Is reading overrated?

Question

I am a big advocate of the principle of the point of diminishing returns, and sometimes I feel that we have passed that point when it comes to advocating reading.
I also feel that reading is most effective when combined with other mediums. For instance, I was reading "The City and the Stars" by Arthur Clarke years ago, and one of the characters is a polyp. I had no idea what a polyp was, and the dictionary's definition wasn't much help (I had no access to internet at the time). If I had seen a polyp on television previously, I would have had a much better mental image of this imaginary character. The same thing could be said of references to songs, films, websites, advertisements, etc. What's your take on it?

Thank you for your well thought-out answers.

Answer 1

I dont think that Diminishing returns apply to reading at all. You always have the option of reading something else, and i am pretty sure you will get better things to read.
However, I too love reading. it takes me places which only Travelling programmes can do. However, reading has one more advantage, I meet many people and get close with their lives. I love reading.....

TW K

Answer 2

If it was an imaginary creature, you could IMAGINE what you wanted. Unless it was integral to the story, does it matter much? I am a big advocate of reading. Not simply as a teacher, but as someone who speaks from personal experience. I hated reading when I was growing up. I found books I like, and now read a book a week. You get better with practice... It also increases your vocabulary and can be a good outlet. Your mind can make special effects much better than the best movie could. Nothing is all inclusive, but reading is very important.

Answer 3

On the contrary, I think in this world of instant gratification reading can be underrated.

When you read, you travel to places you've never seen and meet people you've never met. You may see customs which are unfamiliar to you and societies you didn't know existed. You can explore entire worlds of imagination and glean information which never entered your sphere before. You can go back in time and meet heroes and heroines and find out what made them who they were. You may be able to understand what drove certain people to extraordinary levels of courage or to the pits of despair. You may find out what it took to make a deaf man compose beautiful music, a blind and deaf woman "see" and understand or a harassed man create beautiful art.

When you read, you have the ability to take a first row seat at the Battle of Gettysburg without possibility of injury. After you've viewed that battle, you can fly to a light and airy ball given during the Regency age in England.

When you read, you are taught lessons of import and perhaps learn how to avoid certain pitfalls in life that everyone must face. You are able to experience how disastrous one false step can be, while you view the final result of moral weakness or choosing wrong over right.

While you are able to enjoy people you'll never meet, places you'll never be and situations you'll never encounter, you'll also expand your vocabulary and increase your own level of imagination. "She walks in beauty like the night" will produce a picture and a feeling to a reader, while the person who doesn't read will see a simple collection of words.

Movies can give instant gratification, but the value of reading is infinite. Though you may forget the very plot of a movie in a year, a good book will always stay with you in one way or another.

End of preaching... :)

Answer 4

You came to the "Books and Authors" category to ask if reading is overrated, and now you want us to read your question and answer it in a format that must be read? Am I the only one who thinks that's funny?
On the contrary, I believe your question shows that you, not reading/writing, have reached a "point of diminishing returns." Alas, you put a lot of effort into writing this question, but I am getting very little out of it.

Answer 5

The great thing about reading is that can can often deduce the meaning of a word from the context. You can't do that in a show. Yeah a picture would have simplified things, but a book involves you more so you learn from it better.

Answer 6

Reading is absolutely not overrated at all. It's educational no matter what genre you read. It may teach you facts, life-lessons, history, etc. No matter what you're reading, you always learn a lesson from a book.

Reading is peaceful, it's something that sucks you away from the world. It, in my opinion, makes the world a better place. =)

Answer 7

Books are far more expressive than Movies and Television will ever hope to be. You can also go far more in depth with written stories, what characters are thinking, and the like, plus books are far more subtle.

Answer 8

I think if you read more, you'd have a bigger vocabulary and wouldn't need to be shown what a polyp is because you're mind would be able to produce the image for you.

Answer 9

Reading produces exponentially increasing returns. Many of our ideas are limited to our facility with language. Reading, reading /anything/ increases your facility with language; increases your vocabulary; increases the breadth and depth of ideas with which you can grapple. Television, on the other testicle, simply stunts your imagination and makes you a complacent drone.

Answer 10

No not at all. Reading gives me the peace that TV and other sources do not.
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They're, Their, There - Three Different Words.

Careful or you may wind up in my next novel.

Pax - C