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     Readingcan be a social activity. Think of the people who belong to book groups. They choose books to read and then meet to discuss them. Now, the website BookCrossing.com turns the page on the traditional idea of a book group.

      Members go on the site and register the books they own and would like to share. BookCrossing provides an identification number to stick inside the book. Then the person leaves it in a public place, hoping that the book will have an adventure, traveling far and wide with each new reader who finds it.

    Bruce Pederson, the managing director of BookCrossing, says, “The two things that change your life are the people you meet and books you read. BookCrossing combines both.”

    Members leave books on park benches and buses, in train stations and coffee shops. Whoever finds their book will go to the site and record where they found it.

    People who find a book can also leave a journal entry describing what they thought of it. E-mails are then sent to the BookCrossing to keep them updated about where their books have been found. Bruce peterson says the idea is for people not to be selfish by keeping a book to gather dust on a shelf at home.

    BookCrossing is part of a trend among people who want to get back to the “real” and not the virtual(虚拟). The site now has more than one million members in more than one hundred thirty-five countries.

    Several months ago, I attended the opening event for a new children's literacy (读写能力) campaign at the Burbank Library in California. The campaign is called Marvel Comics Close- Up, aimed at using comic books to encourage kids to read. Disney and Marvel donated 210,000 books to libraries and schools across the country.

    Stars from Disney XD participated. They read Spider-Man comic books to 70 kids from Boys & Girls Clubs in southern California. The stars included Drake Bell (Ultimate Spider-Man), Dylan Riley Snyder (Kickin' it), Olivia Holt (Kickin' It) and Coie Jenson (Crash & Bernstein).

    Drake Bell said that the Marvel reading campaign is aimed at kids who are bored with books, believing comic books are the answer for kids who say they'd rather play video games. “Comic books really get you into the story,” he told TFK(Time For Kids). “They are not just words or pictures on a page.”

    Dylan Riley Snyder knows from his experiences that comic books have the power to inspire kids' imagination. His mom was a teacher and she used comic books to interest students who thought they weren't interested in reading. Dylan attended these classes. He would read the comic books and draw the characters along with the students. “It was a great way for these kids to start to enjoy reading,” Dylan said. “That's how I got interested in reading too. Now I can share my love for comic books with others through the Marvel Comics Close-Up program.”

    David Levine is the Vice President of Disney XD Worldwide. He said great stories and great characters, like Spider-Man and The Avengers, were key to making reading fun. “Reading can encourage you to explore new things and take you to all sorts of exciting places,” he told TFK.

    Danielle Steel, America's sweetheart, is one of the hardest working women in the book business. Unlike other productive authors who write one book at a time, she can work on up to five. Her research before writing takes at least three years. Once she has fully studied her subjects, ready to dive into the book, she can spend twenty hours nonstop at her desk.

    Danielle Steel comes from New York and was sent to France for her education. After graduation, she worked in the public relations and advertising industries. Later she started a job as a writer which she was best fit for. Her achievements are unbelievable: 390 million copies of books in print, nearly fifty New York Times best-selling novels, and a series of "Max and Martha" picture books for children to help them deal with the real-life problems of death, new babies and new schools. Her 1998 book about the death of her work shot to the top of the New York Times best-selling list as soon as it came out. Twenty-eight of her books had been made into films. She is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records for one of her books being the Times best-seller for 381 weeks straight.

    Not satisfied with a big house, a loving family, and a view of the Golden GateBridge, Danielle Steel considers her readers to be the most important resource and has kept in touch with them by e-mail. While she is often compared to the heroines of her own invention, her life is undoubtedly much quieter. But, if she does have anything in common with them, it is her strength of will and her inimitable (独特的) style. There is only one Danielle Steel.

    Music Festivals

    A large number of people enjoy listening to various types of music while they paint, write, or draw. Many believe that music helps creativity.

    However, an international study conducted by English and Swedish researchers is challenging that opinion. Psychologists from Lancaster University, The University of Gävle, and The University of Central Lancashire say that their findings show music actually blocks creativity.

    To come to their conclusions, researchers had participants( 参与者) complete verbal insight problems designed to inspire creativity while sitting in a quiet room, and then again while music played in the background. They found that background music “badly affected” the participants' ability to complete tasks related to verbal creativity.

    The tasks were simple word games. For example, participants were given three words, such as dress, dial, and flower. Then, they were asked to find a single word related to all three that could be combined to form a common phrase or word. The single word, in this case, would be "sun" (sundress, sunflower, etc).

    Participants completed the tasks in either a quiet room, or while exposed to three different types of music; music with unfamiliar words, instrumental music, or music with familiar words. "We found strong evidence of damaged performance when playing background music in comparison to quiet background conditions," says co-author Dr. Neil McLatchie of Lancaster University.

    To conclude, the findings challenge the popular view that music encourages creativity, and instead prove that music consistently disrupts creative performance in dealing with problems.