The latest statistics on reading in our country were made in June of last year through the National Survey of Cultural Consumption of the Ministry of Culture with striking data: adults read less than young people, contrary to what is usually believed, although the phenomenon It is explained in the school texts that children have to read at their different educational stages. After formal training was completed, only 46% of adults between 30 and 64 years old continued with the reading habit. After 65, only 40% said they read books.
Is it perhaps the phenomenon of the internet, social networks and entertainment platforms that keep people away from books in our country? Or are they simply the consequences of the deterioration of the educational system over recent decades?
Brief tips for reading books
“I believe that each of us seeks what the critic Roland Barthes called “the pleasure of the text,” although finding pleasure in what we read does not necessarily mean a steady diet of romance novels and thrillers. Erudite works, serious fiction, poetry, a writer’s distinctive prose style—all of these provide their own kind of textual pleasure,” Dirda wrote in the article.
He also referred to the places where one should choose to read a book, the schedules, the concentration necessary for a better understanding of the texts, the need to take notes. In short, a small practice to acquire the reading habit that is so difficult in these times of the Internet and already “digested” information or entertainment that makes sitting down to read a book mean a sacrifice.
In an interview with Borges in the ’70s, he said that he always advised his students that if there was a book that was tedious for them, they should not read it: “Reading should be one of the forms of happiness, so I would advise those potential readers to read a lot, not to let themselves be frightened by the reputation of the authors, to continue searching for personal happiness, personal enjoyment. It is the only way to read.”
