Lately, I have been watching and reading anything I can get my hands on that has to do with Camelot. I don't know what it is about that particular era but I just can't get enough of it. I seriously wish that I could have lived during those times (provided that I was a lady in a noble family, because being a servant back then probably sucked). I can only imagine what it must have been like to live in a castle. Of course, TV and books totally over dramatize this period, and definitely amp up the romance. I mean, in all honesty if I DID live back then, I probably would have already been married off to some middle aged lord and popped out like three or four kids by now if I was lucky enough to live that long. I think what really makes the Camelot legend special for me is the magic and adventure.
I have always thought that life would have been so much more special with magic, and I have always been an avid reader of fantasy novels. I think that Camelot stories have just the right mixture of bravery, romance, chivalry, adventure, and magic. I think that if I lived in a Camelot legend, I would be an enchantress. Simply because I have always dreamed about having magic and what I would do with it; how I would use it. I think that is what makes fantasy novels so special. They make you imagine and dream. So many people have avidly read the Lord of the Rings trilogy, and many more will. I have always been a reader. I read The Hobbit for the first time when I was eight. And I read about two to three books a week. I tend to think that reading not only fills me with a sense of joy and adventure, but also keeps my mind sharp.
When I think about how so many things (video games, television, and the like) have displaced reading as a past time, it makes me sad. Most children don't read for pleasure anymore. I can't even imagine what my childhood would have been like without the magic of books and reading. I am the person I am because I love to read. My life has been blessed with so much adventure thanks to all the authors who sat down and shared their imagination with the world. I can't even put to words how grateful I am to authors like Tolkien And Gail Carson Levine. So, when children denounce reading as boring, I almost feel like they are attacking me personally.
When I am a mother, I am going to be sure that I instill a love of reading into my children, as I believe all parents have a responsibility to do so. Reading not gives children advantages in school and in the academic world, but it also helps them develop a strong sense of imagination, one that will stay with them all their lives. How can parents think it is okay for their children to sit in front of the television all day? How can they not push for their children to read? I see the inability or the failure to instill a love of reading in one's children as a parents' greatest mistake.
I am not saying that video games and television should be shunned from the lives of children, I just think that things like that have a time and a place. They should never, under any circumstances, replace reading. Not when reading is so valuable to the lives and minds of everyone.
I have always thought that life would have been so much more special with magic, and I have always been an avid reader of fantasy novels. I think that Camelot stories have just the right mixture of bravery, romance, chivalry, adventure, and magic. I think that if I lived in a Camelot legend, I would be an enchantress. Simply because I have always dreamed about having magic and what I would do with it; how I would use it. I think that is what makes fantasy novels so special. They make you imagine and dream. So many people have avidly read the Lord of the Rings trilogy, and many more will. I have always been a reader. I read The Hobbit for the first time when I was eight. And I read about two to three books a week. I tend to think that reading not only fills me with a sense of joy and adventure, but also keeps my mind sharp.
When I think about how so many things (video games, television, and the like) have displaced reading as a past time, it makes me sad. Most children don't read for pleasure anymore. I can't even imagine what my childhood would have been like without the magic of books and reading. I am the person I am because I love to read. My life has been blessed with so much adventure thanks to all the authors who sat down and shared their imagination with the world. I can't even put to words how grateful I am to authors like Tolkien And Gail Carson Levine. So, when children denounce reading as boring, I almost feel like they are attacking me personally.
When I am a mother, I am going to be sure that I instill a love of reading into my children, as I believe all parents have a responsibility to do so. Reading not gives children advantages in school and in the academic world, but it also helps them develop a strong sense of imagination, one that will stay with them all their lives. How can parents think it is okay for their children to sit in front of the television all day? How can they not push for their children to read? I see the inability or the failure to instill a love of reading in one's children as a parents' greatest mistake.
I am not saying that video games and television should be shunned from the lives of children, I just think that things like that have a time and a place. They should never, under any circumstances, replace reading. Not when reading is so valuable to the lives and minds of everyone.