The Problem and Its Background
Introduction
It is a well-known fact that when there were no televisions or computers, reading was a primary leisure activity. People would spend hours reading book and travel to lands far away in their minds. Reading can widen our horizon. Beyond doubt, knowledge can be gained from from reading. It gives us a bigger picture of the world and would help us be at par with other countries. Libraries can promote the importance of reading but the tragedy is when the people including the students would prefer to go to different malls than to visit the school library or the public library. Nowadays, the students have lost their skills and passion to read because there are many other exciting and thrilling options available, aside from books. Reading helps in mental development and is known to stimulate the muscles of the eyes. It is also an activity that involves greater levels of concentration and adds to the conversational skills of the reader. It is an indulgence that enhances the knowledge acquired, consistently. The habit of reading also helps readers to decode new words and phrases that could come across in everyday conversations. It is a big help to stay in touch with contemporary writers as well as those from the days of yore and makes us sensitive to global issues. Most of the developed countries believed that one of the foundations of a certain nation is the passion of the
2 people to read. According to the Public Library Service Group of Singapore, “Reading is a key to igniting the cycle of innovation and creativity.”1 To give emphasis to the importance of reading to innovations or inventions, the researcher would like to look back to the history of the world. The age of the great inventions was in the 18th century and this was the century of Europe.2 Without reading, it is impossible to
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