Hobbies. Leisure Time. Бекерова Е.А - 18 стр.

       Because of the society's growing apathy for reading, the number               Moreover, reading of relevant materials avails us the opportunity
of 'non-academic' visitors to our libraries has, over the years,              to fairly assess our condition, make comparisons, and come out seeing
drastically reduced. This dearth of reading culture has contributed a lot     our problems as very minor and thanking God in the process. For
to our collective stagnation as a people. We tend to see things from          example, a nagging wife who reads Isidore Okphe who's novel, "The
very myopic, sentimental and even outrightly uncivilised points of            Victims", would transform to a good housewife and thank God for not
view. This, perhaps, explains why we no longer appreciate the good            letting her into the shoes of Nwabunor, Ogugua, and all other such
virtue of putting ourselves last and others first when such need arises. It   characters and their plights that combine to make the story a tragic one.
further explains why our national aspiration of establishing a strong,        In the same vein, reading George Orwell's "Animal Farm" could also
virile, independent nation continues to elude us. At the local level,         make a society to tread softly, the path of instigated rebellion against
inherited values of good neighbourliness, courage, honesty, and               constituted authorities because their supposed messiahs may turn out to
industry are grossly discarded and in their place selfishness, laziness,      be their evil predators.
insincerity, and sycophancy become the order of the day. This is
because it is an established fact that reading of high quality materials             Reading also has the potential of bringing oat the best in us by
helps in moulding, in a positive way, the character trait of children and     making us to be creative. Readers have the natural tendency of seeing
to some extent, redirecting that of adults.                                   their favorite writers as role models thus wanting to become like them.
                                                                              This ignites the urge in the individual to write in the characteristic style
       Lyon and Chhabra (1996) opine that, "It is common knowledge            of his own role model. Writing is said to be one percent inspiration and
that reading is the fulcrum of academics, the pivotal ability that            99 percent perspiration. Thus an individual gets inspired by the works
stabilizes and leverages children's opportunities to learn and to become      of others and makes all the sacrifices to produce a unique work of his
reflective, independent learners." A child who grows up in an                 own. This makes the society become an ocean of valuable ideas.
environment where the reading culture is alive and kicking, grows up                 Another benefit of reading as a hobby is that, far more than other
to, in majority of cases, become a fully enlightened, broadminded,            pastimes, it develops one's intellectual capacity and understanding of
socially balanced, culturally aware, and philosophically outstanding          hitherto, strange things. Reading a good travelogue, for example, gives
individual. Such individuals are, of course, the assets any country           one an insight into the lifestyle of people in other countries, continents
needs to attain greatness.                                                    and even creatures in other planets. The knowledge of their culture,
                                                                              religion and climatic conditions makes one to appreciate why they
       Furthermore, reading is a good way of chasing away boredom.            dress in a particular way, why they eat a particular kind of food, why
This is because engaging oneself in reading of a well-written book,           they engage in a particular kind of trade among many other 'whys'.
piece, biography, play, poem, etc., could effectively divorce him from        Thus unlike, the unenlightened individual, he does not bring himself to
any unpleasant realities of life that may be bedeviling him at any point      blindly copy the life style of others. Consequently, he becomes proud
in time. Any person who makes reading a hobby would readily attest to         of his own culture and becomes ready to claim his nationality with all
the fact that when he lays his hands on an interesting story, he finds        its peculiarities; and without any unjustifiable negative feeling of
himself so carried away that he doesn't even remember that it is time         inferiority. It also enables one to get acquainted with the meanings and
for lunch! Now if reading could divorce one from a reality like hunger,       usage of several words and phrases. This aids the individual's
the issue of boredom is certainly a minimal one.


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