Is reading for everyone?

Hello everyone!!! I’m thrilled, I’ve just finished school! Yay! No more boring classes or stupid homework, I’m free for 3 months! =)

I have realized I can’t really post as much as I’d like, because my head doesn’t let me, and my time doesn’t either. So I proposed myself to write, if not twice a week, once, which I believe is the most I can do. I hope you’re not too disappointed, though.

Well, for today’s post:

A few days ago I went with some friends to a bookstore near my school. They don’t like reading that much, while I am a total book dork, as Roni would say. I was showimg them “Endless world” by Ken Follet (you know, that bestseller with more than 1400 pages) and they, opening their eyes wide, bewildered, asked me if I would really read that. I answered ‘Yeah, wouldn’t you?’. So that started me thinking. I don’t sincerely believe everyone likes reading, for there are plenty of people, in particular young people, who can’t even stand the thought of it, and that is due to the variety of people, the diversity of opinions and likes, and the difference from one another (which, I believe, makes the world a better place). But I wonder, nevertheless: how can they live without reading? I know I couldn’t.

That made me think about a world without books (sure, hell for me). How would that be? I can’t even imagine… I know that kind of world would be totally uninteresting for me –even though there are other things I like besides reading- but I realize it is one of the things I enjoy doing the most, and I sure couldn’t live without it.

So what do you think? How would a world without books be? And, better still, what would it mean to you? How would you manage to survive? Come on, comment, tell me your opinion.

Typing vs writing

I was looking at David's blog and reading a post he made about the fun of writing [See the whole post here], and a particular topic called my attention.

He mentioned that old-fashioned writers wrote in paper, and modern ones typed, but that he felt more like a writer and less like a typist when he wrote by hand. That started me thinking.

When I write by hand, I make arrows, graphs, drawings, etc. If you saw my scrapbooks, you would see a scribbled sea of little spiders, one on top of the other, a giant knot of black pencil (I hate writing by pen, but I love my black pencil). When I type, I cannot do this, of course, but I have other resources: I can get ideas, look for unknown words, find names or characters, etc. through google.

Personally, I write by hand, on a notebook or just on any scrap piece of paper, and when I am happy with my first draft, I copy it on the computer. That’s the moment when I start looking for stuff with my bestest friend, google. I may look for a name’s meaning, some geographical information, or maybe for a writing prompt to keep on writing. I believe that writing by hand doesn’t make you more a writer than typing, but it makes you feel (at least I do) that your creation is more yours, because instead of being written in Arial 12, it is written in your personal writing.

So what do you think? Is a writer less a writer because of writing on a computer? What do you prefer when writing?