Is the Bookworm an Endangered Species?

Harper's ^ | January 20, 2008 | Scott Horton

[robomatik]

i used to read fiction but, after high school it just didn’t hold my attention anymore. non-fiction is all i read anymore.

[kalee]

If you find the info I would love to see it. I can’t in my wildest imagination think any black American would stand by and watch another group of people be made to enter by a seperate door. I don’t doubt you I am just stunned!

[FoxInSocks]

OMG, here you are again!

Reading, I firmly believe, is a source of relief from tyrants. Both for individuals and societies.

These sentences pose an interesting thought. I still like to read for fun. I just started De Tocqueville's Democracy in America the other day. It's a pretty new translation, and I think it's going to be very good.

[kalee]

If I ever lose my sight I am in trouble, I don’t like audiobooks. I am a visual person and audio books lose me. I can’t seem to pay attention and grasp the material. I need to read it myself.

[forkinsocket]

I heard about Jews having to use the backdoor, too, but I thought it was a wild rumor. That can’t be true, can it? I’d be horrified that Jews would submit themselves to that. I certainly wouldn’t. I won’t even wear Islaamic hijab when in Muslim countries, let alone be pushed to the backdoor. Hope this isn’t true.

[weegee]

Here are some references (although they aren't precisely the articles I originally saw these details in): United States: State Sponsor of Judeophobia (Arutz Sheva 12/07/07 Pamela Geller )

Last week, a line was crossed. A terrible line was crossed at Annapolis. With the world looking on, the President of the United States sponsored Judeophobia. Jew-hatred was okay, understandable even.

Under the auspices of a global "peace" conference, the White House sanctioned Jew-hatred. The Jew is contemptible, inferior, ignorant, politically and socially disenfranchised: separate entrance ways, service entrances for the Jews, refusal to touch or shake hands with a Jew, refusal of audience members to wear the translation earphones when Ehud Olmert spoke...

Ms. Rice Visited Israel, Not Birmingham, Alabama (IMRA January 17, 2008 Lenny Ben-David)

Ms. Rice Visited Israel, Not Birmingham, Alabama Two months ago in Annapolis Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice compared the plight of Palestinians to the experience of African-Americans some 40 years ago in the segregated South. "I know what it is like to hear that you cannot go on a road or through a checkpoint because you are Palestinian," she said. "I understand the feeling of humiliation and powerlessness."

[rlmorel]

I agree. Reading is much better.

[Army Air Corps]

I prefer non fiction because real events are often times better than invented ones. I read a lot of 20th century military and diplomatic history as well as aviation and aerospace history.

When I read fiction, it is mostly classics including works from the 20th century that are regarded as classics.

[weegee]

I’ve posted some links in this thread. It was ugly to draw the same comparisons to Israel that Jimmuh Carter also has (he called it “apartheid” whereas his Saudi masters REALLY practice Apartheid supressing all religions other than Islam and have a 21st century policy of REFUSING Jews entry into to country, this may have changed but it was put in place THIS century).

[television is just wrong]

actually, the bookworm is an endangered species. we are headed to a new dark ages. we have advanced as far as we are going to, and this is as good as it gets.

[forkinsocket]

OMG, here you are again!

I should start a ping list just for screen name twins. :D

Books I just bought yesterday:

Dario Fo's Accidental Death of an Anarchist.

Norman Cohn's Europe's Inner Demons.

& Lila Abu-Lughod's Veiled Sentiments: Honor & Poetry in a Bedouin Society.

[Rudder]

Sorry, I feel asleep reading this. Let’s see...Oh, yeah. Many of us who love to read haven’t read a book in years because we can read the internet, not as this author suggests, but real books on the internet as if they were from dead trees. For example, I’m into screenplays now and have read one a day for the past month or so. I’d do the same with paper versions, but they’re unwieldy and I’d have to drive to the library. So I contend that there are two different kinds of literate people: those who can read but don’t enjoy it and those who truly enjoy it. The internet has not changed either of them.

[mass55th]

I still read a lot for pleasure. Mostly non-fiction."

Ditto here. I've got bookcases full of 'em. I just hope I live long enough to read them all.

[kalee]

Thanks. UNBELIEVABLE!! I am amazed Olmert agreed. I would have said forget it and your conference and gone home. The recent Annapolis Conference is a case in point. I asked a very knowledgeable friend in Israel if the Hebrew Media actually reported what went on. When I mentioned a few incidents known in America, I was told that, either it was not mentioned in Israel’s Hebrew Media or, if it was, it was positioned in a few lines of commentary and in language stilted to trivialize the event. For example, the Saudi King Faisal stated plainly that he would NOT shake the hand of the Israeli Prime Minister or Foreign Minister. (That was the position of Hafez al Assad (former President of Syria) wherein he too stated that he would rather cut off his hand than shake the hand of Jews.) During the opening ceremonies the Saudi King stated that he would not go through the same main entrance, IF the Jewish delegation also was allowed to enter through that main passage. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice accommodated the Saudis by having the Israelis enter through a service door, otherwise used by servants. To the shame of Olmert, he accepted the Rice-Saudi insult and entered as a servant or known in Arabic as a "Dhimmi" or lowly person. This was NOT reported in the Hebrew Media. In a news editorial in the prestigious Wall St. Journal (1), an editorial was printed entitled "The Saudis New PR Man" by Dan Senor, a well known foreign policy advisor to the Bush Administration. (He is no longer in that position.) We are informed by Senor that Olmert lobbied presidential candidates and members of Congress that their skepticism about the possibility of Annapolis succeeding was misplaced. (He became the "pitchman" for Rice, Bush, the Saudis and thus, the title of "The Saudis’ New PR Man". We are further informed by Senor that the Israeli Press Corps was kicked outside during a press event wherein, under Rice Protocol, the Arab League foreign ministers were to be interviewed by the Press Corps which presumably included all the American and European Media. The Israeli Press Corps were made to stand outside in the rain to cover the story as best they could. Although, no doubt, the Israeli journalist reported this grossly unpardonable insult, the Hebrew Media in Israel chose not to inform the Israeli public.

[khnyny]

Condi Rice could have been a concert pianist if she so chose, but she decided on a different path. Gifted, would be the word to describe the Sectary of State.

[kalee]

see my post 34 forgive the formatting.

[Arthur McGowan]

The high point of literacy in America was reached at the BEGINNING of the age of the Government School. The Government School was introduced to America for the purpose of REDUCING the level of literacy in America. The Government Schools are a resounding success. They are accomplishing what they were designed to do: create an illiterate, ignorant, fornicating Mass American, who would be amenable to being herded into factories and to the battlefield.

My eyes glaze over anytime I hear any politician, no matter how “conservative,” promising to “fix” the Government Schools. They ARE NOT BROKEN. They are functioning PERFECTLY. They are accomplishing PRECISELY what they have been DESIGNED to accomplish.

[weegee]

What was the great Library of Alexandria compared to this?

What was the Library of Alexandria compared to the Internet? Exclusive. It was also vulnerable to a despotic attack by Islamic tyrants.

With the world of knowledge at your fingertips, people turn to their vices rather than seek to better themselves. Instant gratification. Don't earn the money to buy some leisure; just download that song/new movie. Don't woo a girl, just spam out "hi theres" to young women on a social network and if their rejections seem too much, just discretely get some porn. When that gets old watch some reruns and laugh at some jokes. Who can concentrate on reading Asimov's books on science when you can read his books on ROBOTS instead? Why learn the laws of science when you can learn the laws of ROBOTS?

[FoxInSocks]

Books I just bought yesterday . . .

That's quite an assortment. I'll have to remember to ask you next week how they were.

[Arthur McGowan]

I lost interest in Condi during her speech in 2004(?) at the Repub Convention, in which she described how her grandfather switched religions in order to get a scholarship to college—and that’s why her family have been “devout whatevers ever since.” What kind of cynicism is that?