“The seeds of these dreams are often found in books and the seeds you help plant in your community can grow across the world. I hope you’ll agree to become a champion of the Imagination Library in your community. 

“You will be amazed at the impact this simple gift can have on the lives of children and their families. We have seen it work in our backyard and I’m certain it can do the same in your community too!”

Dolly Parton

SpyWriter Jack King, the author of:
Agents of Change, WikiJustice, The Black Vault, and The Fifth Internationale.
Books by Jack King:

http://www.SpyWriter.com

…why do we adhere to the notion that a literary work needs commentary and interpretation ― that it cannot be read independently, unaccompanied by criticism? And why is it that we rarely, if ever, read criticism ― a comment on another text ― as a literary work? If criticism, as Chesterton would have it, either gets it wrong or merely paraphrases the literary work, why do we still keep alive the tradition of interpreting literature? 

The simple answer is that literary works are never quite what they initially appear to be. Interpreting a literary work thus involves more than merely understanding what the text literally attempts to do or say. The literary work invites criticism and interpretation. As a critic, one accepts this invitation to engage with the literary work’s otherness, its ambiguity. The literary work’s ambiguity haunts us, like a ghost whose presence we desperately attempt to capture and strap down, once and for all.”

More: http://m.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20130425000978

SpyWriter Jack King, the author of:
Agents of Change, WikiJustice, The Black Vault, and The Fifth Internationale.
Books by Jack King:

http://www.SpyWriter.com

“When taught to read at a young age, children tend to visualise, imagine and conceptualise better. Their ability to concentrate is heightened, along with their ability to write. All these abilities would definitely be affected if a child is not encouraged by the teacher or parent to take up a book and read.”

“Constant exposure to television, visuals on cellphones and internet could also lead to neurological impairments and dyslexia amongst children…”

More: http://m.timesofindia.com/city/visakhapatnam/Time-to-get-back-to-reading-books/articleshow/19705094.cms

SpyWriter Jack King, the author of:
Agents of Change, WikiJustice, The Black Vault, and The Fifth Internationale.
Books by Jack King:

http://www.SpyWriter.com

Too many [...] Authors are going into the world of letters with dreams of instant stardom. For them, it was more important to see their book published than to make sure it is a quality product. They are approaching writing the same way one would approach the selling of second hand shoes with an eye to quick profit and a big launch with a lot of deep pocket donors. They have no desire to go through the pains and hassles of a thorough editorial process.

Make sure you are not one of those writers.”

From: http://m.allafrica.com/stories/201304221800.html/

SpyWriter Jack King, the author of:
Agents of Change, WikiJustice, The Black Vault, and The Fifth Internationale.
Books by Jack King:

http://www.SpyWriter.com

The problem with most arguments in the debate about reading is that they posit literature as an instrument used to achieve a certain goal: either the good of the individual (it is good for you) or the good of society (it makes you good). Leaving aside the issue of deciding whether what makes you good is not, ultimately, good for you, a more fundamental question arises: why does literature need to be defended at all? …

Literature breaks the continuum of the everyday and makes us stop and think. The linguistic experimentation that is the hallmark of the literary estranges us from the most commonplace of tools, our language, while the fictional elements of novels, plays and poems offer us a glimpse into a reality that is not our own. In doing so, reading affords us an essentially human of experience: the realisation that what is does not necessarily need to be, that things can be different and that another world is possible. The struggle with or the embrace of a work of literature shapes our hopes and fears, dreams and ambitions. Literature matters, ultimately, because it makes us who we are.”

FROM: http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/04/201341564843772137.html

AGENTS OF CHANGE

Let us pity the poor rich men who live barrenly in great bookless houses. And let us congratulate the poor, for in our day, books are so cheap that a man may every year add many volumes to his library for what his tobacco and beer would cost him. Among the earliest ambitions to be [fostered] in clerks, workmen, journeymen — and indeed, all that are struggling in the race of life — is that of owning, and constantly adding to, a library of good books. . . .

It is a man’s duty to have books. A [personal] library is not a luxury, but one of the necessities of life.”

- Henry Ward Beecher

SpyWriter Jack King, the author of:
Agents of Change, WikiJustice, The Black Vault, and The Fifth Internationale.
Books by Jack King:

http://www.SpyWriter.com

Stories are so important to the way that we relate to each other socially. They teach us to reconsider preconceptions and try on new perspectives. They teach us to imagine the stories behind the behavior we see in the world. They teach us compassion.”

More: http://m.dukechronicle.com/articles/2013/04/05/reading-period

SpyWriter Jack King, the author of:
Agents of Change, WikiJustice, The Black Vault, and The Fifth Internationale.
Books by Jack King:

http://www.SpyWriter.com

Thomas Mann, Death in Venice:

http://archive.org/stream/DeathInVenice/DeathInVenice-ThomasMann_djvu.txt

SpyWriter Jack King, the author of:
Agents of Change, WikiJustice, The Black Vault, and The Fifth Internationale.
Books by Jack King:

http://www.SpyWriter.com

Reblogged from THE WORDSPINNER'S PLACE: