Reading: Has it a future?

THESE are some new findings into the future of reading at home and abroad. The month of October is declared as 'the month of reading' (kiyavana masaya).

FROM time to time special reports appear pertaining to the subject of reading at all levels. Most of these reports are based on the readership surveys, best seller lists, opinion surveys, the book sales in book fairs and bookshops, the buying capacities of books by librarians, and the book sales promotions via book launches and advertisements.

According to the latest findings on the part of the educationists, reading of printed matter in newspaper, magazine, and book form will not disappear from our lives despite the fact that there is grave danger and challenge of the electronic media such as radio and television.

One of the speculations on the part of the surveyors happened to be the impact of the electronic information delivery to the consumer of media channels.

But this fear was dispelled by a report appearing in American Newspaper Publishers Association's newsletter 'press time' providing strong evidence to support the future of the reading habit as bright and optimistic than one expects the condition to be. The following is quoted from the said report which will lay down the situation.

"Are the Computer Age and the Information Explosion teaming up to create a society that no longer has need for books, magazines and newspapers? (this then is the answer) more than a few experts have examined the portents and concluded that reading has become passion, the musty remnant of antiquated technology.

But others, who have looked beyond the surface are optimistic about reading. The habit is far from dead, they say, plenty of signs indicate good health and a long life ahead."

According to the librarians, the usage of books is becoming a habit changing from the mere hunt for educational material to the more global areas such as investigations into the unknown explorations.

In this direction the translations of popular books, inclusive of modern novels short stories, poetry, drama, science fiction and international affairs seem to be a trend setting change from the mere traditional age-old readership.

One local publisher pointed out that though it is not so easy to get copyright of original works cleared, the works in translation become quite popular with the readers.

The companion pressure for the modern day reading habits, according to some educationists, come from electronic media as well, for some of the popular films and programmes shown indicate to the audience that the original works ought to be read in order to receive a better grasping of the subject matter and/or human experiences embedded.

A few days ago at a seminar on reading habits, a young member of the audience pointed out that 'the very term reading has undergone some changes and on example comes from the usage 'reading a film'.

The meaning therein is indicative of the actual seeing but nevertheless an experience in a change manner of reading that makes more than 'seeing' or gaining a visual impact.

In the study of communication 'reading a film' is seeing as well as analysing the cine grammar of the creative process in terms of both literature and technology. The term has also entered the Sinhala usage as chitrapatayak kiyavima.

The re-reading process is called navata kiyavima or apasu kiyavima generally used to denote the grasping of the 'textual knowledge'. Perhaps all these go to say that mass media channels and reading habits in contemporary life are interlinked.

The traditional norm of 'reading to listen' or reading to a group of listeners according to some Indian studies is now revived and proved a success in the case of children and adolescents.

This oriental method came to be rooted down as mothers and grandmothers had a lot of time to spend with children at home narrating and reading stories as retold material.

"The art of storytelling should be linked with companion creative reading material that could be utilized both at home and in the classroom", says the educationist and communication scholar John A Finley.

When I posed this concept to one of the principals of a leading local school, she said that 'the concept is not at all quite new, since the teachers are trained in their teaching methods to create companion reading material in the form of assignments and projects which has now gradually passed on to specialist teams and groups.

When assignments and projects are designed in the classroom the students are requested to make compulsory reading on their part which may mean the use of the library and other sources available.

When questioned about their children's reading habits, most parents have the habit of saying., 'They don't read in the way we used to do during our time'.

How true is this? Perhaps the grave necessity for tuition may be an impediment to reading supplementary readers. But the parental 'home book culture' has to be promoted side by side with the tuition requirement.

More than half a century ago the well-known science fiction writer Jules Verne said that the future newspaper designed with lots of information on all subjects will be the future book for masses.

Today we see the underlying truth of the statement as newspapers happen to bring more information than it used to be a century ago, and they are being read via the internet in the quickest possible manner. (My son in UK reads this column on the net before I see on print).

Thus internet is one of the major catalysts that changed the nature of reading. Most information as well as creative pieces could be downloaded via the internet, which results in the moulding of a new collection of reading material for personal consumption.