Does reading a book make us happier? (BBC)

[eppur_se_muova]

Public libraries face an uncertain future but the value of reading is irreplaceable, says Joan Bakewell in her A Point of View column.

I was returning a library book last week. It had been important in some research I was doing so I sought to renew it. "No, I'm afraid it's in demand by someone else," came the reply.

A book first published in 1964 was still needed. I'm not surprised. Many books last a lifetime and go on being read. Then, on the library counter, I noticed printouts from our local newspaper. The headline was a question - Libraries slashed? - it asked.
***
And things are bad across the country. Buckinghamshire is said to be considering closing among others the Great Missenden library, inspiration for Roald Dahl's Matilda, who read library books. He would be appalled.
***
My defence should not be seen as the attempt merely to rescue a small building in a particular borough, or any other particular places threatened with closure. Rather it is a rallying call for the concept of free libraries. In our culture the library stands as tall and as significant as a parish church or the finest cathedral. It goes back to the times when ideas first began to circulate in the known world. I worry where wisdom will come from.

I am a major consumer of information on the internet. I know that academics and students access information there more quickly and more specifically than they can faced with a shelf load of books. But it's not that relationship I'm concerned about.
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more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-11797998




Written in response to library budgets being slashed in the UK's "austerity measures", this should feel all too familiar to those in the US who have seen their own local libraries squeezed (even suffocated) by budget cuts brought on by the Bu**sh** Depression.

[no_hypocrisy]

1. I love books and I love libraries.

Like public education, libraries allow for minds to develop and are a necessary part of any community.

[alterfurz]

2. "Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend...

...inside of a dog, it's too dark to read!" -- Groucho Marx

[struggle4progress]

3. not everything is on the internet

and the internet is more fragile and volatile than libraries

[justinaforjustice]

4. And Libraries Provide Access to the Internet For the Otherwise Unconnected!

Growing up, there were very few books in our house. All the books I read, and I must have gone through thousands from the age to five up, were given me through my local library. That library was the source of thousands of hours of pleasure and learning.

Today, for the millions of people who don't have their own computers or internet access, they provide not only books but access to the fantastic repository of information which is the world wide web.

We have to keep our libraries open and connected!

[Blue_Tires]

5. a GOOD book, sure...

[awoke_in_2003]

6. the PTB...

are not only destroying education, but they are working hard to cut off access to free information. They want a stupid populace- not just in this country but everywhere.