that turns someone into a book lover who keeps coming back for more?
There is no empirical answer. If there were, more books would sell as well as the “
Harry Potter” series or “The Da Vinci Code.” The gestation of a true, committed reader is in some ways a magical process, shaped in part by external forces but also by a spark within the imagination. Having parents who read a lot helps, but is no guarantee. Devoted teachers and librarians can also be influential.
But despite the proliferation of book groups and literary blogs, reading is ultimately a private act. “Why people read what they read is a great unknown and personal thing,” said Sara Nelson, editor in chief of the trade magazine Publishers Weekly.
In some cases, asking someone to explain why they read is to invite an elegant rationalization. Junot Díaz, the author of “The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao,” vividly recalls stumbling into a mobile library shortly after his family emigrated from the Dominican Republic to New Jersey when he was 6 years old. He checked out a Richard Scarry picture book, a collection of 19th-century American wilderness paintings and a bowdlerized version of
Arthur Conan Doyle’s “Sign of Four.”
To continue reading:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/25/weekinreview/25rich.html?pagewanted=all
