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Do teenagers still read books?


Suburbanite

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Reading, has always been a HUGE thing in my family.

 

My mother was a writer and had a few works published, my father always encouraged my Brother and I, to read as much as we could.

 

My GrandParents all grew up during the Depression, so they always read books and told stories themselves to run the time away.

 

My brother was not the biggest fan of reading, but it stuck to me. I think the success rate of a Child/Teenager continuing to read into his adult years, depends on the type of books he is first brought up to.

 

You must pick a good book for your Child/Teenager one that fits his or her personality, otherwise I believe it will make them bored to reading novels, and then reading really is a lost cause.

 

Luckily my Father bought me, my first book and it happened to be "One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest" when I was seven years old. That book was far past my intellectual compatibility at that time, in fact it is far above my head even today, but that book alone, kept me interested in Literature, and is the MAIN reason, I minored in American Literature.

 

God Bless all the Children and Teenagers who still read books, you will go far in your future, with a classic novel in your hand.

 

THAT right there, flewthe cuckoo, is why I don't believe in censoring what kids should read; I read insatiably when young and, sometimes, I got hold of books that had adult themes, not just sex but One Flew over The Cuckoo's Nest is a prime example. Mental illness and people taking advantage ,and society not wanting to know. Such books stretched me intellectually and made me question and think. Good for you.

Every time my kids read a book I say to them what did you think of it?

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THAT right there, flewthe cuckoo, is why I don't believe in censoring what kids should read; I read insatiably when young and, sometimes, I got hold of books that had adult themes, not just sex but One Flew over The Cuckoo's Nest is a prime example. Mental illness and people taking advantage ,and society not wanting to know. Such books stretched me intellectually and made me question and think. Good for you.

Every time my kids read a book I say to them what did you think of it?

 

Totally agree with not censoring what children read. I can remember being told by my teacher that i couldn't read Papillon in class reading time as she didn't think it was suitable & she tried to make me read Cider with Rosie instead :lol:

I have always read to my children & most of them are keen readers now although my eldest son prefers the computer & Xbox to reading. I tried lots of things when he was younger different authors, comic type books, story tapes & non fiction but nothing seemed to grab him so i've just accepted that reading is not his thing.

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Totally agree with not censoring what children read. I can remember being told by my teacher that i couldn't read Papillon in class reading time as she didn't think it was suitable & she tried to make me read Cider with Rosie instead :)

I have always read to my children & most of them are keen readers now although my eldest son prefers the computer & Xbox to reading. I tried lots of things when he was younger different authors, comic type books, story tapes & non fiction but nothing seemed to grab him so i've just accepted that reading is not his thing.

 

Hi Kidsmum yes my younger brother was just like that; he was just never very interested in reading. But our parents never read to us as I remember. They had us two when mum was in her 40's (there was a big gap between us and our other siblings) and they were just worn out and tired of the whole child rearing thing.

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I've had the amazing honour of being at two children's book awards this week: The Leeds Book Awards, and the Lancashire Children's Book Award. I only saw the primary level of the Leeds one, but at the Lancs award we got to sit in and watch a panel of children sit and judge the books, and award a winner.

 

The children were all 13 or 14, they had all read the ten books in the shortlist and most of them had read a considerable portion of the longlist too. They referred through the day to loads of other books, and talked about which of the books they had re-read. There were four children we considered offering a place at uni straight away :(

 

Children's book borrowing is still massive, I've got a feeling it's 19.4 million books a year. I think it's harder to get teenage books to reach them, especially now Borders is gone.

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I believe teenagers read a lot less than they should. Many of them read because school requires it and this kind of kills the thrill. Of course there are teenagers who enjoy reading(me!), however, they are considerably less. For example, in my class there are two readers besides myself which is a small number(we're 28).

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I was about to respond YES! I do! Then I remember I'm not a teenager any more. My birthday was 3 months ago and I'm still getting used to it.

 

It saddens me to even consider that teenagers don't read. I'm sure they do. This is one of the greatest things about the Harry Potter and Twilight crazes; millions of young people found that reading IS fun.

 

And for what it's worth, all my friends really enjoy reading. Partially because a lot of them are on my course studying English Lit, but even the ones who don't can't resist a good book.

 

Even my younger sister (17) enjoys reading now. She used to be the kind of person who'd say "I've seen the film; I don't need to read the book." She still hasn't read the Harry Potter books because of the films :( .

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Sadly I don't think enough teenagers read. The students in my class always hated reading out in my college aloud or to themselves. I have to admit that I haven't really much at 18 but I'm starting to now. I read Roald Dahl and Enid Byton as a child, all of the Harry Potter series, Lord Of The Rings, Let The Right One In and The Rapture so it's getting better and not bad.

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I have both friends who love to read, and those who read on occasion. In general I think there's still a lot of teenagers who read.

Recomending books to those who read less, or don't read at all can help, if you know the person well and think you know what might suit them.

 

I even started reading more in my teens, but I am rather anti-social lol :D

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Coming from a teenager, lots of teens like to read. Its just hard to find them. I'm obsessed with books and have like, two hundred and something. ( Not kidding! ) I hardly have anybody to talk with about books though, its hard to find somebody who isn't glued to the tv or footie or something. Only my best friend loves to read as much as me(:

Edited by Kell
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I have the same problem as Tilly. I'm 16 and addicted to reading, but none of my friends read. I can only talk about books with my colleagues (who are all at least 25 years older than me) since I work in a bookstore.

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I read a lot as a teenager up until 16-18 when I hardly read at all. The reason I stopped reading was because I fell pregnant, was going through a lot and just did not feel like picking up a book. When I went back to college when I was 18, I started reading again. I was studying English Language and English Literature so I had no choice but to read :P

 

Most of my friends at school did not read but when I went to college for the first time (I went when I was 16-17 before taking a year off to have my daughter), I met many people who were interested in reading. It was quite refreshing to find like-minded people my own age.

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Yeah, I think they read way more than we give them credit for.

 

I read so much when I was younger, but I didn't exactly advertise it because it wasn't "cool" to read when I was growing up. Now, however, it's becoming more and more accepted to be into stuff like vampires and anime. I think a lot of kids/teens read. At least the ones in my family and extended circle of people.

 

In my group of friends growing up, at least half of us liked reading.

 

I think all this fear of teens not reading is classic older-generation-worrying-about-younger-generation mentality.

Edited by Hyzenthlay
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People at school still consider reading as 'not cool'. When I tell people that I like reading and that I have read all the books we have to read for school, they are surprised. They associate reading with the boring books we have to read for school. I think that's also one of the reasons none of my friends read. They think all books are as boring as those we have to read for school. They don't realize most books aren't boring and are actually fun to read.

 

They also think it's very strange for someone of my age to work at a bookstore, and think it's a boring job. I think it's very fun and it's an easy way to learn a lot about books. The only 'negative' thing about working in a bookstore is that I buy way too many books. But who could blame me, books are appealing and I get a nice discount :blush:

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Chiara, I'm super jealous of your job in a bookstore. If ever there was a recreational job... I'd love to manage books and stationary all day! When I was a kid I wanted to be a librarian so badly.

 

I also wanted to be a farmer, though. Dreams change I guess. But books are awesome!

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I love working there :) I have wanted to work in the bookstore since I was little, and just a week after I turned 15 (in the Netherlands, we're allowed to have a job from the age of 15) the job became available and I got it. I was and still am so excited. However, I don't know how long I can keep working there. I am going to college next year and maybe I will move to another city so I will have to quit...

 

My dreams haven't changed. When I was little I wanted to be a writer and work at a bookstore. The latter, I achieved, so now I only have to become a writer. If only it were that easy.

Edited by Chiara
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Coming from a teenager, lots of teens like to read. Its just hard to find them. I'm obsessed with books and have like, two hundred and something. ( Not kidding! ) I hardly have anybody to talk with about books though, its hard to find somebody who isn't glued to the tv or footie or something. Only my best friend loves to read as much as me(:

 

I think just as many teens read as had in the past. The key is getting hooked into a series. Once you are... you cannot wait for the next one. That is why Potter (which I loved) and Twilight (which I never read) are so popular. The fact is that there are so many more series out there than there was 10... 20... 30 years ago.

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I think just as many teens read as had in the past. The key is getting hooked into a series. Once you are... you cannot wait for the next one. That is why Potter (which I loved) and Twilight (which I never read) are so popular. The fact is that there are so many more series out there than there was 10... 20... 30 years ago.

 

While I agree that getting hooked into a series keeps you reading, I don't agree about there being more series than in the past. My reading started in the late 70s, and I still have many of the series of books I collected back then, and there are a lot! You only have to look at the Enid Blyton books that were prevalent throughout my childhood, Famous Five, Secret Seven, Adventure, then as I grew older there were things like Sweet Valley High, and others I can't remember now. I remember visiting bookshops and seeing the many series of books on the shelves and going along the shelf to find the ones I hadn't read yet.

 

I think the difference is now that since the resurgence in popularity of books such as Harry Potter and Twilight, publishers have been more willing to spend money on the Childrens and YA genre. Both marketing departments and bookshops have realised there are adults interested in reading these books too, so they seem to be more numerous and more dominant in the displays and on websites, making seem as if there are more.

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I still read books and I'm 17 at the moment, I have read a few, I tend to go for the recommended books and highly rated ones just to see what I think of the book! I actually own my online book store aswell. I do like video game books aswell :)

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I'm 15 and I still read books as well, I think it's mainly the introduction of the computer and television which caused people to read less. With the TV and computer you're able to see an image with the story, which has a different effect on people. I think it's the fault of schools a bit as well, I had to read 4 books this year (1 for Dutch and 3 for English). My Dutch teacher allowed us to pick a book, I picked ''Oorlogswinter'', which is a good book.

But for English class we had to pick 3 books from a booklist. These books from the booklist (or the ones I read at least) had poor character design and a boring story, this could cause people to think negatively about reading.

 

Well, this is just a theory, but I wouldn't be surprised if this could be one of the things that caused people to read less.

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