The 21st century reader can be very different. There is no single portrait of this man and his tastes. After all, those times in history have passed when there was one book for the whole village, and that is the Bible. Now there is a lot of the most diverse literature around. Take and buy at every tray, in every store.

Some modern readers love classical literature. There are few of them. Others love detective stories and thrillers. Still others love historical novels. Girls often read romance novels. Fantasy is also very popular now. Among the guys you will find a lot of fantasy lovers. And all readers of the 21st century love to argue among themselves.

Is Pelevin a genius, or was he just "hyped up"? Is it worth watching "Turkish Gambit", which was filmed based on Akunin's book? Or is a book better? Is it true that the Strugatsky brothers in one of their novels predicted the Chernobyl disaster and the emergence of an "exclusion zone"? All these questions are heatedly discussed by readers of the 21st century, they prove their points of view with passion, even quarrel.

Readers of the 21st century are reading both print and e-books. Many people read books directly from computer monitors and small phone screens. Those who did not like to read before do not read books in the 21st century. And true book lovers have not gone anywhere in the age of the Internet. The 21st century reader is just as alive and alert as the book lover was a hundred years ago.

Why does the reader of the 21st century need oral folk art?

People often argue about whether it is necessary to read something in the 21st century or is it already outdated? For example, is it worth reading the classics? Or oral folk art?

Knowing oral folk art is always useful. This work preserves the history and wisdom of the people themselves. Folk wedding songs will decorate any wedding even now, and a folk lullaby will help calm the child in the evening. Many folk ballads about love touch the soul much more than modern pop music, somehow cobbled together.

Without a favorite folk tale, which people have put together for three hundred years, and now many children do not fall asleep. ABOUT folk tales more needs to be said. This is a storehouse of wisdom - here you can find examples of cunning, dexterity, mercy, stamina in the face of adversity.

Essay-reasoning

Not so long ago, at the end of the 20th century, scientists predicted the disappearance of book culture in general. They say, why paper books, if now it is possible to record the entire National Library on one crystal! Yes, the possibilities information technologies today we have reached as far as even science fiction writers have not looked. But books remain and will remain a great asset of culture for a long time to come.

How good the brand new book smells of printing ink! What beautiful color illustrations! You can flip through its pages here, review the comments.

Books have been accompanying human civilization for many millennia. We are amazed by the mysterious serifs-inscriptions from the Paleolithic caves, cuneiform signs on black basalt, which recorded the world's first human laws, clay tablets from the ruins ancient Babylon, Egyptian hieroglyphs inscribed on papyri. The oldest book in the world - 13 papyrus volumes with numbered pages in a leather frame. They were found in 1946 in Luxor, and written in the 3rd century AD.

For so long, books were copied behind the high walls of monasteries, books were chained to church walls, like a great value was passed on as an inheritance. Over nine hundred years ago, the monks-murals portrayed the Kyiv prince-warrior Svyatoslav as a sign of his education - with a book in his hands. Everyone knows the first library in Rus', created by Yaroslav the Wise. On the gospels, brought with her dowry by the Kievan princess Anna Yaroslavna, the French kings in Reims swore allegiance. A great wealth of modern libraries are early printed books - masterpieces of Johann Gutenberg and Ivan Fedorov. Forever entered the treasury of the culture of the Ukrainian people "Apostle", "Ostrog Bible". In the latter, six printed fonts, a two-column set, and a title page were used.

And even today, when I have already collected as many books on computer disks as in the district library, I still go to the library to take a book that has already been visited by many readers. She saved their words of approval, signs of indignation or questions. Someone dropped a tear on the page under the influence of emotions. Someone forgot between the pages a Chinese bookmark with silk tassels. Once in the library I was looking through a volume of Pushkin, issued in 1899, in the year of the century since the birth of the poet, and I found a dried flower there. Probably, on some June morning, a young schoolgirl was reading this book - and made her bookmark, putting a thin flower, which was preserved by the beginning of the third millennium among the yellowed pages of the book.

And what wonderful gold, silver, leather frames of early printed books - wonderful works of medieval artists! These are magical products of Dutch, French, German jewelers.

In the department the rarest books and manuscripts of Kharkov scientific library them. Korolenko preserved many early printed books, small-format, small-circulation books, which have long become a bibliographic rarity, books with autographs.

The inscriptions on the books are interesting subject collectibles. Poetic wishes, philosophical maxims, even dates with signatures of great people can be useful to those who study their work.

An ex-libris is an example of the reader's love for a book. Literally, this word means - "From the books." This is a graphic sign with which the owner outlines his books. The bookplate always contains a drawing on the theme of the literary or scientific tastes of the owner. The first bookplates appeared in Germany in the second half of the 15th century. they were created by Albrecht Dürer, Hans Holbein the Younger, Lucas Cranach.

Someday, probably, electronic books will be distributed like newspapers, it will be possible, sitting on a train, to connect to the largest library in the world and flip through the pages by pressing the keys, but it will be impossible to give this work of art to someone, write a few touching letters to a friend words or proudly show your friends a rarity for which you have been hunting for many years ...

Composition

More and more often, the younger generation is faced with the question: “Should modern reader, a reader of the 21st century, to read Tolstoy's novel "War and Peace"? Or does he need to read and know Pushkin, Lermontov, Chekhov? Is there a need for the modern reader in Shakespeare, Balzac, Stendhal? In a word, is it necessary to read the classics in our time?

For me, this question has only one answer - of course, it is necessary. After all, all these writers are classics because in their works they touch upon very important, fundamental questions concerning the essence of man, the meaning of his life. Classical literature gives an answer to many questions that all people have to solve in their lives, regardless of gender, nation, age. What is the meaning of my life? What is happiness? What is death? What is the most important thing for me? Classical literature helps to solve these questions-problems.

Personally, Leo Tolstoy's epic novel "War and Peace" did not leave me indifferent. I am very close to the idea of ​​this writer about the need for self-improvement of man. I also believe that beauty, physical and spiritual, is not given by nature, you need to work on it. Constant self-improvement is the meaning of life. And the happiness that everyone strives for so much must be earned. It is given only to people who have reached a high spiritual level.

According to Tolstoy, a person can make mistakes. This is inevitable, because man is imperfect. But people should strive for development and improvement, and not "freeze" in one state. Such "mummies" are represented in the novel in the person of Helen Kuragina, for example, or Sonya. Sonechka is good for everyone: she is beautiful, smart enough, and well-behaved. But it's boring because it "froze" in one place, predictable and uninteresting. That is why Nikolai Rostov, whom she loves so much, notices Sonechka's beauty, but does not want to marry her. He thinks that “now there are so many other joys and activities!”

Natasha Rostova, on the other hand, is eager to live, she does not hide behind, like Sonechka, “drawing patterns”. Natasha plunges headlong into life, strives to feel, to make mistakes. She wants to be happy and in the end she succeeds. Natasha finds her love, gets married, she has her own family, a loving husband and beloved children. According to Tolstoy, Natasha fulfilled her natural destiny - she became a mother, continued her family, that is, she gained the meaning of life.

Thus, "War and Peace" answers the question about the meaning of human life, about the ways to achieve happiness. And these are the most pressing questions of all time.

In addition, this work shows us, in my opinion, an ideal family, draws the relationship of their members. In the novel, this is the Rostov family and the Bolkonsky family. Personally, the Rostov family is closer to me. I like the spirit, the atmosphere that prevails in this house, I like the way parents treat their children and vice versa.

The main thing in the family is love, unconditional love, accepting everything and reconciling everyone. Strict, but to the point of madness loving her children, Princess Rostova. A kind, simple-hearted, gentle prince, ready at any moment to support each of his children. Let's remember how he gets money for Nikolai, who lost to the nines, by mortgaging the estate.

But children also support their parents in difficult times. When they killed a common favorite, the younger Petenka, the princess almost went crazy with grief. But Natasha supported her mother very much, thus she herself was able to more easily survive such a difficult event for the whole family.

In his novel, Tolstoy preaches, in addition to "family thought", "people's thought". This, in my opinion, is especially relevant in our time. Now, as in the early 19th century, there is a dominance of foreign culture. The country speaks English language, watching American movies, listening to American music. Even programs produced, it seems, by Russian television, are very clearly oriented towards America, without taking into account the specifics of the Russian mentality.

At the beginning of the 19th century, France was the idol of the Russian nobility. She was imitated in everything from language to demeanor. Indicative in this regard is the salon of Anna Pavlovna Sherer. The cream of high society gathered here, they spoke only French discussed French fashion. These people are empty, internally dead. They are incapable of true patriotism. In this regard, their reaction to the war with Napoleon is indicative. In the salon they were forbidden to speak French - that's all they were capable of. This false patriotism is opposed by the genuine patriotism of Tolstoy's best heroes. For example, Natasha Rostova is very close to the common Russian people. Her patriotism comes from the depths of her soul. Thanks to her pressure, the Rostov family gives carts for the wounded. Truly patriotic Kutuzov, he is close ordinary soldiers. Tolstoy extols the commander for his kindness, sincerity, worldly wisdom.

By reading classical literature, by Tolstoy in particular, one can be enriched spiritually and morally. At times technical progress there is a great danger of spiritual decay. Tolstoy's classical works, as, indeed, all Russian literature of the 19th century, reminds the reader of the greatness of the human soul, of the need to cherish, appreciate and endlessly develop one's inner wealth. Therefore, we can say with full confidence that classical literature does not leave the modern reader indifferent.

The eternal truth that a person stops thinking when he stops reading, in my opinion, is also relevant in our dynamic and restless twenty-first century.

Of course, this applies, first of all, to real classical literature, tested if not for centuries, then at least for decades. And not the widely advertised "fiction", which even the language does not dare to call a book.
There is no doubt that the current age requires intellectually developed, literate people. Moreover, the knowledge and information acquired by them should not be just a set of specific information. It needs to be thought through and analysed. I would like to turn again to a wise thought, gleaned, by the way, from classical literature. It says that in order to become a literate person, you need to read only a few books. But to find them, you have to read hundreds of others.

Conclusion one: you need to read in order to be able to think.
Literature is a source of historical information presented to the reader in a lively and interesting way. Thanks to the talent of the writer, the reader is literally immersed in the described era. Here are everyday details, and clothes, and interior, customs and traditions. A little imagination - and a person finds himself, for example, at a medieval jousting tournament along with the noble Ivanhoe W. Scott or at a ball of the nineteenth century with the heroes of the works of Russian classics. Of course, we can say that in modern films and computer games you can see this with your own eyes, without really straining. Feel the difference. Everything is served beautifully there, but in ready-made. The book, on the other hand, makes a person's imagination work, transferring it with the power of words to a specific era.

The second conclusion: you need to read in order to know more and develop imagination, imagery of thinking.
Literature is His Majesty the Word, aesthetic, many-sided and beautiful. Unfortunately, in the 21st century, verbal degradation is very noticeable. This, from my point of view, is directly related to reading, or rather, with the reluctance to read classical works. The language of the classics is juicy, bright, saturated with images, and most importantly, it is true literary language which every cultured person should own. With constant reading, vocabulary is enriched. proverbs, sayings, idioms, verbal images saturate speech, making it truly beautiful and rich.

The third conclusion: you need to read in order to enrich your oral and written speech.
Reasoning not just about the benefits, but about the need to read true literature in the present century can be continued. But even what has been said proves: “Literature is necessary in the 21st century!”

• Why, portraying Kutuzov in the novel "War and Peace", Tolstoy deliberately avoids the glorification of the image of the commander? - -
• Why does the theme of the author's farewell to youth, poetry and romanticism sound in the finale of the sixth chapter of the novel "Eugene Onegin"? - -
• What was Pontius Pilate's punishment? (based on the novel by M.A. Bulgakov "The Master and Margarita") - -
• Is Natalia's character constructive or destructive at its core? (based on the epic novel by M.A. Sholokhov "Quiet Flows the Don") - -
• Why is Satine defending Luka in a dispute with the roomers? (based on the play by M. Gorky "At the bottom") - -
• Is it possible to consider the hero of the story I.A. Bunin's "The Gentleman from San Francisco" as a typical hero of the early 20th century? - -