Rant about letters

I spend a lot of time stuck in books. Reading has been my favourite means of escape for a very long time. I learned to read at the age of three. From there, it just kind of mushroomed.
When I was in grade six, my teachers were quite thrilled at the rate that I went through books. My classmates were not. I got a lot of teasing and threats on the playground, needless to say. If it was so hard being a book worm then, can you imagine what it's like now? Anyone who spends more than fifteen minutes a week with the printed page is instantly uncool. I think that's why reading comprehension scores have tanked over the last few years. No kid would be caught dead reading for fun when there are computer games to be played and texting to be done.
Maybe there is a way we could make real reading more cool. What if, instead of paper books, all of the classics were put into devices that could be stylized for today's youth? A kid gets on the bus in the morning, and instead of putting in a set of earphones, he pulls out a tiny little screen with words and pictures scrolling across it. Even if the old stories aren't considered cool, he could hit a panic button that makes it look like he's playing some kind of video game.
The sad thing is that it has come down to this. Reading has become so unpopular that we have to gadgetize it. Education is at a standstill, with kids getting into high school with no clue how to read or write properly.
There are groups on Facebook that are all about the lousy grammar displayed by people these days. I am one of the self-proclaimed "grammar and spelling cops". I tend to cringe when I hear words mispronounced or misused.
One of the biggest culprits in the loss of the written word is text messaging. We spend so much time abbreviating the language that it gets mangled in the process. The latest generation does all of its communicating in this way. Sometimes I wonder if I have received an e-mail or the electronic equivalent of alphabet soup.
I worry that the art of story telling is going to be lost. It seems that most books are written with the plan of turning them into movies in the near future. That limits the amount that you can allow the imagination to wander. The technology hasn't gotten to the state yet where it can replace pure imagination. Besides, it is best when the story asks something from you, when you have to picture the places and people in your own way.
Maybe I am being an alarmist, but I think the schools should be spending more time teaching kids the joy of stories and reading. It doesn't have to be a chore.