1001 books to read before I .......what?



A couple of those are actually on the list!


Thanks to Jarmara I have encountered the list of 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die*. It's been an interesting experience, not least because of the whole concept of reading 1001 books.

You do the sums. Assume that you read a book a month. (Yeah, yeah, I know, you read a lot more than that don't you, but bear with me.) 1001 months is a little over 83 years. So assume you read the first one when you're seven. The Little Prince (Saint-Exupery) is on the list and so is The Hobbit so it's not unreasonable to start then. Though you probably wouldn't go straight from that to War and Peace. That will make you 90 when you finish. The average age-at-death in my family is somewhere around 73. Are you telling me that if I start reading the rest of the list I will somehow live long enough to read them?

Because even at one a week it's still going to take nearly 20 years. Actually, I've already read 100 of them (I can't believe that it came out at exactly 100 either!) so that would still need 17 years and 17 weeks to finish the list. Scarily, that would make me just about the right age to die in line with my family.......

So if it's all the same to you, I'm going to read what I want, when I want and not bother with any silly lists!

*********

* That link will take you to someone's blog because the original list is in a book that you first have to BUY! It's got an introduction by Peter Akroyd, which might explain why several of his titles are included.

Step away from the computer......

It's official - too much computer use damages kids' ability to read.

OK so the research concentrated on 9-10 year olds and they found the link in Sweden and the US but couldn't confirm it in similar studies in Hungary and Italy, but it's still pretty scary.

"Our study shows that the entry of computers into the home has contributed to changing children's habits in such a manner that their reading does not develop to the same extent as previously. By comparing countries over time we can see a negative correlation between change in reading achievement and change in spare time computer habits which indicates that reading ability falls as leisure use of computers increases," says lead researcher Monica Rosén.

A report of the study can be found here if you'd like to know more.

Or maybe you should switch off your computer and go read a book! 

Lonely? Read a book.

According to a new study by American psychologists, when we read books we actually relate so closely to the characters that we temporarily become part of their social group.

The team from the University of Buffalo have shown that reading satisfies a deep-seated human need for companionship and connection with others.

In an article published in the journal Psychological Science, researchers Shira Gabriel and Ariana Young say that the sense of belonging gained from a book is just as beneficial as one we would gain in the 'real' world.

The books they used in the study were well known vampire and magic stories, which they gave to undergraduates students to read, then monitored the readers' behaviour.

Dr Gabriel said: "This study suggests that books give us more than an opportunity to tune out and submerge ourselves in a fantasy world.

"They give us a chance to feel like we belong to something bigger than us and to reap the benefits that result from being a part of that larger realm without having a 'real' social encounter.

"When we enter the narrative  we don't 'become' Harry or Edward, of course, but we do become a member of their world. That feels really good and it changes us."

You can find out more about it if you click here.