When Books Grew On Trees

Once upon a time, there used to be these things called magazines and newspapers, and store shelves were lined with them. There were many of these where Writers could find 9-5 jobs for places that put out these mysterious items. Publishing Houses were also a-plenty where there were so many books it was like they grew from trees. But, alas, those days are ancient now, and one must search the free land far and wide for opportunities to write.

There is a store called Uptown News. I Luv this store. When the downtown was thriving, I worked near there in the Employment Office, helping people get jobs as an Employment Counsellor. It was my favorite thing to do on my lunch break on payday, to walk to this store or the magazine store in the mall and buy magazines. It was not unusual to spend 30 -50 dollars on five or six of them, a monthly splurge. Rolling Stone, Canadian Art, Macleans, Flare or Chatelaine and Archeology.

Shelves 50 feet long stretched from the back of the store to the front and were filled from floor to ceiling with magazines. Imagine how many writers that adds up to! Every kind imaginable. I could stand and breathe in the scent of printed pages, and it was almost as good as meditation.

They had newspapers from across the globe. You could get newspapers from across Canada, the United States, and Europe, dozens. So you knew the content you were looking for and where to find it.

Then there were two stands filled with paperback novels. It was nothing to spend my entire lunch hour browsing reading material.

This love of the printed word started when my mother taught me to read before school. There were several voracious readers in my family. At the age of 12, I was allowed to subscribe to magazines, and I did, Rock and Roll and Canadian fashion mostly, at that age. That expanded to Doubleday Book Club membership, a monthly feast in hardcovers for me. By the time I was 15 years old, I had my small library going. I would sneak into the Grad Library in university and spend twenty dollars photocopying academic journals of interest. By the time I was done school, I had, no lie, a three-foot pile of them. These I was saving for my personal studies after school was done.

Sadly, my collection of books was either given away or lost in a couple of moves. In addition, the pile of academic material was damaged in a couple of leaky roofs over the years, though a few salvaged. I was able to save some books and my collection of Harvard Classics for when I would be working from home and, for some reason, imagined I would have spare time on my hands.

When I move again, sigh, I plan on a bookshelf-wall that I will fill again, and at least I have some saved for then. I will one day leave these cherished items to my fur babies since by then; I am sure they will be able to read, as I spend so much time with them. This, too, I imagine, will be written in academic journals (giggle).

As most people know about me, I spent approximately nine years in meditation. I did virtually no reading during that time. I wrote instead. So after coming back from the clouds and finding work, the first thing I did was go back to the old Uptown News to browse with fond memories.

I was crushed. The world had changed. There was hardly anything there. Even the once plentiful paperback stand had maybe 10 books on it.

Lips trembling, stifling a pout, I asked the man behind the counter, "where did all the magazines go?" He looked at me incredulously and must have noticed the near-hysterical gaze in my eyes and replied, "everyone reads on the internet now. Hardly anyone buys them." My expression quickly changed to a look of - are you crazy? The i n t e r n e t?! For magazines??

Determined and with a scrunched-up face, I dragged my feet back to the magazine rack and looked for what once brought such happiness. I was able to find an Art magazine and a special edition spiritual magazine, bonus! Whew, the world would not end after all. Then I looked at the price. Well, maybe it would. It was almost half of what I used to spend on five magazines for only two. Trying not to wail, I went and paid for the two. Then I walked two stores down and slid into the library to use a public computer.

Ok, let me get this right, I was thinking. I have to go somewhere to log in and pay online with a credit card to read a magazine from a screen. Oh joy, oh bliss. The alternative was to get the internet at home and be rooted to my desk for reading pleasure. So I bought a chocolate bar to soothe my soul and went home and sprawled on the bed and devoured both magazines and chocolate and forgot the world for a little while.

I am sure that this over-implementation of the internet in society is the main reason children don't read, or at least not as much as they used to. They are taught now to view, not engage in the written word. Imagination is spelled out for them. Anything and everything can be looked up, including grammar and spelling, so what is to learn using cognitive skills?

Learning used to be in the form of different styles. There are visual learners, auditory and tactile. Some learn better by videos, doing or performing a task, or reading. But still reading is necessary as a brain exercise. It is fundamental. The workings of the mind process information, categorize, emphasize meaning, sort for relative information, see relationships in other material, enhance intuition, and sharpen the sight and speed of overall learning by other methods. Yes, all this from reading.

Did you know that a baby, through the phenomenon of "Motherese," can recognize their mother's voice if she reads to them out loud when they are still in their belly, when pregnant? They respond more rapidly after they are born to their mother's voice and are more attentive with other markers showing that they recognize the tonal quality and speech patterns. Imagine the depth of learning that is taking place. We studied this in university long ago, and there are different studies on this subject. There are links here at the bottom of this article about it.

Some would say it is almost selfish for moguls, designers, and teachers who only rely on one system of learning. They learned from books in their lives, didn't they? Then why not encourage all reading material and writing nowadays. It can only benefit our future and the little minds we bring into the world.

Written books and magazines are essential to society for longevity, preserving culture, and providing alternate entertainment forms.

Friends of mine told me a long time ago that printed material was still the primary type of reading in Europe even after the internet. Most people ride on trains to work and back, or visiting or wherever they were going. I could always do that, move to Europe. It will probably take me until retirement age to save enough money if trains exist then.

Ironically, I saw an article that discouraged that today, calling it anti-social. I don't know if the person who wrote it has experience taking the bus or on a train, but there are very few people there for socializing. Starting or ending their day or jaunting to an appointment is the perfect time to get a read-in. Just sayin'.

I imagine a future when books and magazines will come back to life. I do. I love the internet. It is such a valuable tool for so many things. It is a necessity of life now. I love writing on it and my work as an online media writer. However, there is much to be said for curling up with an actual book or a magazine in your hands.

Motherese Study; A 2nd Resource

More of Lisa's work HERE and HERE.