Reader comments
The winners and the losers

I would like to echo a comment on this study made by someone else: Isn't is worth noting that 3 of 4 DID read a book?

What can people get from a book that they can't get from the internet other than convenience?

Developing a love of reading definitely is a winner. Reading is one of my passions. My house has bookshelves in every room. My children have their own books and bookshelves and each of them has developed a love of books and of reading. Not coincidentally, they are also excellent students. I have noticed that in the classroom, the kids that have access to books, the kids whose parents read to them, have a far easier time in school and a greater success rate than the children of those who never pick up a book, or read the newspaper or magazines. One of the most important things that you can do for your children is to read to them and for them to see you reading yourself. I have a friend who was illiterate- he could not read at all until his daughter was born. He learned to read so that he could read to her. What a difference it has made in his life. Even in this day of the internet and everything on TV, books continue to be important. Books develop the imagination, they take us to different times and places that we would never be able to travel to, they introduce us to worlds and creatures that we would not otherwise be able to discover and no, movies and television can't do the same thing for the mind that books can do. I have never watched a movie based on a book I have read that I have not been disappointed with. There is no comparison. If you love your children, read to them!