Fighting for Literature Amidst A Sea of Trash

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Just a simple piece of what's inside my mind right now - "If I ask a sixth grade about who Carlos P. Romulo is, will he/she give out a sensible answer?"

During these days it seems as if children, or should I say - the younger generation, is quite so much amused with the liberal flow of information that hugs them in this new age of the great Internet.

I noticed that my fifth-grade niece would answer her assignments using 'Google" instead of the encyclopedia. Well, basically, I can't blame her. The .001216567 seconds that it would take for her to get an answer from the big G is of a large difference as compared to the perhaps 2-3 hours (of searching through piles of pages) that using the encyclopedia snatches off from her time.

Perhaps Google is indeed, the universal encyclopedia now. . . And I'm guilty of using this tool too. But I am quite alarmed at how children nowadays deliberately depend on everything regarding their research and school-works to the Internet.

I mean, yeah, the web is much faster as typing and clicking will take just about a fraction of a second to accomplish while scanning and eye-searching will take about an hour or so - BUT - there is actually more danger in using the Internet as a source for academic projects than using books.

Information in the Internet can just go in and out. Whatever info that's glued on a web-page is not actually screened by ANY particular body or organization. Using the Internet as a source of information is solely upon the discretion of the user. The user is the one responsible to "filter" any information that he/she may snatch up from the Internet as either true or not, reliable or just downright fabricated. The thing is, children are also USERS of the Internet, but they don't have the proper skills yet to decipher whether something is indeed significant or trash.

In this particular sense, parents really do have to perform a very important role. I really do suggest that parents should supervise their children in terms of using the Internet.

And as much as possible, children, in their primary stages of education should USE published books. Books are really reliable as these printed papers have gone through a lot of editing before being published.

In addition to this, I think that children should be introduced more to classic books rather than to vampire stories and adult novels.

Gosh, do these kids even know how to locate books in the library? Use the Dewey Decimal System? Use library cards? Or do they even have one?

Just a final note: What will happen to the future of literature, if the world's REAL hope for the future don't even appreciate it?

Related articles

• Let's Do Dewey (mtsu.edu)

Book Review: The Broker by John Grisham

The Broker

Author: John Grisham

Released: January 11, 2005

I am not particularly a John Grisham fan. In fact, out of all his books, I have read only his "The Client" and "The Broker".

One thing that's very familiar with John Grisham's books is that all of them almost have the same first word in the title - "The". Example: The Summons, The Rainmaker, The Street Lawyer, The Brethren, The Firm, etc.

I don't know if it is one of his creative writing styles but I find it really redundant. Anyway, as far as I know John Grisham is a lawyer.

Now, so much for that short intro about the author. Let's get down to the main scoop of this post - a review of his work entitled - The Broker.

First Impressions

I never really intended to read this book. But, out of boredom, I simply managed to sneak through my aspiring-lawyer-brother's room and searched for a good read. My brother has lots of books, and I could tell that he reads those. But this one, a soft-bound, green-colored book stole my attention. He didn't read it! Well, I haven't really noticed it enough and I thought that he had read it, but the cover seems to be so "new". I got intrigued and I simply grabbed it and walked out of his room, now holding a "The Broker" book.

Plot

Note: Seriously, I hate laying out any plot. This is one part of a book review that I really dislike. I hate naming characters, sequencing what happens next, etc. etc. . . .

So, to make the story short, I will be very brief about the plot. Besides, what's the use of revealing everything out? I'd be killing the suspense. Go read the book and find out the whole story.

Truth be told, at first read - I never could understand the plot. The story starts in the oval office of a US President who is about to leave his position as a new one was recently elected. Then this President, along with his adviser and a CIA officer, decided to pardon Joel Backman. Joel is the principal character.

So how did the story go?

In a nutshell, the whole plot goes like this - - - (And this will be very, very, very brief..)

Joel Backman was pardoned by the president after being imprisoned for being involved in an issue which compromises the country's security. Joel Backman tried to sell an espionage software which is so much powerful and dangerous.

After being pardoned, he was deported to Italy where he struggled to adapt with the culture and learn the language. What Joel didn't know was that the CIA chief influenced the President to pardon him to see who kills him. In short, the CIA used Joel as a bait to find out who built the powerful espionage software involved.

To cut the long story short, Joel managed to survive and go back to his hometown and - of course, fix everything.

(Yeah, I know the way I presented the plot sucks - but I'm really not into summarizing everything, so please bear with me.) See wikipedia for the plot.

My Review:

Personally, I didn't like the book so much. The story was quite dragging for me. Almost half of the whole story only talked about how Joel managed to survive living in a foreign country (Italy) as a normal person whereas back home (US), he is someone powerful.

The love story part was not even highlighted that much. Perhaps Atty. Grisham isn't really into these kind of stuffs.

I read the pages as fast as I could because there was no excitement or whatsoever. Everyday in Joel Backman's life in Italy seemed to be so monotonous and boring.

However, upon reaching the last few chapters of the book - probably about one-fourth of the whole story - everything twisted. I loved the chase and disguise. Joel struggled to flee from his "handlers" and he was able to come back home in one piece.

Towards the end of the story, I got a little bit of an adrenaline rush - thinking of whether Joel will die or not. Did he die? It's for you to find out.

Unfortunately, the end of the story didn't really make me so much happy, but at the same time it also didn't make me so sad. In short, it was a so-so.

Perhaps a 3.5 out of 5 stars will do.

Moral:

One thing I've noticed; the moral of the story wasn't really evident. But upon reflecting about what happened to the life of Joel Backman, I've realized the subtle clues behind the story - that fame, money, and fortune aren't worth the price of family and freedom.

I want to hear your thoughts too. Answer my poll and leave some comments.

[polldaddy poll=5089315]

Oh, by the way, this title landed on the number one spot in the New York Times Bestseller list. At least, it topped the charts.

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• Book Discusson: The broker by John Grisham (alleganylibrarycollections.wordpress.com)

Books Aren't Just for Nerds

Have a craving for words?

Not everyone may be a bookworm, yet it will definitely not hurt if once in a while you drown yourself over literature's treasures rather than advancing another level on a video game.

Books are very important. Education never existed if it weren't for the written accounts of great men before us. Civilizations never flourished. Histories would have been forgotten. (Okay, I know you get the point, I don't have to push it.)

So if it happens that you don't LIKE books or even reading, it's about time to think twice. Although you don't have to make a major major change from who you are to a major major book nerd - you can at least read even just a couple of good books out there.

Printed or not? 

Although technology  has more or less substituted books with kindles and laptops, published contents are classics that couldn't be replaced no matter what. The advent of kindles nowadays has again revolutionized how people read and appreciate literary works and written contents. Well I don't have any problem with kindles, it's just that - I like reading more when I'm holding a book. For me, published materials are still better finds than contents flashed on a screen - plus, I hate getting dry eyes!

Book me up!

Truth be told, I'm not really a book-eater, bookworm, or whatever you call a person who reads a lot he can't even take a shower; I'm just a person who appreciates reading literary works and books about personality development. If you're like me, then perhaps you'll love to browse through my Books Category.

We read to learn. . . So learn to read!

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