Can’t read books..

Recently I was disheartened on reading an article provocative

That cited the inability of elite college students to give

Enough attention to a book to read it in its entirety

This is a significant change from prior generations unfortunately

Whereas reading short articles and summaries is fine

Reading a book cover to cover daunting they find..

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Of course the students are no less smart than were before

The problem has to be with systematic learning therefore

When most of the learning happens online

Where updated information in minutes one can find

There seems no incentive to read a complete book

Where one has to spend hours in order to look

For information pertinent to one’s scholarly needs

Thus contemporary students are less inclined to search for books and read..

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Great books continue to be written

And for someone like me who was by the bug of reading bitten

At a young age, thousands of books I have read

My curiosity about the world great books have fed

And increased my capacity to imbibe information new

Encouraging a love for reading from a young age is what I want to do

For all the children out there including mine

So that in college and beyond, they continue to find

New ideas that their curiosity pique

And encourage them to form opinions unique

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As I wax poetic about reading books I realize

With artificial intelligence aided learning on the rise

Reading books might appear to have utility even less

The thought fills me with indescribable sadness…