"At least it gets people reading."

I am a big fan of reading. I think it's really important for people to spend time reading good books. But that's the key: good books. There are a lot of bad books out there that are really popular. And I have heard people say in defense of the bad books, "Well, at least it gets people reading." I don't think that is a good excuse. Reading is important, but it's not so important that if a book causes damage it's okay.

For example, there is a series of books called The Diary of a Wimpy Kid. Before Kevin was born, I volunteered at an elementary school, and I listened to several kids read me portions of that book. I was horrified. It seemed like the main character did nothing but be mean and disrespectful to people, and it was portrayed as normal and funny. I kept waiting for him to learn some kind of lesson about how it's important to be kind, but he never did. Around the same time, my sister-in-law posted a review of this book. Her son had started reading the books, and when she looked through them, she realized that she needed to go through the books with her son and explain to him why it's not okay to act like the kid in the book. It's hard enough to teach our children basic values like kindness without having books that portray being unkind as funny and normal. Even if these books are entertaining enough that they get kids who normally don't like to read to start reading, I don't think that's worth it because they are being influenced by the book to think that those wrong behaviors are okay.

I think it's also important to realize that books can be pornography, even if there are no pictures. Maybe the "scenes" get people reading, but it also gets them used to thinking that doing that kind of thing is okay, and it excites similar feelings to what people experience when they're looking at pornography. Again, that does so much damage that it's not worth it that people are reading.