To the Editor:
Re “Make America Read Again,” by Brian Bannon (Opinion guest essay, June 8):
I loved learning about the reading party at the New York Public Library and the joy it inspired.
Home libraries and public libraries are essential for creating the conditions for more Americans to identify as readers. Books are best introduced early in life, when children are building their hearts, muscles and motivation to read.
A lifelong love of reading is nurtured by owned and borrowed books. Children who grow up in homes with many books are more likely to achieve in school and read more than those who grow up in homes without books.
But there’s a gap: Some 61 percent of children from low-income homes do not have books at home and may lack easy access to libraries. The reading crisis is real, and, for many, the children’s book gap is where it starts. These are conditions that we can change.
Let’s get America reading again by celebrating our libraries — and by insisting that book ownership from birth is the norm for every child.
Mary Mathew Durham, N.C. The writer is a staff member at Book Harvest.
To the Editor:
Brian Bannon is correct that to rekindle a national passion for reading we must go further than simply directing individuals to read more. But while “we don’t need new inventions to build a reading city,” access to books and reading programs is not sufficient. We must radically reimagine how we value our most precious personal resources: time, energy, effort and attention.
Reading requires sustained time and attention that other pastimes don’t. In an age of rapid scrolling, the grind of work and mind-numbing chatbots, reading requires making a choice to disengage from the noise of modern society.
The public and private sectors have a role to play. Federal policy should shape a more curious and less time-constrained citizenry through increased education funding, free college, a 32-hour workweek and a lower retirement age.
Only when we have sufficient time and attention will we return to reading.
Sam Weinberg Washington The writer is executive director of Path to Progress.
To the Editor:
A colleague and I stop for coffee on Mondays at the Starbucks in Portland, Maine, next to where a man who appears to be homeless sits and spends most of his days reading. The two of us are on our way to teach writing to incarcerated women at the Maine Correctional Center.
The man is always surrounded by books, and we routinely ask about the title of his current book. One day my friend Mira Ptacin gave him the memoir she wrote, “Poor Your Soul.” When we returned the next week, Mira asked how he liked the book. His review was accurate, and he suggested some changes.
We know nothing about him except that he likes to read. Maybe that is enough.
Linda Holtslander Peaks Island, Maine The writer is a retired librarian.
Choosing Graham Platner
To the Editor:
Re “Platner’s Candidacy Offers an Opportunity,” by Bret Stephens (column, June 10):
Mr. Stephens’s column deploring Graham Platner’s candidacy fails to present Maine voters’ actual choice: a chance to flip the Senate and check President Trump’s chaos and destruction, as opposed to continuing the same. It’s that simple.
Mr. Stephens’s extended chronology is just noise at this point. Mr. Trump has already incited an insurrection, pardoned those convicted and is trying to award them financial compensation. We have no idea what he will try in 2028.
A Democratic Congress is an absolute requirement to block a repeat performance of this disgrace. Support for Mr. Platner is required to make this happen. Senator Susan Collins’s re-election would, in all probability, ensure continued Republican control of the Senate and extend our national crisis.
Eric R. Carey Arlington, Va.
Fading Bank Tellers
To the Editor:
Re “Trusted Tellers Shield Clients From Scams” (front page, June 7):
There is a downside to this hopeful story: Bank tellers are in danger of becoming an extinct species.
I have used the same bank for 50 years — that is, the same building. Over the years, it has housed four banks as each bank was absorbed by a larger one. The tellers, who in the 1970s were the heart of the bank, have become fewer and fewer.
Fifty years ago, I knew the tellers, and they knew me. Now the place on the main banking floor once occupied by eight tellers is a row of A.T.M.s, and a single teller in the basement handles whatever face-to-face interactions remain.
The veteran tellers in the article are remnants of a vanished past that, for better or worse, will never come back. I’m afraid that these friendly guardians, while real, are not an option for most people.
Tim Shaw Cambridge, Mass.
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