Reading
That's reading as in what you do with written or printed words to get their meaning, not Reading, the town in Berkshire. I learned to read at my mother's knee. I had pneumonia shortly before my fifth birthday so didn't get to school til much later that term. Mum had been a primary school teacher before she had me, so she got out the old primers and taught me to read. I have been grateful to her for that ever since.
What wasn't brilliant was the primers. They were the original Janet and John* books. Exercises in simple words, simple vocabulary and simple sentences. Example: "Look, John (or Janet), look! See the puppy! See the puppy jump! Look, John, see the puppy jump!" I found the repetition tedious, though I can see how it might help build the confidence of a learner reader - much in the same way as those bolt-on training wheels boost the confidence of a similarly aged learner on a bicycle!
There were several Janet and John books, the vocabulary got slightly more difficult - heck, they even included the word 'aeroplane'. The sentence construction and breathless enthusiasm didn't alter. I was relieved to be allowed to pass on to 'real books'. These, naturally enough, included various series by Enid Blyton. There was a book with the Saucepan Man, there was the Magic Faraway Tree, there were even a couple of Secret Seven 'adventure's - except they never adventured much more than the club meeting, with biscuits. There was Noddy - though that came under the heading Books Mum Read to Me rather than Books I Read for Myself. And there were the Adventure books - Mountain of Adventure, Island of Adventure, and, of course The Famous Five. They were on the shelves of the local library.
I gather it has become fashionable to criticise Ms Blyton's works for being so similar, churned out, restricted in vocabulary, restricted in plot and sexist - see Anne in The Famous Five, or George for that matter. She, apparently, was 'nearly as good as a boy'! Hmmm, points probably valid but - for beginner readers repetition, restricted vocabulary and similarity all go to encourage them that they are actually reading whole books. 'Adventure' plots also help encourage them to keep reading. They'll move on to other books in time. The 'sexism' is of the time. Heck, Dickens is sexist too. No-one criticises him for it. Do they?
Come to think of it, Dickens is also somewhat formulaic. Go read several of his works, Dear Reader, and see whether you agree with me. Preferably not straight after Ms Blyton's best efforts though! You need to work up to Dickens, though it really isn't as hard as all that. Particularly if you are au fait with Victorian (melo)dramas and have somewhat of an understanding of the social system. If you don't it's a great place to start learning.
But that's the whole point, you start off with the dullness and repetition of Janet and John, or Biff and Chip, or whomever, and before you know it you can be transported into the Victorian era as seen by Dickens, or Trollope, or Wilkie Collins, or Charlotte Bronte or one of her sisters. Or you could visit the gentility of the late Georgian era with Jane Austen, or even earlier with Daniel Defoe. Should you wish to venture abroad there are the seventeenth century adventures of The Three Musketeers (and sequels), or Dumas' other semi-historical adventures.
You could stick with French authors and, via Jules Verne, end up in fin-de-siecle Sci-Fi - so much more than merely Around the World in Eighty Days and Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea. Thence to English Sci-Fi with H. G. Wells, think The War of The Worlds, The First Men on the Moon, etc. If you love a high Adventure then there are always the tales of H. Rider Haggard. Not merely She, Ayesha and King Solomon's Mine, though you'll probably need to scour the stock rooms of your local library, the back catalogue of Collins Classics or the back rooms of real secondhand book shops for them.
Should you love sea tales then there is C. S. Forester's Horation Hornblower, so memorably played by Ioan Gruffydd and others, so sadly curtailed as a TV series. Others have set other men in similar situations, which could be a problem for the feminist reader. But, honestly, for much of history there hasn't been much for women outside of marriage, family and housekeeping - mind you, some have done great things with that - see the Bronte sisters works for starters.
Should you be more interested in fact than fiction then the printed (whether on paper or screen) world is your oyster, and an oyster with many pearls to discover. I'll leave you to discover them, Dear Reader, there's a heck of a lot 'out there'.
Should you veer towards erotica then there's Defoe's Moll Flanders, Nabikov's Lolita, and many shades of Purple Prose from every era, most of them better written than the much duller sounding Fifty Shades of Grey, or its sequel.
And when you've read a lot of other things, there's always Discworld®, all forty volumes of it, plus spin-offs. Pratchett is best read with a prior knowledge of folklore, fairy stories, Shakespeare, engineering, and goodness knows what else. There's even, apparently, a final novel coming out this autumn.
So there you are, Dear Reader, learn to read, get out there and enjoy. The plots are better, the pictures certainly better, than TV or films, and whether you use paper books or an electronic Reader, there are squillions just waiting to be discovered. Fiction or Fact, it's a great way to increase your learning.
Y'all have a good, and literate, day now!
*The Janet and John Learn-to-Read series was updated recently. I don't know whether the style changed much, or if they got over excited about jumping puppies as before! I do know the pictures were modernised.
What wasn't brilliant was the primers. They were the original Janet and John* books. Exercises in simple words, simple vocabulary and simple sentences. Example: "Look, John (or Janet), look! See the puppy! See the puppy jump! Look, John, see the puppy jump!" I found the repetition tedious, though I can see how it might help build the confidence of a learner reader - much in the same way as those bolt-on training wheels boost the confidence of a similarly aged learner on a bicycle!
There were several Janet and John books, the vocabulary got slightly more difficult - heck, they even included the word 'aeroplane'. The sentence construction and breathless enthusiasm didn't alter. I was relieved to be allowed to pass on to 'real books'. These, naturally enough, included various series by Enid Blyton. There was a book with the Saucepan Man, there was the Magic Faraway Tree, there were even a couple of Secret Seven 'adventure's - except they never adventured much more than the club meeting, with biscuits. There was Noddy - though that came under the heading Books Mum Read to Me rather than Books I Read for Myself. And there were the Adventure books - Mountain of Adventure, Island of Adventure, and, of course The Famous Five. They were on the shelves of the local library.
I gather it has become fashionable to criticise Ms Blyton's works for being so similar, churned out, restricted in vocabulary, restricted in plot and sexist - see Anne in The Famous Five, or George for that matter. She, apparently, was 'nearly as good as a boy'! Hmmm, points probably valid but - for beginner readers repetition, restricted vocabulary and similarity all go to encourage them that they are actually reading whole books. 'Adventure' plots also help encourage them to keep reading. They'll move on to other books in time. The 'sexism' is of the time. Heck, Dickens is sexist too. No-one criticises him for it. Do they?
Come to think of it, Dickens is also somewhat formulaic. Go read several of his works, Dear Reader, and see whether you agree with me. Preferably not straight after Ms Blyton's best efforts though! You need to work up to Dickens, though it really isn't as hard as all that. Particularly if you are au fait with Victorian (melo)dramas and have somewhat of an understanding of the social system. If you don't it's a great place to start learning.
But that's the whole point, you start off with the dullness and repetition of Janet and John, or Biff and Chip, or whomever, and before you know it you can be transported into the Victorian era as seen by Dickens, or Trollope, or Wilkie Collins, or Charlotte Bronte or one of her sisters. Or you could visit the gentility of the late Georgian era with Jane Austen, or even earlier with Daniel Defoe. Should you wish to venture abroad there are the seventeenth century adventures of The Three Musketeers (and sequels), or Dumas' other semi-historical adventures.
You could stick with French authors and, via Jules Verne, end up in fin-de-siecle Sci-Fi - so much more than merely Around the World in Eighty Days and Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea. Thence to English Sci-Fi with H. G. Wells, think The War of The Worlds, The First Men on the Moon, etc. If you love a high Adventure then there are always the tales of H. Rider Haggard. Not merely She, Ayesha and King Solomon's Mine, though you'll probably need to scour the stock rooms of your local library, the back catalogue of Collins Classics or the back rooms of real secondhand book shops for them.
Should you love sea tales then there is C. S. Forester's Horation Hornblower, so memorably played by Ioan Gruffydd and others, so sadly curtailed as a TV series. Others have set other men in similar situations, which could be a problem for the feminist reader. But, honestly, for much of history there hasn't been much for women outside of marriage, family and housekeeping - mind you, some have done great things with that - see the Bronte sisters works for starters.
Should you be more interested in fact than fiction then the printed (whether on paper or screen) world is your oyster, and an oyster with many pearls to discover. I'll leave you to discover them, Dear Reader, there's a heck of a lot 'out there'.
Should you veer towards erotica then there's Defoe's Moll Flanders, Nabikov's Lolita, and many shades of Purple Prose from every era, most of them better written than the much duller sounding Fifty Shades of Grey, or its sequel.
And when you've read a lot of other things, there's always Discworld®, all forty volumes of it, plus spin-offs. Pratchett is best read with a prior knowledge of folklore, fairy stories, Shakespeare, engineering, and goodness knows what else. There's even, apparently, a final novel coming out this autumn.
So there you are, Dear Reader, learn to read, get out there and enjoy. The plots are better, the pictures certainly better, than TV or films, and whether you use paper books or an electronic Reader, there are squillions just waiting to be discovered. Fiction or Fact, it's a great way to increase your learning.
Y'all have a good, and literate, day now!
*The Janet and John Learn-to-Read series was updated recently. I don't know whether the style changed much, or if they got over excited about jumping puppies as before! I do know the pictures were modernised.