Proust and the Squid How important is type of reading material to brain connectivity ( health )? By Maryanne Wolf
“Proust and the Squid”
How important is type of reading material
to brain connectivity ( health )?
By Maryanne Wolf
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I realize this subject may not be directly related to Literary Classics.
However , do you think reading the classics has a more beneficial effect on brain connectivity ( health), than, comics, ,audio, kindel, other digital media, fiction vs nonfiction, popular fiction ( nonclassic) vs literary classics
( written book text)?
The issue is the importance, of reading
quality material, on brain health and possibly aging.
You can read classics in audio and ebook format – genre and format are two different things.
@Leslie Indeed. The reason I got an e-reader was to read classics that I could download free from Project Gutenberg, Internet Archive, and other sites. Specifically, I wanted to read The Romance of Leonardo da Vinci by Dmitri Merezhkovsky, but the best scanned version on Internet Archive at the time was almost 800 pages. I’d practically gone permanently cross-eyed trying to read The Death of the Gods online and that was somewhat less than half the length of the next book in the trilogy, so I needed something I could take with me that wouldn’t cause that kind of eye strain.
@Kevin Yeah – I read all kinds of books (including classics) in all formats. Some, like Middlemarch and Huckleberry Finn, I have only ever read (and I’m not putting that in quotes since there are a lot of people who don’t think audio counts as reading) on audio.
That’s why I don’t get *this* particular question. You can’t “compare” classics “to” audio or ebooks any more than you can compare romantic comedies (movies) to DVDs.
I’m sure smarter people than me have done research on this but I imagine it depends strongly on the person. For example, if I’m reading classic literature as “an escape” or if I’m reading it as research for my own writing. I think different people are going to retain different aspects of the writing.
I’d say you are pretty darn smart with this highly logical response~
Why thanks ?
The author has been added to title.
I feel the diet for brain health is same as for the body…well balanced and exercised is usually best. Don’t be afraid to change the channel from time to time.
I read everything, including cereal boxes! As a kid, I LOVED comic books and read them all. We had a swap club, started because our parents would never give us money to buy comics, and we had to use our hard-earned allowances to purchase them. They did not ruin my mind, as predicted, since I always got perfect scores on the standardized reading tests! The comics are still the first pages I turn to every day.
Your mind may view the comic as text.
No, frankly I don’t. Plasticity is an important part of brain development, but the idea that classics specifically would result in better brain activity than anything else strikes me as more than a little implausible. By the same token, I don’t think format matters. Though listening and reading obviously exercise different senses, the language processing task is the same for both. Only decoding is bypassed and, barring problems like dyslexia, most of us plateau as decoders in our pre-teen years. And I don’t see any difference between reading on an e-reader and reading a physical book at all because both decoding and language processing are present in each.
There is evidence of the benefits of reading in general, and also of the benefits of doing logic puzzles, crosswords, sudoku, cryptograms, and like word and numbers puzzles, but I don’t think it particularly matters what type of reading you do if your goal is to maintain mental sharpness and focus.
That said, classics have an advantage over some other books in honing reading comprehension, improving vocabulary, developing analytical skills, etc. — basically, all the reasons they’re taught in high school — but I don’t think that results in major changes at the organic level of brain structure or function, but I’m willing to see evidence if there is.
Read the book
I can’t speak to the physical health of the brain, yet I can speak to emotional well being and determination.
I only read books that – even if they are mysteries – are infused with, well, kindness for want of a better
This book is from. a Prof at Tufts.
@Kathy
@Kathy, a valuable topic
word; or humanity, humor, and friendship. (Martha Grimes, Craig Johnson, John LeCarre) And that means I’m mostly re-reading.
Yet even within this group, while I find Dickens very companionable; Tolstoy who is not my first choice of a companion (I’m afraid he’d be very critical of me ) leaves me in the frame of mind to really roll up my sleeves and accomplish something of value .
Does this ring true for anyone else? And if so, which authors are your friends and companions, and who are the ones who challenge you to do something with your life ?