From the New York Times:
Page Turner
A Good Mystery: Why We Read
By MOTOKO RICH
Published: November 25, 2007
At a time when books appear to be
waging a Sisyphean battle against the forces of the Internet, the
notion that someone could move from literary indifference to devouring
passion seems, sadly, farfetched.
Image Copyright 2007 The New York Times Company
But there is hope, it seems:
[But] books have outlived many death knells, and are likely to keep doing so. “I’m much more optimistic than I think most people are,” Mr. Díaz said. Reading suffers, he said, because it has to compete unfairly with movies, television shows and electronic gadgets whose marketing budgets far outstrip those of publishers. “Books don’t have billion-dollar publicity behind them,” Mr. Díaz said. “Given the fact that books don’t have that, they’re not doing a bad job.”
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What brought you to read books?
I can't remember a time without books. As a small child, I was read to (and I've even been told that early in their marriage, my father read to my mother, which sounds rather quaint), and my siblings and I all could read before we started school.
My father's library was open to us without any restrictions no matter our age. (And no matter that it contained a number of books banned by the Nazis at a time when this could be distinctly dangerous … although those may have been in the section of the Bücherschrank that had solid doors rather than glass, to hide them from prying eyes.) My grandmother would have a book propped up while she knitted socks …
My first job, as a 12-year old, was working in the public library at 20 Pfennig an hour, putting hideous black dust jackets on books, among other things. I often read several books at once, which may explain my occasional tardiness in completing book reviews. And I'm happy to report that there are voracious readers in my extended family, down to age 22 …
