That would be stereo-typing, for I myself would prefer to read the book than watch the movie.(DIGRESS ALERT) When you read the book, you get so much more than watching the movie.

For one, there is more in the plot of the book than the movie (Otherwise, the movie would be at least 4-6 hours long).

And then, there is what you can pick-up(*read other arguments) from reading.

Although watching the movie can help in getting the pronunciation right (again, the America English VS British English issue), you may not really understand every part, because there are always thing cut out/left out.

Furthermore, the benefits of watching a movie versus reading the book usually results in the case that reading would emerge victorious (O.o).

Therefore, I feel that you are stereo-typing when you say "The truth is that in this day and age teenager and even adults find themselves wanting to watch the movie rather than read the book.", and I myself is proof.

How can you have someone read for you??!! When you read, you are the one gaining knowledge! If you pay someone to read for you, then what is the point?

Also, how can you say reading "in that case" "would not be important"? It is Important(with a CAPITAL I) for anyone and everyone to read. Reading should be treated as a form of self-upgrade, and not something you don't want to do!

1st thing I want to say is not quite relevant: Important was spelled wrongly ("Its imporatnt")...

2nd thing is that, wow... everyone wrote such long arguments....

For this topic, before I start, I must say that for me myself, I have always taken reading as something to do during leisure time - When you have nothing to do, why not start reading? Or even when you want to relax, only having a book on your mind, having only the plot to worry about, it kinds of takes you away from the world... so getting a comfortable place and just focusing on reading the good book can be relaxing as well.

Now, first and foremost, reading helps build a sixth/seventh sense - what I call the sense of Grammar. For people who read often/a lot, they find that when there is a sentence-structure error, they tend to notice it; even if they can't tell you why, they do find that it feels weird. This really saves time since you can do editing while you write, or when you are checking the flow of what you have written.

Moving on, reading also help us to improve not only our vocabulary, but also, our inference. (If you don't understand why, here it is: when you read and you come to a word you don't recognize, after some time of reading, instead of checking the dictionary[which SO ruins the suspense in the plot], you tend to make inferences within seconds, and this happens so automatically, and also so often right, that you don't realize. Getting the meanings right may take some time, but as you come across the words more, you will eventually perfect your judgment when inferring.)

Finally, reading also potentially make our writings more interesting. Recall all the plots you have been writing all these years. You didn't just think of them over lunch - you read it somewhere, and you remembered the style and plot. Then, you build your interest in one/some of these genres, and read more of them. Then, as you build up the lot of styles of writing and plots/scenes, you start developing original ones (be it that you take a bit of everything, or that you adapt from something very interesting).

Bottom line, reading is important as it greatly improves the quality of their writing, ability to infer.

That is how important reading is - important enough for you to start scavenging for books no matter the age.

EDIT: I want to recommend a book: "The secret life of bees"

It is about racism in Early America, love, religion, and much much more.

Firstly, I really want to stress that human beings are NOT meant to eat meant(Naturally). You can double check this with any biologist. It can be told from our teeth structure, which indicates the kind of foods our body was meant to eat, and meat is NOT one of them.

Secondly, meat is not just killing animals, but also killing us! Every year, to meet the consumers' demands, lots of animals are brought up. The first problem, is that the animals will have to get food from plant sources(usually), however, cutting down greens will mean that there are less plats removing carbon from the air. Secondly, animals also give out alot of methane, which like carbon dioxide, enhances the green house effect, contributing to global warming.

On the other hand... well, its true... eating meat has become part of our life, so taking meat away is, and will be a difficult task.

There is very little chance that such a situation will be met where torture is required(Nowadays), and even if it is, it will probably not be us who tortures another person - I mean you can't just kidnap back the person then force him to reveal where the victim is! That would just be madness! Finally, I am sure that torture won't be needed, for, though the law is not perfect, it is usually enough.

I feel that chemicals are Mainly the cause of cancer. You see, when we eat foods preserved in chemicals like Nitrates or Nitrites(which are allowed in case you were wondering, and is also very common), it increases chances of cancer. And you would be surprised to know how much such food additives there are, and how commonly they are found. Just walk down your supermarket aisle and you will easily spot foods containing things like Potassium Nitrite, etc.

So for me, I say YES. They are primarily responsible for the epidemic.

EDIT: Yes, I admit it, Viruses do play a part in cancers like cervical cancer, and also deserve a place.