Reading

The award-winning novelist and social critic Marilynne Robinson has turned the focus of her literary intelligence on to the first book of the Bible. Genesis, the foundational imaginative text of western culture, has permeated our art and literature, as well as shaping a whole understanding of life, including politics. Its stories remain at once compelling and mystifying. Some of the stories, most obviously that of a great flood, resemble others from Mesopotamia, such as the Epic of Gilgamesh and the Enuma Elish, but…

Dr. Laurie Gauger talks with students in her Speech Pathology Language Disorders class. Credit: Betsy Brzezinski One of life's greatest pastimes may be settling in with a terrific book. In honor of March's National Reading Month, Laurie Gauger, Ph.D., an assistant clinical professor of speech, language, and hearing sciences at the University of Florida College of Public Health and Health Professions and director of the UF…

The effect of the intervention on educational outcomes of pupils (KS2 Scores and Progress) and absences presented as an event study. Blue points and bars are the lead school years and the red points and bars are the lag school years. Credit: Economics Letters (2024). DOI: 10.1016/j.econlet.2024.111614 Researchers from Newcastle University have identified a link between reducing the stigma of poverty in schools and the reading…

When I see a woman read, I see guilty pleasure. When I see a woman read, I see guts and the ability to defy the subtle subtext, put the world aside, and just read.When I see a woman read, it takes me back to afternoons in Jamshedpur. To my mother, a voracious reader, bringing out her bag of books, reading one Mills and Boon after another. Afternoons were her time- we three kids knew to our peril, that this was a space we must not encroach on. It seemed to last forever- our mother was unavailable to us. Looking back, I…

Siri is Apple's most public AI tool for now. Maria Diaz/ZDNETBilingual families are very common in the US, where about 20% of families speak more than one language at home. My husband and I are native Spanish speakers, and our three children are all native English speakers and active Spanish deniers. Two languages make texting in Spanglish inevitable, but Siri is finally catching up with iOS 17.4.The latest iOS update allows Siri to read your messages in any supported language. Imagine you and your best friend text in…

As World Book Day runs its annual event to promote reading for pleasure among children, it has revealed new research showing that more than a third of children cannot choose what they want to read, and one in five feel judged for what they do read.“Children have told us that they think that reading choices are judged by the adults around them,” said Cassie Chadderton, CEO of World Book Day. “It discourages them, it puts them off reading for pleasure and by choice”.The survey of 1,000 7- to 14-year-olds in the UK –…

Many avid readers fondly recall their childhood days and the first books that ignited their love for reading. For some it was Pippi Longstocking, while for others it was Matilda. Sadly, as we move further into the 21st century, there are far less readers – children prefer tablet games over fairytales. This decline has a stark effect on their academic achievements as well. Brooke Hughes, an elementary school teacher, noticed this decline and found the most creative – and fluffy – way to boost her students’ grades.More…

In an extended dialogue between Marilynne Robinson and Barack Obama, published a few years ago in the New York Review of Books, Obama homes in on the dimension of Robinson’s writing that makes her so unusual as a 21st-century literary figure. “You’re a novelist,” he observes, “but you’re also – can I call you a theologian? Does that sound, like, too stuffy? You care a lot about Christian thought.”This could be described as something of an understatement. Robinson wears her faith on the sleeves of most of her books. In the…

A bill seeking to make the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) an independent agency of the federal government has passed a second reading at the Senate. The bill was jointly sponsored by Adetokunbo Abiru (APC, Lagos East) and 41 other senators. The amendment bill was read the second time at the Senate on Thursday. Proposals The bill also proposed to amend section 63 of the NDIC Act, 2023 to make the corporation more effective, safeguard its independence and autonomy and bring it in line with current…

Another manual for a sound system was written in font so tiny I ran to find my reading glasses, until I realised I was already wearing my glasses, and I still couldn’t read the bloody thing. A third, for an air-conditioning unit, contained the phrase “PMV control”, and if I have to plough through acronyms just to get some cool air, then thank you very much, I’ll stay hot.Then there are the manuals from products I may or may not have purchased from slightly shonky websites overseas. I am not criticising the writers; I…