While I was writing an email on reading, I thought of someone’s reading. That someone used to read a lot on teenage girl, which I thought it too trashy to read. How much can you learn from teenage girl stories? I have emphasized reading classics and educational material instead of pure entertainment. Later one instance changed my view.

That someone once described to me how bratty and obnoxious some of the teenage girls are. She was talking about some characters in books she had read. She talked about the problem teenagers with disgust and obvious objection. Through reading she has come to understand how much miseries and sufferings these teenagers have brought upon their parents. Reading makes her think and reflect upon her own behavior, and in a way helps her see clearly what kind of behavior she should avoid and what kind of person she should become. Isn’t that wonderful?

To be sure, writing is an intellectual activity, so is reading. That is, you will benefit tremendously if you can engage in active dialogue with the author and think while read.

As Francis Bacon once said, “Reading makes a full man.”  I would add reading plus thinking make a full woman.  Without thinking, I don’t know how much benefit one can reap from reading.

By the way, this is my experience yesterday.  Too nice not to mention here.  Yesterday’s monitors, 10/16/2008, were obviously very understanding. They saw how challenging our task was. They went out for lunch and came back with a box of deluxe cookies for me.  This is the first time that the monitor has ever done this.

Contrary to Flannery O’Connor’s “A Good Man Is Hard to Find,” I do occasionally find some at work, from outside office to be exact.