On 28 October 2010 14:06, Udhay Shankar N <ud...@pobox.com> wrote: > Amit's latest column is thought-provoking. I agree with the basic > premise (reading is good, getting kids to read is excellent), but have > a fairly major quibble: having effectively infinite choice is more > likely to induce gridlock than exploration. This may not be true for > everyone, of course, but it is something to consider. There are a > couple of ways around this I can think of - but would rather see what > Amit (and others) have to say first. > > Thoughts? > I found a lot of resonance with the idea of giving them a budget and letting them buy any book they want. My uncle who was an English literature prof followed a similar approach with me, though I had the luxury of an unlimited budget. Everytime he visited, he would take me to the only decent bookstore in Cochin at the time, Pai and let me buy any book I wanted.
Infinite choice, I feel, is something anybody who grows up with Google, torrents, and rapidshare has an instinctive way around anyway and you don't need to enforce it in any way. I wasn't exactly spoiled for choice at the Pai bookstore in Cochin, I admit, but public libraries and the university library when I moved to the US at 11 years old were very vast. Then there were card catalogues, today there is Google and keyword search. Kiran
