Reading Struggles

As an English major, one of the things I spend most of my time doing is reading.  For the most part, I enjoy it since the material is interesting, and it helps my writing, but sometimes, I can't stand it.  That's how I feel currently since I've just finished two novels.  One of them is The Crying Of Lot 49  by Thomas Pynchon, and the other is Democracy by Joan Didion.  Both are called great pieces of work by all, but I just don't get it.  I couldn't stand reading either novel, and constantly felt like giving up on them halfway through, but somehow, I got through them.

In terms of Pynchon, the problem I had with his novel (and all of his work, I might add) is that it didn't make any sense.  The plot alone is ridiculous, and there's so much given about characters, that you don't understand or care for them, if that makes sense.  Since I have to write an essay on the novel, I've reread some of it again; it's still confusing, but not nearly as bad as the first time, which gives me hope for my essay and skill as a reader.  Didion's novel is still boring to me though, so I have no plans to reread that again, which is a shame considering the premise sounded intriguing.

What I'm saying about these novels and writers is nothing new.  It's just something I wanted to get off my chest because reading these novels has made no sense for me.  Sure, it's cool to feel intellectual knowing authors and facts, but not when it's like this.  When reading is like this, it takes all the fun out of it.

Reading Rainbow

Recently, when I visited my friends, one of the topics that came up was books and reading.  My friends were saying how much they disliked books, and how they never read for fun because school has taken all the fun out of reading.  I laughed after hearing what my friends said, but then I thought about it.  I agree with what my friend's said that reading isn't what it used to be when I was a child, but it's something I'll never hate because it's a part of who I am, and part of what I want to be when I'm older.  I can tell most people in society don't agree with me though since they'd rather do other things.  And if they do want to read, it's all electronic now, which can be distracting.  When something like this happens, I think of Reading Rainbow, the show by Levar Burton and wish it was still on.

As a child, Reading Rainbow was influential to me because it was the first thing that introduced me to books.  I watched it long before I was in kindergarten, and because they actually read books on the show, it was like I was reading with them.  Levar Burton, the host and creator of the show made reading fun and interesting for me.  Back then, I liked him because I thought he was cool and knew he was in Star Trek, but looking back, it was much more than coolness that made him appealing.  He had a serious dedication to want to help children, and he was a good human being like Mister Roger's.  His show may of been simple, and all he may of done was read "real books", but that was the appeal of it like.  Someone was introducing reading to us, and letting us discover it as children, which was very exciting. 

This isn't a post to discount e-books or doing other things like playing video games because I think anything that stimulates the mind is good, but I remember when reading used to be widespread, and children read more books than played video games.  Times are obviously different now, but one important difference is that there's no more Reading Rainbow to influence a new generation of children.  Hopefully, as I get older, children will read more because it's starting to become a lost art.