Gerald Graff's Essay Disliking Books At An Early Age

In "Disliking Books" Gerald Graff informs the reader of his troubled childhood with literature. Like many students, Graff disliked reading books, and when he did read books, it would mainly be comic books and sports novels. He informs the reader that it was not until college where he fully began to appreciate literature. He pursued a major in English in order to push himself beyond wanting to read books of his personal leisure. And like many students, Graff struggled to read the dull, boring books, often giving up on reading them because they were too difficult. Graff became fascinated with reading when he had to write his term paper on the ending of "Huckleberry Finn", where he found fascination with reading the book and others like it. The main purpose of this narrative would be that anyone can learn to love literature. It just takes a topic like debating the ending of "Huckleberry Finn" to spark and interest in reading, like it did for

I can see Graff’s viewpoint on this subject and I actually do agree with it in many ways. Graff recalls a time in his adolescent years when he absolutely abhorred reading. He talks about how the only reading he did back then was when he read his sports magazines and sports novels written for boys. Graff says, that at the time, he believed himself to be a sort of anti-intellectual because of his behavior towards the more classical approaches to learning. I know this is not a totally

Disliking Books is about the author Gerald Graff, and how he grows up really hating the idea of reading in general. He uses his fear of being bullied as his preliminary excuse for not reading when he was younger. When he gets older and goes to college, he uses his fear of failing as a way to force himself into reading the required material and homework for his English major. Even then he can’t quite relate to the texts and can’t fully engage in reading. Then, when he takes a class in his junior year he starts to learn about the interesting controversy involving The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain. The controversy states that the book really ends when the boys steal Jim, not when everyone realizes that Jim has already been freed.

He states that he never really liked books, besides sports readings, until he entered college. By using his own life example that he himself did not even like to read, Graff is showing that you can read and be academic without even realizing it. Like many other young boys, Graff was subjected to social pressures as a youth that made him think of reading and school as undesirable. Graff asserts that most people, like himself, do not realize that they do like reading to learn. It was not until later in his life that Graff realized that the reading he used to do as a kid was, “. . . not anti-intellectualism but intellectualism by other means” (260). In the era in which he grew up, Graff states that there was a large emphasis on being a physically tough person and not much emphasis was placed on academics. The most popular boys were the toughest and being tough was really the only way to gain street cred, according to Graff. He goes on to explain that it would seem that nobody grew up with a less intellectual background as him. Although this may appear true, Graff shows how the debate and analysis of sports teams, tough boys, cars and other subjects of young men were actually the foundations of his academic progress. In these years, Graff explains that in these days he learned the fundamentals of the academic world including forming and developing arguments, weigh evidence and jumping into conversations. He goes on to say, “Only later did it dawn on me that the sports world was more compelling than school because it was more intellectual than school, not less” (270). Graff goes on to explain how sports was full of, “. . . challenging arguments, debates, problems for analysis and intricate stats you could care about” (271). From here, Graff goes on to say that schools are far less appealing and intellectual than sports because sports satisfy us in a way school studies

Gerald Graff’s article, “Disliking Books” and Richard Rodriguez’s “Scholarship Boy” are similar and yet different in many ways. The two articles describe the journey of two boys from different backgrounds through various stages in their education.

There is a line of thinking out there that would lead a person to believe that everything is always as it appears – everything is on a nice straight plane. Look at the surface of the ocean, and all that needs to be seen is seen. This admittedly shallow line of thinking can lead to multitudes of problems, especially in the case of this class when looking at something like literature. That especially rings true when observing a novel like Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Parton, where a deeper meaning seethes out of every word in what originally looks to be a straightforward tale. This is particularly true in the all-important intercalary chapters of the book, as they provide a break from the main plot and an aside into something different

Graff shares with us his personal experiences on how reading intellectually converted him from being street smart to book smart. Graff now urges colleges and schools to teach students the importance of reading intellectually as well as writing. "If I am right, then schools and colleges are missing an opportunity when they do not encourage students to take their nonacademic interests as objects of academic study. It is self defeating to decline to introduce any text or subject that figures to engage students who will otherwise tune out academic work entirely" (Graff, 270). By this, Gerald Graff means schools should encourage students to take their areas of interest and apply them to their education. All in hopes that students will one day feel comfortable enough to step outside

It is agreed that if an author is stating his assertion to a topic, then he should incorporate what the opposing view has to say; therefore, without the other view he writes nothing but fallacies. However, in Gurdon’s case she offers support from the other side allowing them to state their claim. She recognizes the use of first person in these particular YA books, permitting the reader to take on the “persona of the narrator” (Gurdon 2). Then, she detects the claim of the book industry writing that “kids have a right to read whatever they want” and that “the world is a tough place; and that there’s no point shielding children from reality” (Gurdon 3). Refuting this assertion she calls out the incorrect logic of the claim stating that in other words the authority adults have over the content children absorb should “somehow vaporize when it comes in contact with the printed word” (Gurdon 3). The things children read teach them what to presume about the world around them, and that “books don’t just cater to tastes. They form tastes” (Gurdon 4). Subsequently, she offers her proposal that people associated with the publication of books would “exercise better taste” (Gurdon 2) than that of every teen experience. The comprehension of Gurdon’s claim becomes clearer after integrating the opposing view and using it to support her

In Francine Prose’s “I Know Why the Caged Bird Cannot Read: How American High School Students Learn to Loathe Literature”, the author is trying to explain why high school students are not asked to read more quality pieces of literature now a days. In my opinion I agree with Prose because I think the texts we read in high school are not challenging and not a lot of students enjoy the readings because they cannot relate. Prose uses the rhetorical strategy of degrading the books high school students are reading and she uses her own personal experiences to support her argument.

“The Lonely, Good Company of Books” by Richard Rodriguez, is an expressive narration about the importance of learning through reading. The essay is a narration of his life from his early school years to high school and how he struggled with the general belief that reading books are the main source of education. “Open the doors of your mind with books” (172) he quotes from a poster over his teacher’s desk. He learned early on that books were the key to academic success. Even though his bilingual parents never read for pleasure, they instilled in him the value of books. This idea was repeated by his teachers that reading was the main activity of learning.

Today, no one seems to give much value of literary works or reading. Not because it doesn’t give anything beneficiary, but because not everyone had the urged to at least finish a book. We now live in a world where social medias almost dominates our daily activities. It’s unlikely to have a place for us to consume a non-fiction or fiction book. As absurd as it sounds but that’s how people often think. We now live in an egalitarian society, where everyone is given the freedom and right of its own.

"Reading a text as pure description of an object, and undertaken to mechanically memorize the discrimination, it is neither real reading nor does it result in the knowledge of the object to which the text refers" (Freire 284). When a teacher gives a reading assignment, the students that read to memorize the text likely do not gain the significance of what that literary work contextually attempted to deliver, nor is it necessarily understood by the reader. If a student was really taught the significance and meaning of the text instead of mechanically memorizing it, the student should have better outcomes both with gaining the insight of the assignment and the memorization of key points. Mechanistically

The Educated Imagination discusses major ideas that answer the question “what good is the study of literature?”. Frye does so by discussing concepts such as the desire of humans to connect to nature, the conformity to conventions and deviation from reality in literature, and the ideal manner in which literature should be taught. Northrop Frye’s The Educated Imagination proposes the idea that through the consumption of literature, the individual is able to develop an imagination which allows him to connect to society from an educated perspective.

One of the first things that this author would do is to teach students how to make connections while reading. When students make personal connections with what they are reading by using their prior knowledge, it helps them to retain information. There are three main types of connections we make while reading text; we can make connections to what we are reading and our own experiences in life, we can make connections from one book to another (like reading a Nancy Drew book and reading a Trixie Belden book), and we can make connections to what we are reading and things that are going on in the world around us. By helping Jose learn to make connections while he reads, Jose will be able to more readily remember what he has read and make sense of it (Comprehension Strategies, n.d.).

The Premature Obituary of the Book: Why Literature is an essay written by Mario Vargas Llosa. In this essay Llosa writes that it is crucial for literature to be a part of people’s lives. In Why Literature he writes that reading is important for the mind, communication, and developing knowledge about life and democratic ideals. Reading is not only important for one’s self but for the world. Just as he mentioned in his quote, it’s not just about the leaf, or the person, but its about seeing the world in different ways and being able to experience and gain knowledge on all subjects. Through his writing he gives many valid points as to why reading literature is important to people of all ages and genders all around the world. Llosa’s persuasive essay is relatable and can get readers thinking about the importance of reading by using many valid points in his essay. Llosa presents his reading to many different audiences and he effectively persuades the audience through his points given in the reading. He does this because he wants the reader to understand why it is necessary for people to learn and experience new things through reading literature and other texts.