The book – a person's friend
The book – a person's friend
People can read different things: books, newspapers, magazines, Internet, e-books, recipes, timetables, manuals, dictionaries, textbooks, emails, letters... They read books in bed, before going to sleep, when sunbathing, when they are at home alone, in a train, bus, plane, during breaks at school, in a waiting room, on holiday etc.
There are several reasons for reading:
- it enriches our emotional life and imagination, it is a good way to escape from real life
- it forms our character, it increases our creativity
- it teaches us new things, we learn something new
- it is our best companion
- it enriches our vocabulary and improves our writing and spelling
- it improves our communication skills
- it can reduce our stress, it is a way of relaxation
- it improves our memory
We can divide literature into two groups: fiction – nonfiction.
FICTION: – about imaginary people or events.
- there are imaginary people, events, countries, creatures, language
There are three types of fiction: poetry,prose and drama
Poetry
- a person who writes poems is called a poet
- it has got verses written in lines; sometimes they rhyme, sometimes not
- lines are often organized into stanzas/strophes
Prose
- uses a complex text (from the left side to the right side of the page)
- separate thoughts and ideas are organized into paragraphs chapters book volume
- separate stories are told
- stories are longer or shorter
- Genres of prose: novels, short stories, fairy tales, fables, adventure books, science fiction books, romances, detective stories, fantasy, history...
For young children:
- flip folder books (pictures of simple things with basic vocabulary)
- bedtime stories/children stories – (simple understandable stories with wise ending)
- comics – easy to read, no long text
For teenagers:
- teenagers read more, even though these days they do not read long texts
- magazines, comics, spy novels, mystery books, science fiction
- fantasy series, adventure books
- quite modern about witches, wizards, magic, vampires
- Harry Potter series, Vampire diaries etc.
Adults:
- they read magazines, newspapers
- women: romantic novels, cookbooks...
- men: detective novels, spy novels, westerns, thrillers...
Drama
- a playwright writes plays that are performed in theatres (on stage)
- actors show live performances
- genres: comedy, tragedy, history
NON-FICTION:
– serious texts we read it for information
Non-fiction genres: textbooks, cookery books, memoirs, dictionaries, encyclopedias, atlases, biographies, autobiographies, history books, guides (travel guides), user manuals, scientific papers,- DIY books, cookery books...
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
- English poet, playwright, actor, genius
- wrote 37 plays, a collection of sonnets, a variety of poems
- born in Stratford upon Avon on 23rd April 1564
- a son of a glove maker
- had seven other siblings
- moved to London at a young age
- married at the age of 18 with a bit older lady called Anne Hathaway (26)
- had three children (Susanna, and twins Hamnet and Judith; Hamnet died aged 11)
- died aged 52
- presented his plays in the theatre called the Globe (still exists)
- today his plays can be seen/read in many world languages
- Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon
Plays: Romeo and Juliet, The Merchant of Venice, Othello, Hamlet, King Lear, Macbeth...
The Globe Theatre in London in Shakespeare times
- theatre was a popular form of entertainment
- performance there was a big event; open during the day only
- everybody could get there (from the royalty to the poor)
- it could hold up to 3.000 people
- the audience misbehaved (shouted, threw things at the actors)
- no women could be acting; actors – men only
- the first theatre burned down, the second one was built by Shakespeare and his company
e-book versus p-book
p-book (traditional paper book)
- portable everywhere
- no need to have electricity, devices, batteries
- outdated look
- one can feel and hear the sound of the paper, you can touch it – so you can use more than one sense
- when children learn to read, they can follow the text with their index finger☺
- you cannot be distracted by the software items visible in the screen (clocks etc.)
- not all p-books have their e-book version available
- if you take more books with you, your luggage gets a bit heavier
e-book
- special technical equipment needed for reading the book (kindle)
- portable, but electricity needed
- the need to charge the batteries
- modern look
- more popular, less expensive, a lot of free e-books are available
- cannot be easily lost, damaged or become wet
- e-readers can have an internet access, clock, dictionary etc.
- privacy – other people cannot see what book you´re reading
- with e-books you can take the whole library with you on holiday – it's not heavy, easy to carry – you don't need much space for it – - they are cheaper, you can find some free e-books online, they also contain dictionaries – there are built-in reading lights, you can read them at night easily – sometimes it is difficult to find the book on the bookshelf/ in the library – you can read while eating, you can see the text well, you don't need to hold the paper book to let it open
- people in our country don't buy many books, because they are expensive, they don't have much time for reading – we can speak about a crises of reading nowadays. People don't look for the information in books (encyclopedias, textbooks) they need to save as much time as possible. They look up the information on the Internet. Instead of reading fiction they watch films. They read magazines, it takes less time and concentration than reading books. They sometimes read the newspaper only during breakfast. People are overloaded with work, always in a hurry, they don't have time for reading.
Earliest memories of reading
Our first books were read to us by our parents and grandparents. These were fairy tales, lullabies... We started with colourful books, full of pictures or simple rhymes, learned them by heart. We read about animals, fairies, magic things, kings, princesses, knights...
Some children's books: Alice in Wonderland, Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, Sleeping Beauty, Pinocchio – writers: Brothers Grimm, Hans Christian Andersen, Antoine de Saint Exupéry, Pavol Dobšinský, Jozef Cíger Hronský, folk stories...
British authors
Charles Dickens (The Christmas Carol, David Copperfield, The Pickwick Papers) William Shakespeare (Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, King Lear, Othello) Daniel Defoe (Robinson Crusoe) Charlotte Bronte (Jane Eyre), Emily Bronte (Wuthering Heights) George Orwell (Animal Farm) Others: Oscar Wilde, Samuel Beckett (Waiting for Godot),
American writers
Ernest Hemingway (Old Man and the Sea, Farewell to Arms, For Whom the Bell Tolls) Mark Twain (The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn) D. J. Salinger (Catcher in the Rye) Jack London (The Call of the Wild) Edgar Alain Poe (Raven, The Black Cat) Others: W. Styron, Faulkner, Dreiser...
Every year the Nobel Prize for literature is awarded to a writer whose work is unique, widely translated and sold. Some Nobel Prize winners: Harold Pinter, Ernest Hemingway, William Faulkner, John Steinbeck, Samuel Beckett, Saul Bellow, Pablo Neruda...
When talking about a book
- title, genre (novel, short story...), plot (series of events creating the story), main characters (protagonists, antagonists), main theme, idea, setting (time, place)
BOOK / FILM comparison (culture and art)