Do teenagers still read books?

[Janet]

Depends largely on their upbringing, education and background in my view.

I completely disagree with this.

 

My husband and I are both readers and yet neither of our children are. I resent the implication that they must therefore have been either bought up badly, are being badly educated or have any kind of issue with their 'background'.

 

They just choose to do other things with their lives. And no, that doesn't include underage drinking, smoking behind the bike sheds, bunking off school or mugging old ladies.

[Johnny Carson Whit]

I completely disagree with this.

 

My husband and I are both readers and yet neither of our children are. I resent the implication that they must therefore have been either bought up badly, are being badly educated or have any kind of issue with their 'background'.

 

They just choose to do other things with their lives. And no, that doesn't include underage drinking, smoking behind the bike sheds, bunking off school or mugging old ladies.

 

I was simply saying that some are more academic than others, jeez

[Janet]

No, you weren't.

 

Depends largely on their upbringing, education and background in my view.

[Johnny Carson Whit]

No, you weren't.

 

do those things not have an influence on whether a person is academically inclined then?

 

I'm not geting into an argument over it, I essentially don't really care. I was just relaying my personal experiences.

[Chrissy]

Depends largely on their upbringing, education and background in my view.

Although I understand why you would think this I do disagree, because you only have to look at the forum members here to know that we all come from such a variety of backgrounds and educational experiences.

I suppose it's no different to the kind of groups you get in schools, you always have the kids who will gather around the back of the building at break having a cheeky fag and bunking off every lesson they can, who will shun any member of their 'group' who admits to enjoying reading.

I was a serial lesson avoider (I was placed on Report a number of times, and exclusion was debated), I would climb over the back gates and spend my days with mates smoking and chatting (and occasionally snogging ). I still read voraciously. Happy Days.

Whereas you will get the A grade students who are naturally academically gifted who will like nothing more than settling down with a good book.

The A grades kicked in when I took myself off to College and then University in my twenties.

[Johnny Carson Whit]

It was not my intention to offend or wind anyone up,which I thought was made clear with the words 'in my view'.

 

I stated nothing as fact. in my experience everything I said is true, in your world it might not.

 

There really is no need to use it to make out I am calling anyone an inadequate parent, because I was not.

[Chrissy]

If you're referring to me JCW, I am not offended nor wound up!

 

I thoroughly enjoyed my misspent school years, although as I said I read like a mad young thing throughout those years. Having said that, I think I was the only 'proper' reader in my rebellious little group.

 

My son (now in his mid twenties) did read, but he stuck to manuals and catalogues and typically boyish reading material. His reading died off for a while around 14 -18, but picked up again, so I now have the joy of book chats with him.

[Johnny Carson Whit]

If you're referring to me JCW, I am not offended nor wound up!

 

I thoroughly enjoyed my misspent school years, although as I said I read like a mad young thing throughout those years. Having said that, I think I was the only 'proper' reader in my rebellious little group.

 

My son (now in his mid twenties) did read, but he stuck to manuals and catalogues and typically boyish reading material. His reading died off for a while around 14 -18, but picked up again, so I now have the joy of book chats with him.

 

No I was referring to Janet, who seems to have taken my words personally.

[Chrissy]

I think that there is more range of reading material for teenagers, specifically targetted toward them than years past. There may always have been books, but not in the way there now are. You also didn't have the merchandising and film links etc that you have so much more now.

 

I feel that publishers would not waste their money without 'proof' of the teen purchasing, although the age range of the Twilight readers to be found on here may suggest that it isn't teens so much.

 

An enormous amount depends on what else is going on in the life of a teenager though. My son in his teens was very sociable and therefore out and about so much he would occasionally read a magazine or something if he couldn't sleep, but not much beyond that in those teens years. Me? I was half and half ~ I was enormously sociable, but needed alone time regularly. I also always wore jackets etc that could hold a book in it's pocket.

[Ooshie]

My son is an A grade student, and people assume he reads a lot because he has a very good vocabulary and wide general knowledge.

 

However, he probably only reads a couple of books a year. I think the last book he read was Duma Key by Stephen King, which he thoroughly enjoyed.

 

I remember talking to a friend when I was pregnant about what my child could be like, and saying that because I read all the time, I expected my child to be the opposite and on the computer/game console all the time. And I was right!

[sirinrob]

I come from a family of decided non-readers. Though I wasn't discouraged to read, it was always the hints that I might prefer to play with others rather than having my nose stuck in a book that made me cross. I persisted and was left to my own devices. So the notion it is background, education etc is in my view fallacious. Some are intellectually driven others socially driven.

[Cookie]

In the house I grew up in, it was just something that everyone did. Got a spare half hour? Nothing on the telly? Bored? Then pick up a book. So I suppose mine is environmental.

[Kookie]

Well im a teenager and I read two of my friends and i read and we were the top of our english class

[Jay Landsman]

I come from a family of decided non-readers. Though I wasn't discouraged to read, it was always the hints that I might prefer to play with others rather than having my nose stuck in a book that made me cross. I persisted and was left to my own devices. So the notion it is background, education etc is in my view fallacious. Some are intellectually driven others socially driven.

 

I do agree that the desire to read is in your from a very young age, but I do think that circumstance can do a lot to suppress that desire for quite a while. I pushed that desire into the subconscious for the majority of my teenage years as I wasn't strong-minded enough not to go along with the crowd.

 

But luckily for me, I realised that what the majority consider 'fun' wasn't satisfying me; so I've been trying my best to catch-up with people who accepted this fact at a younger age

[Denise]

My son has never been a big reader only when he is told too at school..

Though atm he is reading a Sookie Stackhouse book.

[arewenearlythere]

I agree, I'm trying to instill a good relationship between my kids and books early on so they don't end up missing out on that beautiful feeling of curling up in front of the fire with a good book!

 

What do you think is a good way to keep kids into books?

[Christie]

Being a teenager it was hard at school to find anyone who read as much as me but that quickly changed when I took English at college and every other person seemed to be an avid book fan!

[emelee]

I sometimes work with teenagers (16-20 years olds) and the majority only read novels because school forces them and others read on their spare time because they want to. So SOME teens still reads. (I can only speak for Swedes here...)

[Skírnir]

Very few that I know of seem to enjoy books as much as I do and e.g. take the time to read when they could be watching television instead. However, it seems that most of my classmates can enjoy a good book every once in a while although I've only started to notice this after I went to college - one that has a word for being for fit for ambitious kids who are willing to devote their time to their studies. In elementary, I felt as if I was almost the only kid in school who read at all. Considering that it was at the highlight of the Harry Potter-hype, that's saying something. However, if you'd ask my history teacher about teenagers' reading, he'd probably say we don't read at all because we normally don't recognise his quotes from Classics and other novels he's read.

 

I think the problem is mainly that there is little time for reading for your own entertainment when you're in school. I, for example, do not only have to keep up with my biology/chemistry/physics/French/maths textbooks, I also have to read a few novels for English/Icelandic/Danish class. Sadly, a lot of teenagers I know do not even bother to read the ones they're set to read for class and settle for notes from others instead. A shame.

[arewenearlythere]

I agree, I think its important to try and substitute books to television as much as you can, i send my oldest on the train to school with a little book to keep him reading then ask him about it at the end of the day, I don't let him watch television until he does, I rarely have to though, he loves his reading.

[BookJumper]

Being a teenager it was hard at school to find anyone who read as much as me but that quickly changed when I took English at college and every other person seemed to be an avid book fan!

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[vodkafan]

I can't remember which thread it was on and now can't find it again-but someone pointed me to the Darkest Powers Trilogy for my 13 year old..I bought her the first book (The Summoning) and she devoured that in a day...so now I have had to order her the other two and I got the first Sookie Stackhouse book for good measure.

Right now she has gone to bed and is trying to choose between Marrianne Dreams, Papillon or East End Girl.

My eldest daughter (15) likes a book but is not as fast a reader as her sister..my youngest son (11) only likes coffee table books with pictures of cars, tanks, ships or machine guns.

[arewenearlythere]

Thanks alot VodkaFan, its funny you talk about coffee table books, youngest loves them to! Thanks again for the suggestions, going to search them now

 

That reminds me, what sort of themes do your kids like in books? I

Edited April 27, 2010 by Michelle
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[vodkafan]

Thanks alot VodkaFan, its funny you talk about coffee table books, youngest loves them to! Thanks again for the suggestions, going to search them now

 

That reminds me, what sort of themes do your kids like in books? I

[FlewtheCuckoosNest]

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.