Reading and Writing

READING

There is nothing that irritates me more than when people say "Reading is stupid and I don't need it!" I may be showing my true colors here but I cannot fathom how someone can say "reading is lame." You need to be able to read to get through life! You want to know what is even more lame than reading? Living like a hobo!

Seriously this morning while I was watering the flowers outside I couldn't help but overhear the two teenage boys who call themselves neighbors screaming drunkenly how reading is lame and how after high school they  won't be needin' to read no mo'!

Are you freaking kidding me? You need to be able to read street signs if you are driving somewhere. You need to be able to read a menu if you go out to a restaurant. You need to be able to read "beach closed" signs so you don't jump into shark infested waters!

This is incredibly sad based on the fact that there are probably thousands of people out there like my neighbors who think reading is a waste of time. This means that there will be a huge number of uneducated kids turning into adults very soon. Scary thought.

It is true that some books you are not going to like. I'm not a huge fan of John Steinbeck's work. However that does not mean that I don't appreciate his talent for writing or respect the hard work and dedication that went into each of his novels. But just because you dislike one book that does not mean reading is useless or lame, it just means you haven't found a book you like yet. And if you are unable to find one book that you like then you are not looking hard enough or are just a hopeless case who's goal in life is to say YOLO as much as humanly possible.

Granted, there are some books which will not benefit your reading skills, such as Fifty Shades of Grey. However if that is the one book you choose to love with every inch of your mighty heart then good for you. As long as you don't make a shrine dedicated to Christian Grey or start telling people that he is your lover boy because that is where you will run into problems down the line.

 In conclusion, reading is not lame and it is stupid for people to say that it is and look down on others who enjoy reading. Just because you dislike something that does not make it lame or a waste of time. If you are a person out there who thinks reading is lame my advice to you is to quit choosing to be stupid and read a book!



WRITING

One thing that I have found out in these last couple of weeks is that some authors don't really write their own work yet take credit for other peoples words and become famous for doing so. That is horrible and I have absolutely no respect for people who do this and will choose to never read any of "their" writing as long as I live. One author in particular that I would like to point out is  James Patterson. Now I knew there was no possible way this guy wrote all of his novels. He comes out with one practically once every two week!
http://www.express.co.uk/entertainment/books/380231/James-Patterson-the-best-seller-who-doesn-t-write-his-own-books
In my opinion to be an author you have to write your own books, not simply write an outline and then "embellish" the work of another author. No. That is cheating and I am appalled by such things!

The only time that this is acceptable is if an author dies halfway through writing his or her novel or dies before his or her series can be completed. That is the only exception, nothing else.

However to all of the ghostwriter's out there I give you major credit and a big high five. You deserve more praise than you get. I actually read a lot of Nancy Drew in middle school and in 6th grade I learned that all of the novels were ghost written. But the thing is you can tell the novels were all written by a different person (NOT Carolyn Keene, she doesn't exist!) but that didn't make them any less fun to read. Ghostwriters need to make a living too and what I liked about Nancy Drew is that nobody tried to hide the fact that Carolyn Keene was just a pseudonym.