Neil Gaiman On Why Libraries Are the Gates to the Future

Neil Gaiman spoke Monday for the Reading Agency's annual lecture series. His talk centered on the importance of libraries and of reading for pleasure. His talk was transcribed and posted by The Guardian. Quoting: "Fiction has two uses. Firstly, it's a gateway drug to reading. The drive to know what happens next, to want to turn the page, the need to keep going, even if it's hard, because someone's in trouble and you have to know how it's all going to end that's a very real drive. And it forces you to learn new words, to think new thoughts, to keep going. To discover that reading per se is pleasurable. Once you learn that, you're on the road to reading everything. And reading is key. ... The simplest way to make sure that we raise literate children is to teach them to read, and to show them that reading is a pleasurable activity. And that means, at its simplest, finding books that they enjoy, giving them access to those books, and letting them read them. I don't think there is such a thing as a bad book for children. Every now and again it becomes fashionable among some adults to point at a subset of children's books, a genre, perhaps, or an author, and to declare them bad books, books that children should be stopped from reading. ... It's tosh. It's snobbery and it's foolishness. There are no bad authors for children, that children like and want to read and seek out, because every child is different. They can find the stories they need to, and they bring themselves to stories. A hackneyed, worn-out idea isn't hackneyed and worn out to them. This is the first time the child has encountered it. Do not discourage children from reading because you feel they are reading the wrong thing. Fiction you do not like is a route to other books you may prefer. And not everyone has the same taste as you."

Comments

I am One Who Fiddles!

[AlphaWoIf_HK]

Don't read this... it is a curse...

In 1994, an adventurous young lad named Winston was frolicking about in his neighborhood and eventually discovered an ominous-looking building. Winston, being the fearless young lad that he was, decided to investigate the building with the hope that he'd discover something new and exciting all by himself. After wandering around the building for a period of time no longer than a few minutes, Winston came across an unblocked entrance that lead into a dark room; from his position, he could see that a small area in the middle of the room was illuminated by some sort of spotlight. Winston, feeling as if he was being drawn into the building, decided to head inside to see what this mysterious place had to offer.

Winston immediately began regretting his decision to enter the building as soon as he noticed numerous shady individuals surrounding the spotlight he had seen previously. In the spotlight, Winston saw a naked little boy that looked exactly like him; curious, he slowly approached the light. By the time Winston was no more than twenty feet away from his lookalike, he could tell that the boy in the spotlight did indeed look exactly like himself, and that the spotlight boy had his precious ass pointed up in the air. At this point, Winston noticed that had no body, and from that he surmised that the boy who resided in the middle of the spotlight was no imposter, but he himself!

Winston, now terror-struck, wondered how he could be viewing events while outside of his body, as if he were a ghost. The boy, being quite bright, quickly figured out that he was no ghost, but something along the lines of a disembodied perspective; an observer. Not only was Winston now little more than a perspective, but he could somehow feel what his body was experiencing. As question after question surfaced in Winston's mind, an entity that would make him dread his vacuous decision to enter this building appeared right behind his real body's bootyass. "What is that!?" Winston screamed to himself. Winston stared intently and discerned the entity's true nature; it was an ET doll, and it was moving of its own accord! Even a cursory glance of this enigmatic entity would be enough to tell one that it was malevolent by its very nature, and Winston, being a little boy, became absolutely terrified at the mere sight of it...

The misfortunate young boy then noticed that the shady individuals he'd took notice of when he entered the building began whispering to one another. "It's beginning. I can't wait!" said one shadowy figure. "A grand experiment is about to unfold; an experiment unlike any the world has ever seen before!" said another. Every last one of the shady figures were standing outside of the spotlight and were surrounding it, as if they were an audience to some event that was about to take place. The whispers came to a sudden halt when the ET doll began to move closer and closer to Winston's prized bootyass. It was at this point that poor little Winston realized that an experiment was taking place in this building, and that he was the test subject!

The ET doll drew near Winston's vulnerable little ass and stuck its hand up in the air. Winston, at this point, had already succumbed to trepidation, but he still attempted to stop the malicious entity from taking any further actions. Unfortunately, Winston, being a mere observer, could do nothing but watch in horror as the experiment unfolded before his very eyes! The ET doll began screaming "Ba la la la leh leh leh!" repeatedly, and not long after that was when it began to conduct the much-anticipated experiment. The malicious entity then began jabbing its hand into Winston's asshole while repeating that same phrase again and again. What followed was not pain, but excruciating ass tickle!

"It tickles! It tickles horribly!" Winston screamed in his mind. Winston tried his utmost to stop the evil doll from harming him any further, but he could not move a single cheek! The speed of the ET doll's movements quickly became faster than e