8.

Reading, television, video, cinema

I think reading is a very useful pastime. I like reading interesting books because I can relax
with it. People go to a library to borrow books and cassettes, read newspapers and magazines,
photocopy materials, listen to music and use computers. It’s oftener that we buy the
newspapers. In Hungary there are local and national daily papers. The local papers tend to
concentrate on the news of the county and write only short articles on world and national
news. As for the national daily papers, there are two basic types. One is quality papers which
focus on more serious issues and try to cover all kinds of topics.
Of course the press means more than newspapers. There are magazines for practically every
special interest you can imagine. There are women’s magazines, gourmet cooking magazines,
or magazines dealing with gardening, science, cars, motorcycles, computers, modeling, home
decorating, fashion, sports, body building, film, theatre, music, news magazines.
In my opinion, people prefer watching films to reading. Watching films is less demanding
than reading books after a tiring day at work or at school. Although cinema tickets are quite
expensive, so are books.
People not only watch what is on TV but watch videos and DVDs. It’s better because there
isn’t commercial during the film. I understand that commercials are important for channels
and sometimes provide useful information for everybody. They can also be quite entertaining.
In my opinion, TV contributes to our social life. People like talking about TV programmes.
For example, they discuss all kinds of information on the characters of soap operas, try to
guess what will happen to them in the next episodes and talk about the actors’ and actresses’
private lives. They also like criticising the way presenters talk and dress.
We go to multiplex cinemas in big plazas where we go to not only for the sake of the film, but
also to enjoy ourselves with our friends before or after the film. Usually we have dinner there
before the cinema.
Mass media is a phrase often used to describe ways of giving information and entertainment
to very large numbers of people. It includes newspapers, advertising and radio and of course,
television.

There are several ways to spend our free time meaningfully. Some people prefer to take up
sports and other active hobbies, while others like creative hobbies such as pottery, painting,
photography, sewing or knitting. Free time activities such as reading, going to the theatre,
cinema, a concert or exhibitions, watching TV or doing crosswords are rather intellectual and
they don’t take much creativity.
The most common free time activities are probably reading, watching TV or movies, listening
to music, surfing the net, playing video or computer games, spending time with family,
hanging out with friends or playing with our pets.