“Reading seems less than fashionable … especially when it comes to fine literature. People searching for a good book, often complain that there isn’t much choice in a market dominated by romance, cheap humor or life in the fast lane. Works with substantial artistic and intellectual value seem to have very little commercial value.”

Thus literary works of some higher merit than purely commercial are disappearing because readers don’t care to read them.

On the other hand:

We publish what readers want to read, says a publisher of commercially successful books:

“Saying that young people don’t like “good reads” is an excuse … “Publishers and writers refuse to admit to their inability to produce good work that people will actually read and pay for. 

“If all I did was follow the market,” says the publisher, “I’d have nothing to differentiate me from other publishers. Logically, there’s no way to find out whether or not a book will sell until it is actually published,” she said. 

Trends … are created when publishers research what the public wants and embrace readers as a source of inspiration.”

“Social media is a primary way to communicate with readers,” says the publisher. “It enables the company to publish books readers want.”

More: http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/lifeandtimes/read-a-good-book-lately-too-many-indonesians-answer-no/494107

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According to the first theory, art and literature are meant only to create beautiful or entertaining works, to please and entertain people and the artists themselves, and not to propagate social ideas. 

The other theory is that art and literature should serve the people, and help them in their struggle for a better life, by arousing emotions against oppression and injustice.

However, there is hardly any good art and literature today before us. … There seems to be a vacuum in artistic and literary terms. Everything seems to have become commercialised. Writers write not to highlight the plight of the masses but to earn money.

If someone writes about the people’s real problems it will spread like wildfire. But are our writers doing this? If they are not, why do they complain that nobody wants to read them? Art and literature must serve the people. Writers and artists must have genuine sympathy for the people and depict their sufferings. Like Dickens and Shaw in England, Rousseau and Voltaire in France, Thomas Paine and Walt Whitman in America, Chernyshevsky and Gorky in Russia and Sarat Chandra and Nazrul Islam in Bengal, they must inspire people to struggle for a better life, what can be really called human existence, and to create a better world, free of injustice. Only then will people respect them.”

More: http://m.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/article2837586.ece/

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“I think that anyone who writes anything, imagines that someone will read it, even if he writes only for self. I ask myself this question: can you write, and not act out a role? A man wants to be a stranger to himself. Not in the role he plays, but in the subconscious decision that in whatever role he assigns to himself, lies his reality. At times I feel that a man comes through, out of what he wrote, like a snake from its skin. That’s it: you can not express yourself in writing, you can only lose your skin. But who is interested in this dead skin?! Does it matter whether the reader will ever be able to read anything from it, beyond what is himself? Writing is done not to communicate with readers, or with yourself, but to communicate with that, which can not be expressed otherwise.”
Max Frisch, in I am not Stiller (my quick, and imperfect translation from German). Get the English book here.

“Researchers with the US Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity want to build a repository of metaphors. You read that right.  Not just American/English metaphors mind you but those of Iranian Farsi, Mexican Spanish and Russian speakers.

In the end the program should produce a methodology, tools and techniques together with a prototype system that will identify metaphors that provide insight into cultural beliefs. It should also help build structured framework that organizes the metaphors associated with the various dimensions of an analytic problem and build a metaphor repository where all metaphors and related information are captured for future reference and access[...]

Stories exert a powerful influence on human thoughts and behavior. They consolidate memory, shape emotions, cue heuristics and biases in judgment, influence in-group/out-group distinctions, and may affect the fundamental contents of personal identity. It comes as no surprise that these influences make stories highly relevant to vexing security challenges such as radicalization, violent social mobilization, insurgency and terrorism, and conflict prevention and resolution. Therefore, understanding the role stories play in a security context is a matter of great import and some urgency”.

From: http://m.networkworld.com/community/blog/apple-my-eye-us-fancies-huge-metaphor-reposit

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Turn off the television and have family reading time.

Buy books as gifts for birthdays and other special occasions.

Participate in your school’s book lending, book fair and book buying programs.

Encourage your child to participate in reading clubs at school and at the public library. 

Attend special events where authors of your child’s favourite books are reading or signing books.”

More tips: http://www.cramahe-now.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2378:board-offers-reading-tips-for-families&catid=1:latest-news&Itemid=61

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And other authors in the literary world did the same. It doesn’t take a lot of money to create a world of literacy in your environment. Literacy is an enriching experience as far as life and experience because it opens doors and inspires imagination.”

Here are some of the most/least literate cities in America:

“The nation’s capital has scored top literacy honors for the second year in a row, ranking No. 1 as the “most literate” city in America. But when it comes to literacy, not many people in Congress read all those laws from first to last page, because many prefer action novels based on factual possibilities, it has been said.

New York city is not the most literate in spite of the publishing industry centered in NYC for decades. For example, if you want to meet writers and see ads for writers from agents and publishers, there are associations and societies in New York City with so many literary contacts regarding publishers, that New York has become a hub for publishers and writers to connect.

San Francisco has numerous book clubs made up of both authors and readers. And San Francisco is listed pretty high on the list of literacy as number 6, compared to Sacramento, a two-hour Amtrak train ride east, as Sacramento was listed low on the scale of literacy at 45. Who reads more Sacramentans or San Francisco residents? Observe the difference in numbers. Is it being near the ocean that helps people relax over books, newspapers, or magazines?”

More: http://www.allvoices.com/contributed-news/11385961-usa-cities-ranked-as-the-most-and-least-literate

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It enables a deeper understanding of the human animal and its subtle psychological nuances.

That understanding will help you deal with people much better – and in business these days, it’s the people that matter.

“It’s when we read fiction that we have the time and opportunity to think deeply about the feelings of others, really imagining the shape and flavour of alternate worlds of experience.”

Truly great novelists have a very sharp eye when it comes to watching the way people live, relate and interact. They are able to weave this understanding into their characters and plot and dramatic structure, to create a product that leaves the brain stimulated in a way few other experiences can deliver.

“Business is about life, and so is fiction. The great businessperson must understand people, their driving emotions, their ambitions and their fears, and what causes their rise or fall. A great novelist delivers precisely that understanding.”

More: http://www.businessdailyafrica.com/Reading+fiction+good+for+improving++business+acumen+/-/539444/1312066/-/1io5ga/-/

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Creative fiction is not lies, it is a breaking of the shackles of ‘reality’ by escaping from one’s own consciousness into the consciousness of others. When we read Mark Twain we become, for a while, Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer, when we read Conan Doyle we become Watson and Holmes. 

Of course, this is escapist entertainment. But this exchange of consciousness – the voluntary surrendering of one’s own consciousness for the consciousness of others – is also an exercise in empathy, the ability to see things from another’s point of view, which is the source of compassion, the realisation that behind the veil of differentiation, all consciousness is interconnected, interchangeable.”

More: http://m.timesofindia.com/home/opinion/speaking-tree/The-story-behind-storybooks/articleshow/11587652.cms

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When E.M. Forster asked a hypothetical reader in his book Aspects of the Novel why he read fiction, the character said, “It seems a funny sort of question to ask—a novel’s a novel—well, I don’t know—I suppose it tells a story, so to speak.” The story is essential, of course, to keep us engaged. But those of us who are drawn to novels aren’t there purely for entertainment (particularly not in this era when we can watch all the movies, television shows, and viral videos we want). No, most of us go between the pages to get inside different minds and learn more about how people tick. It’s no coincidence that the world’s best novelists are some of our most outstanding psychologists.”

Reading fiction will help your love life: http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/01/20/virgil-jane-austen-and-other-authors-can-teach-us-about-love.html

“In her column, D’Arcy asked Meyers how parents should go about instilling a love of books and reading in their children.

Meyers had a lot to say, listing multiple tips for pre- to early readers and even a few for older readers.

One inspired idea is for parents to turn down the sound of the television when a child is watching a program and asking the child to tell the story of what he or she thinks is going on.

Another idea I liked is for a child to have his own bookshelf in his room. A sense of “ownership” is big with kids.

As you might guess, regular trips to the library or bookstore– I choose library for financial and mental-sanity reasons– are key. As is letting kids pick what they want to read.

Another inspired idea is browsing author’s websites.

Meyers also reminds parents not to forget poetry.

For big kids, Meyers urges parents to make reading a family activity.”

More: http://blogs.babycenter.com/mom_stories/01172012how-to-raise-a-reader/

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