June's Corner of the Library |
If you can read, you can go anywhere and be anyone.
It's true. Through reading, a person can be anything he wants to be. It is through reading that our lives mingle with the lives of others, characters who may not even exist. It is through books that a person can go wherever they want- the only passport needed is a book.
It is also through reading that we learn. Once a person knows how to read, a whole world of knowledge is open to them. Math, Science, Art, Music, History, Technology- all of these subjects can be learned through reading. But reading also supplies valuable knowledge in life experience. By reading, we put ourselves into the lives of characters and by experiencing the lives of others, we learn skills that are out of reach to us in our daily lives.
The book My Side of the Mountain by Jeanne Craighead George is a good example of learning through reading. For all those who have not read it, My Side of the Mountain is a book about a young boy who runs away from home to live off the earth in the Catskill Mountains. In real life, this may not be possible, but in a book normal rules do not apply. In My Side of the Mountain there is a wealth of knowledge about wilderness survival. If I ever had to go live in the wild and could only take one book, I very well might choose My Side of the Mountain.
Books are valuable tools, not just escapes for one's imagination. Even books that are not meant to teach (fiction etc.) can impart a wealth of knowledge on the mind of the reader.
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