believeinourbooks - Tumblr blog

[believeinourbooks]

The melancholy novel of the downfall of books.

Yesterday evening, I fell down a rabbit hole only to have a cup of tea with a ginger haired mad man, a talking rabbit- wearing a waistcoat with a rather impressively well-polished pocket watch, a fierce little mouse with an uncontrollable temper and (although uninvited) the Cheshire cat may have popped in to say hi. I then continued to meet a deranged, red obsessed, blood thirsty queen who wished death upon all who didn’t conform to her nutty rules. After that I took a short break to behead a jabberwocky which left me just enough time to get home to my family, cancel an arranged marriage and perform a ‘mad’ dance which a dear friend previously taught me.

Now it doesn’t take a genius to infer, from that information, that this sadly didn’t really happen. I have never met the mad hatter, killed a jabberwocky, met the queen of hearts or even seen the wild grin of the Cheshire cat. But for a select few this is our reality. This is our escape.  In this society there is no doubt that people are glued to their screens. From phones to computers to televisions to iPods to x boxes, people are obsessed. People are walking down the streets, zombie like, hooked onto the small device perched in their hands. The civilisation who once wrote poems for lovers, whose children went out with their friends to play hopscotch, scientists who created theories about time and space writing them down to be discovered hundreds of years later. Their brains are slowly rotting away due to the pathogen we call technology. The public are no longer relying on books and novels for information and joy, but rather turning to the internet, no longer fuelling their innate curiosity. No longer allowing their brains to grow.

Libraries are a dying breed; more and more are closing due to the lack of interest. Schools are now considering looking at a screen, learning how to type, more important than inspiring the younger generation to challenge their expectations. Challenge the views that are given to them. Make them believe that they can do and become anything they want. The most effective way of doing this is through the bliss of sitting down and reading a book. The other day I overheard a conversation between two mothers in a curry’s PC world talking about their child’s lack of intellectual curiosity and creativity. This was all being said while buying her son the latest x box. I found this rather ironic to listen to. Some people are still wondering why children are losing their creativity, why children are no longer playing mums and dads or making mud pies in the back garden. The truth is, is that they are now sitting inside, their brains withering away, playing fortnight and watching television that contributes nothing to expanding the much-valued skill of creativity.

Now don’t get me wrong, technology can be an amazing asset to modern society. Not only does it help bring education and knowledge to the classroom, but it also enables us to do the unthinkable. To bend boundaries. But surely, to the young mind, books should be valued as a much more effective learning resource. Libraries are archives, holding stories and tales of rabbit holes and potions, of witches and wizards travelling to find the precious horcruxes, of massive wales and scared sailors, of pirates travelling around the world looking for treasure. Not only do they hold novels, they store information about people with too much power and using it against the greater good, of nurses who challenged the way we look at modern medicine and books that expand children's learning. Expand the way they look at the world. For people to argue that libraries are relics is criminal.

What I am trying to say is libraries and books in general are sanctuaries for learning, where focus and creativity are made possible. So, go and fall down the rabbit hole, discover a giant whale, defeat Voldemort, solve chilling crimes, help an escaped prisoner by stealing a bit of pork pie, dig up holes in the dessert and most importantly allow you brain to grow and to gain that inspiration. Allow yourself to escape and become one of those select few where this is there reality.

Written by believeinourbooks

[believeinourbooks]

You know you've read a good book when you turn the last page and feel a little as if you have lost a friend

Paul Sweeney