LETTERS: My father used to read the epics of Ramayana and Mahabharata to me during bedtime. These stories were recited until I slept off. Most of the time, he, too, would doze off. So the story will continue the next day.
When I started reading storybooks in primary school, it was with Enid Blyton's Noddy stories. Gradually, I got interested in her Famous Five and Secret Seven series, the most fascinating children's adventure novels of all time. The Adventures of Tintin and Asterix were my favourites.
As I grew, the choice of reading varied from Hardy Boys to Nancy Drew and detective novels of Agatha Christie. During the late teens, the fascination shifted to bestselling novels of Sidney Sheldon and medical fictions of Robin Cook.
Today, children's choice of books has changed. They now read Geronimo Stilton books. J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter, Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney, and Heroes of Olympus by Rick Riordan have taken dominance over teenagers.
Nevertheless, we see a significant decline in the reading habit among children of the present generation, who are mainly obsessed with electronic gadgets. There are reasons why children and teenagers should be encouraged to read.
First, reading stimulates their imagination and enriches their understanding of the world. It helps create a lifetime bond between parents and children. Children who read and were encouraged to read since early childhood are more likely to evolve into voracious readers;
Second, reading helps a person build up a formidable vocabulary and improves his communication and leadership skills. Today a reader, tomorrow a leader!
Third, reading as a hobby reduces addiction to electronic gadgets. It helps discourage schoolchildren
from spending long hours on video games and TV, which reduce their attention span.
Children find video games and TV shows more exciting because they are fast-paced while making them feel schoolwork is boring. Reading can help children and adolescents to be more focused, and;
Fourth, reading is an excellent hobby for a lifetime. People who have the habit of reading will enjoy their post-retirement life. Age can confine physical movement and other hobbies like travelling and gardening. But, dotage cannot hinder reading a favourite author.
Therefore, parents and schools have a big role to cultivate the reading habit and protect children from the harms of electronic devices. For example, schools could set aside time for library hours in the weekly timetable.
An award for the best library user during the school's annual-day celebration can be made to recognise schoolchildren who frequently use the library.
Parents should read bedtime stories to their little ones. They
can inspire them to keep home
libraries and encourage them to share or exchange books with their friends.
Such mutual exchanges of books build up friendship and do not burden parents with buying new ones every time. The gifts and return gifts of birthday parties can be books appropriate for the age group instead of lavish spending on toys.
These days e-books are substituting real books. For a consummate reader, there is nothing more pleasant than bibliosmia — the smell of books. No wonder Albert Einstein rightly remarked that "the only thing that you absolutely have to know is the location of the library".
Dr Gokul Shankar Sabesan
Senior Associate Professor and Deputy Dean Student Affairs, AIMST University
The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect those of the New Straits Times