Encyclopedias, Dictionarys, Thesaurus Exist ??

When the last time you honestly opened up a dictionary and looked up the definition of word? How about the last time you actually used an encyclopedia to find information for a project? Or here's one, how bout using a thesaurus when your trying to improve the quality of your writing? All great questions, but really gets me is how did this all happen?
I remember growing up, teachers would take the time to use things like dictionarys, encyclopedias and maybe even a thesaurus. But now whenever we need to find out the definition of word, find out facts for a report, or when find a better word for perhaps food, you know what we do? We use the all mighty internet to get our answers. Instead of cracking open a book we go straight to our web browser.
Now simply because we have websites such as Dictionary.com, Google.com, Ask.com, the list goes on and on, there's no reason to look up things in a book. So why bother opening up a book and putting in a little effort. When all we got to do is type what were looking for in our web browser and within seconds we have what were looking for.

Scared to Read...

Well it looks like its that time of year again, a time when we intentionally seek new thrilling ways to scare ourselves. Whether it be curling up on the couch with the typical bowl of popcorn, a blanket, lights down low, a couple of friends and you  watching the endless classic horror film marathons. Even going out to Halloween parties, haunted houses/ hay rides, reading books etc...      

In addition, as many people know some of the most popular horror films were based off books. The film director would take a popular horror fiction and make a movie out of it. But unfortunately, like in most movies,some of the key parts are left out of the film or in some cases even altered. The different alternate endings and added love stories added to appeal to the audience but take away the thrill of the story.

Although what makes this different is the fact that while reading a book your visualizing what happening page by page. It's almost as if your there and you have no clue what's going to happen next until you turn to the next page. The detail in which things are described are horrific, breathtaking and chilling.

Now a days it seems as though many people are far more interestd in watching that scary movie . They have forgotten the thrill of reading a a classic horror story such as Dracula, IT, Frankenstein and many more. People much rather bore there eyes on endless tv, but remember where many of your movies come from.

Popularity Contest

Often times when writing the writer themselves tends to pick and write toward some general audiences including teens, adults, and children. But it seems in recent times pop culture has broken those groups even further down by their growing common interests, dislikes, opinions, thoughts etc... The very things that help to characterize people themselves are what writers are using toward their benefit.
Furthermore, since those three   basic audiences no longer exist there are now sub groups for teen fantasy romance dealing with the ever so popular forbidden human and vampire/werewolf love ties, children picture books have turned into the more fast track advanced books, and adults now have more serious life self help books.
It's just when you look at some of the most prestigious writers of our times like Charles Dickinson and Mark Twain. Their works are now being compared to novels like Twilight or Harry Potter. But truth be told those fantasy novels only have popularity not morals and ethics of the classic like Huckleberry Finn or the Odyssey books around for over thousands of years.
It's become more of a popularity contest, writers writing about the ever so desired fantasy love triangles it wizards novels. But in the end the classics will forever remain despite the onslaught popularity authors such as Stephanie Meyer and JK Rowling  have received. We will see whose story is really just a story for today and whose story is one of a lifetime.

Why read???

Through out history people have questioned the importance of reading and even writing. Common questions like what makes reading so important or why do we have to write? Ever since were old enough to walk we are read to, and taught how to read, count to three..the basics. These questions have pondered the minds of many but if you really think about it if we couldn't read then we wouldn't know when to stop at a stop sign cause we wouldn't know what it said. There be no newspapers so people wouldn't know what's going on in the world. We couldn't read menus at restaurants, the list is endless! Everywhere we go we are constantly reading but imagine if we didn't write. These are the things that separate us from other species, are ability to communicate with others. We take reading and writing for granted when there are those who do not know how to do either. It's a privilege that we confuse with as an annoyance. Our world history has been written down through the years and read repeatedly by many. If we couldn't read, history would be lost, books would be useless, everything would change. So why read?