Amen, sister! 


 
 
Dean Corner
 
Director of Reader and Information Services
Maine State Library
64 State House Station
Augusta, ME 04333-0064
207-287-5604
207-287-5615 fax

-----Original Message-----
From: Lord, Linda [mailto:[log in to unmask]] 
Sent: Friday, February 01, 2008 9:11 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [MEINFO-L] Benefits of reading - food for thought

From the New Yorker, Dec 24 and 31, 2007 "Twilight of the Books; What
will life be like if People Stop Reading"  p.139 The National Endowment
for the Arts "To Read or Not to Read" report "reports that readers are
more likely than non-readers to play sports, exercise, visit art
museums, attend theatre, paint, go to music events, take photographs and
volunteer.  Proficient readers are also more likely to vote. Perhaps
readers venture so readily outside because what they experience in
solitude givens them confidence.  Perhaps reading is a prototype of
independence.  No matter how much one worships an author, Proust wrote,
"all he can do is give us desires. "  Reading somehow gives us the
boldness to act on them.  Such a habit might be quite dangerous for a
democracy to lose."
 
 
Linda H. Lord
Deputy State Librarian
Maine State Library
64 State House Station
Augusta, ME  04333
(207) 287-5620
[log in to unmask]