Dearest You,

I've always found it entirely interesting that not everyone reads classics like I do. When I was little my mom and dad would take turns reading Dickens and Bronte to my little sisters and I right before bed, as a result I grew up believing that everyone read classics and that it was the normal thing to do. The sad truth is that it is not how it is at all. I remember a specific time in my fourth grade class we were going around the room sharing our favorite stories, when it was my turn I excitedly told everyone about my favorite story of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, only to receive blank looks from my classmates. Since that time I have come to realize that, not only is reading classics becoming increasingly rare, but reading in general has started to decline. The number of people who read for fun has been slowly diminishing over the years. Books are going out of style. In their place are computer games, X-box, Wii, Facebook, Twitter and many other electronical forms of entertainment. As a result, less and less people know who writers like David Henry Thoreau or James Fenimore Cooper are, let alone the books that they wrote. A question that has arisen as a result of this issue is whether the literacy of non-readers is at stake. Do people who focus more on online reading really read at a lower level than those who read traditional books? That's what I am going to find out. I've looked at many different articles and studies that have many interesting points of view and results, but I think I'll wait to keep you updated. I know you're just dying to find out, but I'll have to keep you in suspense for a while longer... at least until I finish the rest of my essay.
Sarah