On The Importance Of Reading Gioia Summary

Gioia identifies all that is at stake in a world where reading is obsolete in his essay On the Importance of Reading. He paints imagery to show the comparisons of readers and non readers as well as the affects literacy and illiteracy have on the world. Gioia asserts his opinions on why reading is losing the battle of popularity. According to Gioia a person who reads is civic-minded, active, empathic, and imaginative. Gioia expresses the opposite benefits are true of illiterate or semi literate people they lead passive lives, are less likely to volunteer, and less imaginative. Among all of these benefits of reading Gioia identifies, he writes in depth about empathy gained through reading. I also feel one of the greatest benefits of reading

is all the empathy gained from the knowledge plastered on pages. The ability to empathize does not come from reading alone but literature definitely broadens our empathy vastly.
Gioia’s essay On the Importance of Reading is a cry for awareness, a call to stand against an ever growing norm. In America the amount of people reading has declined, reading is no longer a popular pastime in a world forever changing. Gioia writes ,“What you see for the first time in American history is that less than half of the U.S. adult American population is reading literature”(421). Challenged by electronics and televisions, reading has begun to noticeably lose in popularity. Gioia points this out when he writes, “we are now surrounded by a great welter of electronic alternatives to reading”(423). Proficient reading is no longer the norm, as reading is no longer “literary reading”(421) which is what Gioia describes as imaginative text. From my understanding reading imaginative text is just reading what is enjoyable. People in schools are being drilled to read things they don't enjoy which in turn makes reading feel more like a chore and a dull necessity. Youths are heavily affected by this ages ranging from teens to early thirties seeing as theses are the people in some set schooling. Gioia wrote “...we are not connecting reading with the expectation of pleasure and the sense that reading is a necessary component of a life of self-realization, of ­exploration of who you are and what your individual potential is” (423). It is easy to see why reading has fallen out of favor with youths, with school making reading dull and electronic beacons beckoning intriguingly.
I can attest that technology is a distraction to reading as I am a student who is often enticed by electronics. Of course, a phone or smart device is much more appealing than a book for an assigned reading that is mandatory. However, in the same light I can find things that I like to read. In fact I can find them on my technology base electronics. In my opinion Gioia is too biased with his beliefs when writing, he thinks that youths are plagued by technology and that is the only thing we see. We only see Pop Culture and neglect to indulge in the classical literature that he claims is enriching. I indulge in literature such as fanfiction or web based comics although it is not classical and may even be described as amateur it does enrich me. The more I read the vaster my vocabulary becomes, my imagination broadens and understanding of others increases. Gioia assumes that just because younger people enjoy modern entertainment that they are limited to it which is not true. Just because I enjoy top 40 hits and sports doesn't mean I can't get lost in the words of Maya Angelou.
Gioia leaves the impression on the reader that without reading the world is doomed.

He uses techniques like shock factors an hyperbole to cause a reaction in the reader to make change. Gioia explains things with statistics but he spreads a thick layer of bias on top. “There are now a few more non-readers than readers. If we allow the problem to get much worse, the better part of this cultural capacity for reading, imagination, civic engagement, and human enlargement will be irrecoverable” (423). This is a shocking claim and Gioia knows it, Gioia uses facts and statistics throughout his essay to gain a reaction from the masses. He is making a stand for rapid change, pick up a book, he screams in many words. Become the amazing person he describes as a reader become a literate literary lush. Gain empathy beyond your current capacity and leave the passive, uncivic, unimaginative, and culturally limited life behind you. Read and make this doomed world a literate and truly intellectual free society. Personally I don't feel that a lack of reading will cause doom to the world but I do feel that reading can be beneficial and often opens us up to so many

things.
I believe that reading can allow a person to learn and look through others eyes which in turn causes a person to become empathic.

With that empathy gained from reading a person would be more likely to be civic-minded, be active in their choices and actions, and of course reading creates imagination. Empathy is not created by reading, empathy is not only for the literate. The fact that a person does or does not hold the skills to understand text is not a determining factor in whether or not they can show compassion and understanding for another or a situation. However, I do feel that reading allows a person to broaden that innate empathy through literature and learn of others lives, predicaments and struggles that are not like their own. Being able to read helps expose a person to the diversity of new worlds where norms collide and rights are taken and given. Worlds where morals can grow and shift and beliefs can take hold and wilt or strengthen. All from the text in a book, on screen, or found on the page of a newspaper or magazine. “What literature does—nowhere more powerfully than in fiction (the novel and the short story)—is put us in the inner lives of other people in the dailyness of their psychological, social, economic, and imaginative existence. This makes us feel, more intensely probably than anything else, the reality of other points of view, of other lives”(Gioia 422). The following text is an example of an essay that causes readers to empathize and understand

what the character is going through as he feels like an outcast among others and yet is not alone because of the empathic nature of another.
There I was in a packed studio flat with the lights dim, faded glow sticks cluttering the floor, and solo cups being sloshed around. The pungent smell of beer and the overwhelming sensation of crowding engulfed me as I pressed myself against the wall. I was terrified and frustrated with myself for being so. My first chance to fit in with others and try to stop my destructive antisocial behavior and I'm too overwhelmed to move from this spot. My first real party I yearned to dance, talk, and maybe even flirt yet, here I was sweating through my shirt. I was once again being overlooked by my normal if not slightly inebriated peers. Already stuck in my head I unwillingly thought back to high school and how nothing had changed I was still the anxiety riddled dweeb I was back then. It was no surprise I wouldn't be acknowledgeable even in a room full of people. No one wants to befriend the guy who loses his voice due to overstimulation. Who could even try if they wanted to when I plaster myself to this wall and clamp my mouth shut. I closed my eyes trying to dissociate from my surroundings and calm down, I needed to leave or a scene would ensue. I took a deep breath and then felt a tap on my shoulder my eyes snapped open to find a boy looking down at me. I tried to choke up words but my throat wouldn't budge, my lips remained unopened, and voice unheard.
"You looked like you were trapped so I just thought maybe you we're having a panic attack and couldn’t step outside your head to get out the situation. I'm sorry if I'm off." he said holding his hands up as if to say he meant no harm.
"But I figured I rather make a fool of myself than leave you over here freaking out." The boy ended with uncertainty he scratched as his neck and shuffled his feet. His observations made me happy to be noticed and relieved to be sent help. I sighed and felt some of my panic ebb away. I tried my voice again and yet nothing but a strangled whimper graced my lips so I just nodded at him and reached out slowly for his arm. He smiled taking my hand instead. He navigated me through the crowd, out of the small apartment, finally escaping from the building into the cool night air. I gasped and released his hand but kept close to his side. I was safe now and not alone.
The paragraphs above are an example of a work that broadens a person's capacity for empathy. An essay like the aforementioned allows the reader to see what it's like for others they may know who don't fit into the status quo and have a hard time being in the crowd. These paragraphs leave the reader with a deeper comprehension of this situation. A broadened empathy and now the understanding to act on the this knowledge becoming an civic-minded person who may actively decide to protect another from ostracization. In other words this essay definitely leaves its audience with the benefits of reading and all that's encompassed by them.
Reading is important it is fundamental because of the importance it holds in society. Reading is what keeps us able to communicate and connect from one place to another from east coast to west and from past to future reading is the key to learning. I plan to carry on learning through reading, but, I plan to indulge in materials I enjoy such as Vogue and Time Magazine. I love fashion and the creativity it helps blossom with in me. I will read and learn do's and don'ts and gawk at the beautiful images that line Vogue magazine. Time magazine is an obvious contributor to current events and worldly news and will enrich me in the now that's fast paced and always changing. If I am to read a newspaper it most likely will be a local one like the Canton Repository or even the school paper that can be found around campus. I will be able to keep up on events coming to campus and happenings within my community so I can stay aware. Finally, I do enjoy books and the fan bases that come along with them. I am heavily influenced by my sibling, to read books she has read. At the moment I am most likely to read Fangirl a novel by Rainbow Rowell, yes that's her real name, it is a YA novel so it will be an easy read and my sister has highly recommends it to me. I also would like to read J. R. R.Tolkien's Lord of the Ring it is a massive fan base and I absolutely love the story and films from what I watched and heard so far I figure I should take the plunge into hobbit holes and experience the wonders of the world.
Gioia conveys a message that a world where reading is obsolete is a world doomed. He poses a picture of readers and non readers and how reading or lack thereof affect them. Gioia asserts his beliefs on literacy and illiteracy and the impact they have on the world. Gioia opinions while are not always agreeable with my own, his intentions however very much are, he just wants the world to read. Pick up that book and read grow and change with the words on the page feel what's been written and take away the gifts literature has to offer. Become a recipient of the gift of reading and gain understanding into worlds both vastly different and similar to our own. The ability to empathize does not come from reading alone but in my opinion literature definitely broadens our empathy vastly. Reading is the key to learning, loving, and living a life as a empathic literary lush.