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Do teenagers still read books?


Suburbanite

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I've got to agree with you there, Mad Scientist, I think that boring books at school is a large factor in people choosing not to read, not only as a teenager but into adult life as well. For them, reading at school was a chore to be got through, not an enjoyable past time in its own right. I was fortunate in that my English teacher allowed us to pick our own books in addition to the standard texts, plus she had a passion for reading that was infectious (to me anyway!).

 

On the other hand, any trip to a book shop will show there is a very large "young adult" section. I guess it wouldn't be there if the market wasn't there for it.

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  • 2 months later...

I'm now 21 and obviously adore reading.

 

When I was in primary school, most of the other kids didn't really mind reading if the story was compelling, but they had to be encouraged and be given tasks about it before they'd actually read it. Most of the kids did read the really popular books at the time.

 

In secondary school, I was the only person in my class group who liked to read. I think in my grade there must have been others who adored it as much as I did, but it wasn't exactly cool so I wouldn't know who that was. Especially in my group, there were some people who claimed they'd read five pages and forget what happened five pages ago. The main problem seemed to be that they couldn't concentrate and didn't want to try because they felt they had cooler and better things to do.

 

When I went to college and studied history and English, those fields obviously meant I ran into more people who enjoyed reading. I was still astonished by how few there were, though. But there were quite a few people - much more than in secondary school - who liked reading alright but felt that they didn't have the time since they were busy studying, going out, etc. Reading was kind of a thing to do once in a blue moon for money.

 

As a future teacher, I'm definitely grateful to the rise of the Young Adult genre. In my upcoming training I'll be working with it, and I do look forward to that.

 

I think teenagers still read because there will always be some teenagers who love to read. I don't think there will ever come a time where nobody likes to read. But I do think that with e-readers, more teens will probably download books to their iPhone or e-readers. They'll also read more books from the library or in smaller/cheaper bookstores as books in large chains are often quite expensive.

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When I was a teenager (a young one, round 15/16) I never knew ANYBODY who read. I was always in bookshops and the library, and I don't think I ever once discussed a book with anyone.

 

Same here. I'm not really a teenager anymore but even now I know no one who actually reads anything besides school books. A select few of my friends have read twilight and maybe the hunger games but there it stops.

 

I began reading at 12 and never stopped. Books were my way out of that boring world where everyone else played with their Pokemon games or worried about which boy they would date next. I thought that I would go absolutely crazy with everyone around me wondering why their parents would not let them wear make-up to school and if their skirts were short enough or their jeans the right amount of tight. I got laughed at by my entire class when I feverishly defended my opinion to a teacher that Dickens was in no way the same as Dahl and that so many read Shakespeare just so they would look educated instead of actually enjoying or even understanding it. My folks kept telling me that I should put down those books and do something productive instead.

I thought then, and still think, that the teenagers who still read, actually read, are becoming a dying breed.

 

I wish that uni would not eat up so much of my time. I'm expected to be social and make friends just so I have someone pleasant to do the large assignments with, get good grates, keep my place clean, look presentable, act interested, know everything, say nothing, eat and sleep enough and keep going. There is so little time left to lose myself between the pages of a good book.

Edited by Argon9
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I read a lot as a teen. In secondary school almost everyone in my class of 31 liked reading and we'd recommend books to each other. There were lots of bookworms in the family going back a few generations. My brother read the least as a teen but even so he had his moments. My oldest nephew read a lot as a teen and his sister who had trouble learning to read so was a late reader began to read a bit for pleasure in her late teens. Now, the 15 year old nephew gets through at least 5 books a week. We talk books and sometimes swap some between us. We've been doing this since he was about 8. I do try to keep the books I swap more to his age group though but as he's getting older I can ease up on that. There'll always be readers of all ages. Yes there are those who can't see the appeal but that's life. Each to his/her own.

Edited by Kreader
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  • 2 weeks later...

People don't change too much in generations. Some teens love reading, some hate it. Was like that when I was a young teenager too, and that was just before the Internet exploded into all kinds of fun. Mom said it was like that when she was young too. Some who love it, some who loathe it.

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When I was a teenager (a young one, round 15/16) I never knew ANYBODY who read. I was always in bookshops and the library, and I don't think I ever once discussed a book with anyone.

 

When I was a teenager, my parents would always laugh at how after the short car journey back from the bookshop, I would already be half way through a new book we'd just bought! But you are right, Nollaig, I agree with you on the fact that I was pretty much the only one in my class who would read books which weren't covered in class.

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When I was a teenager, my parents would always laugh at how after the short car journey back from the bookshop, I would already be half way through a new book we'd just bought! But you are right, Nollaig, I agree with you on the fact that I was pretty much the only one in my class who would read books which weren't covered in class.

 

However I do think the world is slowing changing, I think a turning point was the Harry Potter and Twilight books that stand out for. Teenagers went crazy for them and I think maybe now they like to read but don't show it, they read in private.

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Modernization. Internet over books. Teenagers wasting time over stupid things. What happened to the great classics? If only books can talk, I think they'll curse us all. Let's continue to read, gain wisdom, and celebrate life's greatest lessons, page by page! (:

 

My parents would disagree. They find reading fiction just as wasteful as watching tv or browsing the web. T-T

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I work with teenagers and they read much more than my friends did when we were young. Harry Potter and Twilight rapresent a turning point in the relationship between teens and books. One of my boys fell in love with Edgar Allan Poe and he's always reading. Mind you, he's dislessic.

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At my old school, nobody read much, which was sad. However, since coming to my current school for sixth form, I can get into really long conversations with other people about our favourite authors/genres and even have debates about some books, which is good fun! :D However, I have to admit that, since starting sixth form, everyone seems to have slowed down on their reading. :(

Edited by Tiger
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I used to read a lot as a teenager, my parents joked around telling me to slow down with the reading as they were constantly in bookshops choosing my next book to read! I think I read the most as a teenager, I still read now but don't dedicate near enough time to it, which is a shame.

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  • 4 years later...
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On 3.9.2017 at 11:54 PM, Bookish_melody said:

I skip lunch at College so I can spend the whole hour in the library reading, I've been doing this since I was 11...

 

That's great dedication! :D I wish we'd had hour long lunches! I would've gotten really hungry though. 

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