No I'm not just being obnoxious I promise. This is in fact the name of a book that for obvious reasons caught my attention at the library a few days ago. I was browsing the 'literature' section just to see what they had and amongst the abundance of books on reading Shakespeare I found this. Stop What You're Doing and Read This! is a collection of essays written by a variety of different people invested in reading and put together by Vintage Books as a response to alarming news that thousands of children are not only turning away from reading, but literally can't read.
The shocking state of children's literacy is a reality that I am faced with everyday as part of my job in school. Last year I was given a list of focus readers and was told that they were to take their SATS next year but are only at a KS1 reading level. Unfortunately, this was not unusual in the school I worked in, nor in the city, nor it seems in the whole of the UK.
This book aims to address this with ten essays by eleven authors that explore why reading is important. These range from figures such as Zadie Smith and Jeanette Winterson, to the founder of Virago Carmen Callil and founder of the Reader Organisation, Dr Jane Davis. Some of these essays addressed the issue better than others and as much as I enjoyed the range that the book had to offer, I think that some of the content needed to be rethought.
One of the things that I noticed when reading this book was that I wan't sure who the essays were written for. I have already mentioned that the book was published in response to poor literacy standards in the UK and at first I thought that this book was aimed at young adults who were disillusioned with reading, but towards the end I wasn't so sure. If it is the case that these essays are to encourage non-readers to read then I think that some of them went about it the wrong way. Tim Parks' essay 'Mindful Reading' was preachy and presumptive and made me not want to read. I was shocked to find it in this collection as many of the other essays were insightful and interesting.
That said, overall I enjoyed the reading the collection and got through it fairly quickly. I would encourage anyone engaged in the culture of reading to pick this book up and see what they think. It most definitely reinforced my belief that reading is incredible important and also reaffirmed reading's place in my careers aspirations. Also, I love the title! Stop what you're doing and read this! Genius.
Rating: ★★★
One of the things that I noticed when reading this book was that I wan't sure who the essays were written for. I have already mentioned that the book was published in response to poor literacy standards in the UK and at first I thought that this book was aimed at young adults who were disillusioned with reading, but towards the end I wasn't so sure. If it is the case that these essays are to encourage non-readers to read then I think that some of them went about it the wrong way. Tim Parks' essay 'Mindful Reading' was preachy and presumptive and made me not want to read. I was shocked to find it in this collection as many of the other essays were insightful and interesting.
That said, overall I enjoyed the reading the collection and got through it fairly quickly. I would encourage anyone engaged in the culture of reading to pick this book up and see what they think. It most definitely reinforced my belief that reading is incredible important and also reaffirmed reading's place in my careers aspirations. Also, I love the title! Stop what you're doing and read this! Genius.
Rating: ★★★
No comments:
Post a Comment