Ever since I was little, I grew up with books. It’s something unavoidable, since my dad was a college lecturer. There are always tons of books everywhere. Most of the books are technical and lecture books, but I’ve been living under it. Read some and loathe some.
Legend says I’ve read books since I cannot read. My parents told me that I used to shout out the content of the entire book when I was 2 or 3. Doraemon is walking, Doraemon eats cake, Doraemon meets Nobita.
I used to think that it was a joke until my daughter started doing the same thing. She is reading the book to me (or to herself) by the age of 1.5 years. She just blurted out the entire book, using the who and what method that I used to do. Tayo is smiling, Tayo meets the passengers, Tayo goes home. It’s amazing to experience it myself.
On the other side, my husband was living a totally different childhood. So when my in-laws saw my kids reading, they always assumed that the kids were ‘learning’. I’ve begun questioning it: were books always associated with learning?
Gemini said yes. ChatGPT said not always (PS: Oh, it’s funny that we’re now accustomed to asking the AI first about everything). I should agree with ChatGPT, I think that books are also a great source of entertainment. While fiction books can make you laugh and cry, Non-fiction can also entertain you in their own way. But sure, you can always learn from any kind of entertainment.
With the alarming rate of the literacy crisis, there should be multiple ways to normalize reading as a sort of recreation. The rise of cool indie libraries and digital books should also contribute to ease the access to books.
I only read (almost) 12 books last year, so I guess I’m not the one to tell the solution. I think it is always the collective movements by every part of society that can change itself. But first, let’s read more! So the next generation can see why reading is always a fun thing to do!