Better read then dead.

"They don't bloody read anything these days."

We are clearly not alone in Clermont Ferrand. 

Here is some throwaway data:

Reading for Pleasure

Teacher guided question to students: 

"What do you read?"

Student guarded answers to teacher: 

"I don't read. I don't like reading."

"I read l'Equipe (sports newspaper.)"

"I don't really like reading much."

"I never read."

"I never read."

"Ad infinitum."

Weird Student answer to teacher [2% of class]:

"I like Science Fiction."

"I love Harry Potter."

"I like Manga."

Outlandishly weird student answer to teacher [probably an Alien]:

"I like Wittgenstein."

Reading for Academic Purposes.

Student remark to teacher:

"I don't understand why I got a bad grade."

Teacher response to student:

"Did you read the instructions?"

Student answer to teacher:

"But it's all in English."

Teacher retort to student:

"But this IS an ENGLISH class."

Student reply:

"....mgrammggrrr........[mumbles something.]" 

Student goes off.

Teacher sighs.

Student writing for Academic Purposes.

Teacher question to student: 

"Did you write this yourself?"

Student response to teacher:

"Yes of course. I used Google translate."

Teacher comment to student:

"Ah, yes that is why you translated 'collant' with 'sticky'....

 The girl is not wearing stickies. They are tights."

Student response to teacher:

"Oh! But it took me a lot of time to type that."

Teacher response to student:

"....mmggrmmgrrr[mumbles something]"

Teacher goes off.

Student goes off.

Student writing for pleasure.

[No data.]

Remarks on data.

OK, so this data is clearly not representative of all groups of students everywhere and all that.

These are French undergraduate sport science students (except the Alien who was a maths student)in Clermont Ferrand [in France not very near Paris].

I am sure that we can find small pockets of geek participatory fan fiction fanatics somewhere hidden in the campus. 

I haven't come across this rare species to date.

It could be a research project.

Atlantic Data

I thought I had better go and find some more data. 

I thought the Pew Research Centre might provide me with some cool data.

I found an article in the Atlantic entitled "The Decline of the American Book Lover."

I recommend it. 

It is a cool read.

It has cool data.

Transatlantic Data

I thought about this with my colleague after reading or should I say listening to Terry Elliott in Kentucky raging.

Here is a link to his rage:

"Rage, rage, rage, beat, beat, beat, Soar..."

I love repetitive RAGE.

You can rage with him on hypothes.is

I added some David Bowie rage.

He is all the rage again now he is dead. (note cool graphic effect - very The Next Day):

"People are so fucking dumb. Nobody reads anymore, nobody goes out and looks and explores the society and culture they were brought up in. People have attention spans of five seconds and as much depth as a glass of water." David Bowie

I recommend you go and rage with David and Terry. 

They do it so well.

Books. Who needs them?

We were doing video projects the other day. 

One of the girls came in to show me a couple of videos that she had made to publicise a night-club.

She was really proud of her work. 

She had done both of them following the practice she had had in English class in video making.

Maybe we should give up crying over books or at least books with writing.

Do people cry about scrolls?

Do people cry about parchment?

I suppose they might.

It is sad.

I must not lack empathy for their predicament.

They might beat me with their scroll [and hidden truncheon].

That would hurt.

Better read then dead.

I thought of all the books that I had read.

I thought of all the books that I cherish.

I thought of all the books we took to the second hand shop.

I found another David Bowie raging quote (note cool graphic effect - which makes it illegible):

"I'm a real self-educated kind of guy. I read voraciously. Every book I ever bought, I have. I can't throw it away. It's physically impossible to leave my hand! Some of them are in warehouses. I've got a library that I keep the ones I really really like. I look around my library some nights and I do these terrible things to myself--I count up the books and think, how long I might have to live and think, 'F@#%k, I can't read two-thirds of these books.' It overwhelms me with sadness." --David Bowie, quoted in the Daily Beast in a 2002 interview with Bob Guccione, Jr. David Bowie

Not having a large library like David Bowie makes me less overwhelmed with sadness.

I am sad that David Bowie died.

I shall not need a warehouse.

That is my fate.

God Bless the Kindle.

What they eye doesn't see...