"A book is like a garden carried in the pocket" [Chinese Proverb]

Read a good book this month?

Or an interesting article?

How about an empowering sentence?

Or maybe just a cool word?

Congratulations!

You do not belong to the 1 in 5 people over the age of 15 who are functionally illiterate!

"We read to know we are not alone."

C.S. Lewis

I remember learning to read for the first time in a squat grey primary school tucked away in the fold of a hill in a tiny village in North Wales. I was a bit dim-witted. I had huge problems deciphering the code. Later on I would learn that the school had been experimenting with some new-fangled reading system that chose to ignore the orthography of the English language and replaced it with a Shavian alternative.

No wonder I suffered!

But I am one of the lucky ones.

I learned to read ...

when I was still a child.

Over 780 million adults in the world are illiterate.

When I was at school it was always the girls that enjoyed reading more than the boys.

64% of the world's illiterate are women.

I devoured first Enid Blyton and then, when I was eleven, progressed to Agatha Christie.

I swam in an ocean of books.

A recent study (included in the Handbook of Early Literacy Research, Vol. 2, edited by Susan Neuman and David Dickinson) shows that while in middle income neighborhoods the ratio of books per child is 13 to 1, in low-income neighborhoods in the USA the ratio is 1 age-appropriate book for every 300 children.

I applied for a passport when I was 18 and left Wales to visit Germany.

Reading is necessary to understand a binding contract or a legal processes.

I didn't get pregnant before I wanted to because I knew about birth control.

If women can read about birth control they are able to control their own fertility.

I have been through some ups and downs in my life but at least I have always been able to forget the world for a while with a good book.

"A library is a hospital for the mind."

Anonymous

Sometimes when I look at my sagging shelves I have to admit that I am a book junkie. But a lot of the books I have read seem like friends. They have given me inspiration to think new thoughts and try on new identities.

"When you sell a man a book you don't sell him just 12 ounces of paper and ink and glue - you sell him a whole new life."

Christopher Morley

Very often I get totally frustrated and think to myself: "Look at all those books you've read. And how much do you remember? Zilch!"

"Never discourage anyone...who continually makes progress, no matter how slow."

Plato

Oh well, I can't be such a bad person! I might indulge in the occasional revenge fantasy now and again but I've never actually resorted to inflicting physical harm on anybody.

"Education is a vaccine for violence."

Edward James Olmos

And I've always had a weak spot for poetry.

"To feel most beautifully alive means to be reading something beautiful, ready always to apprehend in the flow of language the sudden flash of poetry."

Gaston Bachelard

Some people might assume that reading is not the sexiest of pastimes.

"Everyone probably thinks that I'm a raving nymphomaniac, that I have an insatiable sexual appetite, when the truth is I'd rather read a book." ^-

Madonna (1991)

And some hint that it is more rewarding and healthier to keep a pet.

"Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read." GrouchoMarx^-

But some dead French poets have been known to disagree.

"To learn to read is to light a fire; every syllable that is spelled out is a spark."

Victor Hugo^-

Even some dead American psychologists.

"So it is with children who learn to read fluently and well: They begin to take flight into whole new worlds as effortlessly as young birds take to the sky."

William James

So what is the real story here?

Most modern high-paying jobs require the ability to read and write. And to communicate to anyone over any distance, whether an employer or a pen-pal, a person must have a basic level of literacy, or that effort will fail.

And this isn't a new phenomenon

"Reading maketh a full man, conference a ready man, and writing an exact man." Sir Francis Bacon (1561 - 1626)

My 8-year old son Dylan wants to become an astronaut when he grows up. He can read English and German. He might be one of lucky ones!

"I'm sure we would not have had men on the Moon if it had not been for Wells and Verne and the people who write about this and made people think about it. I'm rather proud of the fact that I know several astronauts who became astronauts through reading my books." Arthur C. Clarke (1917 - ), Address to US Congress, 1975

How do most American kids begin the journey to literacy?

"The more you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you'll go."

Dr Seuss

And America's greatest children's film-maker agreed with him

"There is more treasure in books than in all the pirate's loot on Treasure Island.

Walt Disney

But wait a minute! Can everybody get their hands on the pirate's loot?

I did and you did, but remember ....

Over 780 million adults in the world are illiterate.

Recently I came across a great site - The Literacy Site. By clicking on it once a day, you can help provide children with books. This site is totally legit. It's a sister site to The Hunger Site and you can go to the links below to see that it is no hoax. The site lives from the sponsors who pay for the privilege of placing their ads there.

I am a bit of a lazy s*d (I mean person) but I do a lot of clicking on the Internet. One more click a day isn't going to hurt me (they have an email service that sends you a reminder!) Imagine contributing in some way to help a child learn to read! My friend Marion did just that. She left a well-paying job here in Hamburg, Germany and went back to her home in South Africa to teach an Adult Literacy course (OK she is a bit mad and idealistic - I might be the first but, unfortunately, I am certainly not the second)

Give it a try folks and see what you think!

"I must say that I find television very educational. The minute somebody turns it on, I go to the library and read a book."

Groucho Marx