No wonder more people are reading
IT was pleasing to read that more people were taking up reading.
I suspect maybe a great percentage have always enjoyed reading, but have increased activity in this pastime as terrestrial TV has nothing to offer, with most of the channels more politically induced - I suspect their persuasions may be their downfall.
In their attempts to provide a proportional representation of diversity, most appear to have gone over the top and causing declines in their viewing figures, on which the commercial stations depend for advertising.
I barely watch my TV now, although into my sixth decade, with an open mind. I find a majority of the programmes insulting, not to mention cheap and nasty, that they have to constantly plug these programmes with an impression to bully viewers to watch.
In the evening i enjoy doing the pastimes of my youth, such as philately, steam engines and bats, the mammal kind, along with making sure to read for at least a couple of hours, with an array of books from the classics to the latest novels.
I come from an era where reading was one of the mainstays of our entertainment, when TV programmes did not have to show all the sex, perversion and gore to up ratings, where people used their imagination, which today is hardly used.
Whatever happened to the watershed which prevented children seeing unsuitable adult material?
Getting back to books, the lockdowns have given me a chance to broaden the subject matter, from fiction to fact, from biographies to romance. Reading books and newspapers means that you don’t have to worry about the battery running out or the power going off.
I do hope that those who have taken up reading as another alternative will continue to enjoy it, as trashy TV lives for a moment, whereas classic books are immortal.
Tony Morris Carlton older ladies). The other day someone was telling me a tale: A man (Archie) wanted his wife murdered for a pound. She’d be in the supermarket at lunchtime wearing a yellow coat and blue hat,
The man went to do the deed, but there were two women dressed the same.
Next day’s headlines in the paper: Archiechokes Two for a pound.
Could be a script from Eastenders.
Eastenders and other soaps need to take notes from Clive and Amanda Owen and their nine children on their farm in Our Yorkshire Farm, These programmes always make you happy: no swearing, no shouting, no violence – just happy families.
Lots of families like that still exist. We don’t need to keep seeing unhappy scripts.
Jean Taylor Basford