Making a Point

Well, as the nerd I am- we've been over that part already- I followed the link on our weekly sheet to Shelfari and signed up. It's actually a very interesting and it made me think about all the books I have read, good and bad. It made me realize that it was not just the good books I read that impacted my literacy but the bad as well. First of all, I would like to state that there are book that are not to my personal preference then there are books that are just plain badly written. For example, I read and was not a fan of Oliver Twist. However, that does not make it a bad book. It was unappealing to my taste but it did provide me with something of a background for later texts based around it. (Until I read that book I never realized that the animated movie Oliver and Company was based off a book.) So that would be a book I did not enjoy. But what did just plain flat out bad books do for me? Well, have you ever seen an example of a school assignment that is what not to do? I look at them in that sense. (I will refrain from mentioning exactly which books I thought were abysmal.) I love to write and do so often. I see this as a consequence of reading a lot and absorbing many of the techniques and styles of my favorite authors. Nevertheless, encountering a bad novel is just as much a learning experience as finding the good. The biggest lesson I have learn in that context has been flaws. Flaws are the gems that make a character interesting.

So how exactly does this link to my literacy? Well I would consider writing an output of literacy but even beyond that, it means that to me, reading was never a waste of time. Even when I hated to book (Oliver Twist) or just cringed at every word (book-that-will-not-be-named), it was worth the time it took.

On a similar note, sometimes it is important to give a book a chance even when you don't like it at first. When I read Wicked I struggled on many cases to finish it. It was thick and extremely odd, for lack of a better word. But now that story is my absolute favorite book. It was a near impossible read but the aftertaste left me buzzing for weeks. (That sounded much less weird before I typed it.)

The moral of this blog? Well, I'm not sure if a blog can have a moral, but my point is that reading is not a waste. Ever. And I think that is an important point few people really work to understand. Maybe someday that will change.