| dc.description.abstract |
Why do we read? This is actually one of the questions we don’t seem to need to answer or tend to
ignore the question altogether either knowingly or unconsciously. However,
without clear answers to this one question, one is very likely to run out of
purpose in terms of reading. After all, reading a lot does sound and look like
eating a lot. Generally speaking, with no clear-cut boundaries, we read for two
main purposes: to get information of some kind, or for pleasure. Reading daily
events in a newspaper, ingredients of a packed food, the final score of a football
match, the map of an underground, or the formal history of a country all provide
us with certain information for practical reasons. On the other hand, although
literary works might also be useful in getting information, pleasure is the main
purpose of reading literature. When we think of Greek tragedies, One Thousand
and One Nights from Arabic literature, or Shakespeare’s plays from British
literature, we can see that these works all filled a gap in social life by
entertaining people. In a way, literature was what television is today. Of course,
in the past, literature enjoyed better connotations than modern television. |
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