The Summary and Response

The writer of BBC News says that Victoria Beckham, Beckham's wife, says she has never read a book in her life because she hasn't had enough time for reading. She likes listening to music and reading fashion magazines more than reading books. It's not surprising. According to research by the Office for National Statistics, commissioned by the National Reading Campaign in 2001, now, there're so many adults who don't read books recently. In spite of that, the book sales are rising, and the numbers of adults who can't read are decreasing lately. According to the director of the government-funded National Reading Campaign, reading customs are made in childhood days. Children looked at their parents and learned how to be with books. There are some points of view about reading books, and these are divided into two types. One is that people who don't have the custom to read books. From this point of view, reading is so boring. There're so many other interesting things such as traveling and visiting some place. Whereas many people who like and have the custom of reading books say that reading is so interesting and exciting, and it's the one way of getting self-confidence.

In my opinion, reading is important and necessary for people for various purposes; yet, they can be categorized into three parts, that is, good for health, communication and education.

First one is that activation of brain is caused by reading. Reading activates brain. It's been proved by the scientist. It's such a good activity for brain that we use the right and left brain, and while reading a book, we use both brains. When people read a book, sometimes, they feel tired because they are using the right and left brain; so, they think reading is troublesome. That's one of the reasons why some people donÅft like reading. But, when we watch only images like TV programs or games, we just use the right brain, consequently we can't remember easily what we saw. It's hard to remember what we saw if we use only the right brain. That kind of action is really effective not only for brain but also health, because activation of the brain leads body to good condition. Therefore, reading is effective in health.

Next is that reading is one of the communication tools. There are many communication tools such as internet and telephone. However, reading a book is the most memorable thing. If we read a book, we can keep and read it again easily so we can remember what happened, and what we thought and felt when we read it. For example, there is a difference between letter and e-mail, which are alike. E-mails have many virtues of being sent fast, easy to send and receive, and cheap. That's like the internet. Letters are more expensive and take a long time to being sent but many people are still using letters. That's like reading. Because they send a letter with their whole heart and they thought that the letter that they have received is same thing, they prefer using letters to e-mail. As I said before, reading is similar to letters in the point that with both we can feel warmth, since both are made by people. Something like Internet and telephone are machines, so that we can't feel warmth. For that reason, people like reading and reading is good for communication.

The third is that we can get the ability to imagine by reading. That's really something we can get only from books. Reading books take long time than watching images. It's not direct. Because of that, people think and imagine. When we watch an image, we don't have to imagine yet; we don't have any image in the book, so we have to imagine from letter. Moreover, when we read a book, we have to think and imagine what people look like. In addition, we'll do that with concentration and effort. These things make children smart. Children who have concentration can study hard and then succeed. As a result, it can be said reading is vital for education.

In conclusion, reading is infallibly good for some things such as health, communication and education. These things are valuable for life. Reading books is the spice of life. People can live without reading but it's nerdy. The life with reading is really exciting and intriguing. That's why many people recommend reading a book. They know reading is so good for life.

Reference:
BBC News.(2005, August 17). Can read, won't read books.

By Ayu