Integrated writing-the decline in reading literature

The passage and the lecture talk about the decline in reading literature. The passage believes this situation is very sad while the professor thinks this is not a trouble.

The passage claims that less literature reading brings less benefits to us because nothing inspires people like literature does.  It enables us to further understand human culture and stimulates our potential. While the professor suggests that literature is not the only thing that enriches us. Other sorts of arts like novels or plays are also helpful for people.

Another difference is in the opinion of the forms of culture. The passage states that people now are turning to very shallow books like self-help books and are rather entertaining themselves than reading brilliant literature. However, the professor thinks that our culture is expressed in many ways so not reading serious books is not so terrible because there are music, movies and many other things that are also equally  valuable and enlightening.

Third, the passage points out that investments on challenging books are going down due to people’s less interests in them. This provides an unfriendly environment for authors especially when there are many good writers. On the other hand, professor mentions that some books nowadays are hard to read, so hard that even old readers would have difficulty appreciating them. So the problem is on the writers not on the readers.