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No Spanish reading crisis?

commonreader.co.uk

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Re: No Spanish reading crisis?

#81

Post by christkv »

schnitzelstoat wrote: post #45

It's not uncommon to see people (and young people) reading on public transport here in Spain. The odd thing is how popular actual paper books are vs. e-readers. Since I got my Kindle in 2015 I haven't read a paper book since. That said, I find it odd that people assume that reading a book is always higher quality than reading the internet etc. - many books are pretty low quality. And if we look at stuff like the PISA…

I´ve ended up switching back to paper for half of my reading. Kids prefer paper for reading to. Kindle goes with me on vacation when I don´t want to drag around 2-3 kilos of paper (Reading chunky history books at the moment).

Re: No Spanish reading crisis?

#82

Post by [deleted] »

Telemakhos wrote: post #77
toolslive wrote: post #14

> Democracy is safe in Spain! iirc, The Prince from Machiavelli is required reading during secondary education. That will surely awaken their political awareness.

It was required when I was a student in American schools. I don't think it really had much to do with democracy, though. I suppose there are lessons that you could generalize to any state, like "don't hire mercenaries," but I wouldn't say that it gave lessons especially relevant to either Athenian style democracy or to the mixed constitutions called "democracies" from the late eighteenth century to the present.

[deleted]

Re: No Spanish reading crisis?

#83

Post by sophacles »

bcjdjsndon wrote: post #55
esseph wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Though I find most fiction doesn't age well in any medium. What a crazy take! > Appreciating it often requires social context I don't really have time to learn. ???? > And many fictional works from the past are chock full of racism, sexism, irrational social phobias, etc I have some news for you. That stuff has lasted for as long as humans have existed, and will continue to exist as long as humans do. It is intrins…

> Though I find most fiction doesn't age well in any medium Shakespeare is so old it's now undecipherable to any English speaker without a cliffnotes explaining it all.... for instance

Nah, if you spend a few minutes understanding one, the rest are easy.

Re: No Spanish reading crisis?

#85

Post by bojan »

schnitzelstoat wrote: post #45

It's not uncommon to see people (and young people) reading on public transport here in Spain. The odd thing is how popular actual paper books are vs. e-readers. Since I got my Kindle in 2015 I haven't read a paper book since. That said, I find it odd that people assume that reading a book is always higher quality than reading the internet etc. - many books are pretty low quality. And if we look at stuff like the PISA…

I wonder if this is the reason Spain resisted the advent of far right for so long, compared to its European counterparts.

Re: No Spanish reading crisis?

#86

Post by otherme123 »

toolslive wrote: post #49
otherme123 wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The Prince from Machiavelli is required In Spain? Never heard of that, and would not make sense. An italian author writting about politics in Florence?

I have some Spanish ex-co-workers. I just verified it. They both had it on their required reading list in high-school. (one of them is in his 30s, the other in his 40s)

As a born, raised and currently living in Spain, I had never heard that. We have plenty of classical author required in high school: Cervantes, Quevedo, Benavente, Bécquer, Machado, Lorca, Pérez Galdós... Most modern and cool teachers also recommend contemporary authors like Ana María Matute, García Marquez or Jordi Sierra i Fabra. The foreign author most recommended has to be Roah Dahl, Michael Ende, Jules Verne or Exupéry.

I never heard of anybody who has read Machiavelli, Shakespeare, Tolstoi, Dante or any other "advanced" foreign author in high school.

There are some links with some "obligatory readings" for high school: https://www.edu.xunta.gal/centros/ieslamascastelo/system/fil..., https://www.educa2.madrid.org/web/lengua-castellana-y-litera... http://iesparquegoya.es/files/lengua/Libros%20de%20Lectura%2... or https://iesalgarb.es/wp-content/uploads/sites/25/2023/07/1.-... (first links when I search "lecturas recomendadas ESO") where you will find exactly one non-spanish writting author: Ray Bradbury's 451. A spicy teacher, for sure.

Maybe your coworkers read The Prince, but that is not a general recommendation or even something you heard from time to time.

Re: No Spanish reading crisis?

#87

Post by pessimizer »

bojan wrote: post #85
schnitzelstoat wrote: post #45

It's not uncommon to see people (and young people) reading on public transport here in Spain. The odd thing is how popular actual paper books are vs. e-readers. Since I got my Kindle in 2015 I haven't read a paper book since. That said, I find it odd that people assume that reading a book is always higher quality than reading the internet etc. - many books are pretty low quality. And if we look at stuff like the PISA…

I wonder if this is the reason Spain resisted the advent of far right for so long, compared to its European counterparts.

The Spanish Civil War would like to have a word with you, but maybe Franco is part of "the resistance" now.

Re: No Spanish reading crisis?

#88

Post by pessimizer »

lbrito wrote: post #76
schnitzelstoat wrote: post #45

It's not uncommon to see people (and young people) reading on public transport here in Spain. The odd thing is how popular actual paper books are vs. e-readers. Since I got my Kindle in 2015 I haven't read a paper book since. That said, I find it odd that people assume that reading a book is always higher quality than reading the internet etc. - many books are pretty low quality. And if we look at stuff like the PISA…

>That said, I find it odd that people assume that reading a book is always higher quality than reading the internet etc. - many books are pretty low quality. That's a weird take. The internet has basically no barriers. Book publishing, with all of its many flaws, does. Anyone can technically self publish a book, but the odds that you'll find someone on the subway reading it are small. So odds are the book you see peo…

No, the vast majority of published books are (and have always been) an insult to trees.

Re: No Spanish reading crisis?

#89

Post by pessimizer »

rapind wrote: post #58
brainwad wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's a book, though? I suppose people would at least count a traditional e-book. Does long-form fanfic count? How about a book-length website? What about one that was originally published as a book and then republished online?

I think it's obvious enough without getting into the weeds like this unless their sample size is unreasonably small. E-book yes obviously counts. For the rest, like fanfic? Probably, but does it matter here? Is this actually going to move the needle?

Be cool if they would research that, instead of asking rhetorical questions and assuming that none of it matters and everything is "obvious."

I think it's just people being snooty. Bestsellers are trash, and by definition a plurality of readers are reading them. I don't think someone who reads Gladwell has any greater cognitive power than somebody who reads twitter.

Re: No Spanish reading crisis?

#90

Post by sebastiennight »

schnitzelstoat wrote: post #45

It's not uncommon to see people (and young people) reading on public transport here in Spain. The odd thing is how popular actual paper books are vs. e-readers. Since I got my Kindle in 2015 I haven't read a paper book since. That said, I find it odd that people assume that reading a book is always higher quality than reading the internet etc. - many books are pretty low quality. And if we look at stuff like the PISA…

> That said, I find it odd that people assume that reading a book is always higher quality than reading the internet etc. - many books are pretty low quality.

You've received several answers on the "quality" side due to books being harder to create, but I'll cover two more arguments:

1. Nobody's "reading the internet" anymore, especially not on their phones. They're mindlessly scrolling short-form video, either muted or blasting them really loud with no headphones, if my experience of Spanish subway is accurate.

2. Even if all books were just printed directly from random internet pages, and there was zero difference in quality, it would be a huge step-up to go from reading one internet page at a time, to focusing on the same content for 200+ pages in a row. There is huge value in giving ourselves the longer attention span.

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