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More handpicked essays just for you.
Importance of reading
Essay by Mortimer Adler
Importance of reading
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In both Anthem and Fahrenheit 451 it is considered a sin to be too curious or too knowledgeable. In Anthem Equality 7-2521 is punished by his teachers for being too smart and for being curious about the things that he learns in his classes. He is even punished for being quicker at learning than the other students and for asking questions in class. Equality 7-2521 wishes he was not the way he was and wants to be more like some of his classmates who are not as smart and curious as he is.
For this last and final book review I read the graphic novel Sloth by Gilbert Hernandez. Although a very confusing read, there were many interesting aspects to it. The story is centered around three young teenagers: Miguel, Lita, and Romeo. Hernandez begins the novel with Miguel awakening from a year long coma, with Miguel explaining how he willed himself into and out of the coma. Similar to a sloth, Miguel slowly begins to adjust to his somewhat changed life.
In “Reading and Thought” by Dwight Macdonald, Macdonald raises the idea of reading deeply and how our society has changed its reading style. He points out that our modern society constantly reads irrelevant information in articles, newspapers, or magazines in our daily lives. A term called “functional curiosity” is a person’s interest in being amused, entertained or wanting to know what’s happening around the world. According to Henry Luce, the creator of Time magazine, “Functional Curiosity grows as the number of educated peoples grows.” Macdonald argues that being “functionally curious” is not functional because it does not help the individual function.
“We are forty days away from the eclipse. Do you think that the shadow lions will be awakened Diana?” “No! John that is ridiculous, that was a joke to scare people.” “ Then why do you think that there have been myths about the shadow lions coming to earth during the eclipse?”
Macdonald discusses how people read just because it’s a “duty” or “compulsion” but there are people who read articles or newspaper not because they feel like it’s their obligation but because it’s their interest or desire. For example, I recall myself reading an article about Zumba dancing and I was really engaged into it. The article discussed how there’s people who have been diagnosed with high cholesterol or diabetes and had trouble losing weight because running a treadmill or simply going to the gym is something not as appealing as dancing to one of your favorite pop songs. The article
The chiasmus and allusion are helpful tools in arguing Morley's ideas. They demonstrate that laziness isn't whats best for us by refuting and ideas that would encourage us to consider accepting laziness into our lives. The chiasmus offers a limited scope of what our options are when it comes to our laziness or lack thereof, while promoting a specific side. The allusion builds his ethos by comparing Morley's agenda to a trusted figure's, and associating accepted ideas with his own. Morley's advocating to disregard laziness was effectively expressed with the strategies employed.
If people realize that books are the so called “cause” for depression, they will tend to stray away from books. (CS) The fallacies and modes of
In the 1950’s when Bradbury wrote this book he made many predictions that to an extent came true in modern Time. These predictions revolve around the fact that technology is becoming more important in modern life and making things more simple. Bradbury Says that not only is technology making things easier but with that people are becoming more lazy. Since people nowadays are becoming more lazy they also have less of a strive to learn. This making the plot of the book quite similar to what you might see in modern times.
While it may be true that even if a student is reading Sports Illustrated, they will still become more literate and reflective than if they hadn’t read at all, it is also true that the student is then less likely to read the same desired material outside of class because they are already being forced to read it inside of class. Moreover, if class time is spent reading something such as Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers: The Story of Success, the student will be more inclined to read Sports Illustrated outside of class; thus, increasing their reading time altogether. On the report of Engaging Schools: Fostering High School Students’ Motivation to Learn, “studies have shown that students who read outside of school become better readers (Anderson, Wilson, and Fielding, 1988; Fielding, 1994; Guthrie, Schafer, Wang, and Afflerbach, 1995)” (64). Therefore, by engaging in materials which the students may not be interested in during the school day, they will be more likely to read other subject matters outside of school and consequently increase their reading
“The world is beautiful, but has a disease called man.” said by Friedrich Nietzsche. Man has destroyed everything he has touched, whether it 's the tree in the forest or the dog who brought him a bone. He has either killed it to make way for his home or enslaved it to do his own biding. While it might seem strange for man to walk into the twenty first century and still his morals have yet to change, but it his birthmark and will never be able to get rid of it. Mark Twain had once mention in his satirical essay,”The Lowest Animal”, how man is born with a defect; moral sense.
Because of his “philosophical laziness,” his diction becomes professional, and he is able to think in a way that would not have occurred if he were not lazy. Through the use of diction, Morley successfully establishes that laziness is a trait that should be considered and praised upon rather than a trait that is frowned
Roberts continues to show the student’s procrastination, and finally, once they get down to writing, it is “ten o'clock Sunday night” before they’ve even touched the paper again. They turn it in, “moderately hopeful”, and it comes back “sporting a big “D.”” From this example, Roberts gets to the point: “Can you be expected to make a dull subject interesting? As a matter of fact, this is
I can recall that when I was a fourth grader I was forced to “Little House on the Prairie”. I thought I could be rebellious and not read the chapters that I was assigned. I look back and think it shouldn 't have been that hard to pick up the book and read the chapters instead of falling asleep on the floor. After this time I stopped reading for fun and skim or refuse to read the assigned books or short stories. In John Holts essay titled “How Teachers Make Children Hate Reading”, he explains his thoughts on why students hate reading when they are forced to.
With the help of the interview, Frye and Twelve Foot Ceiling by Dorothy Thompson, you can see the detrition of literacy given and available to the animals.
But I did not understand the power of knowledge at the time. American businessman Peter Drucker said “Knowledge has to be improved, challenged, and increased constantly or it vanishes”. If I were never forced to read literature like Hamlet or Catcher in The Rye in school, I would have never taken the time to read some great pieces of literature because they had nothing to do with what I thought