Who Reads Books?

[iWriteStuff]

In conversation with my teenage niece last night, it came about that she hates reading books. It's just too hard, they're not fun, and anything more than a page long is "difficult". I've heard this from her older contemporaries as well. They will watch countless hours of YouTube videos or Facebook, but in terms of actual reading (for whatever purpose), they find it too tedious and not worthwhile.

Is this the new norm? How many books does the average individual read on a yearly basis? Is it shrinking?

[Sirocco]

A lot of my books have found their way on the tablet, but I still own quite a lot of actual novels and genuinely enjoy the act.
I've even written a few.

[Matchmaker]

A lot of my books have found their way on the tablet, but I still own quite a lot of actual novels and genuinely enjoy the act.
I've even written a few.

I wish you would post one on here and let us read it.

[kittycat51]

As a youth we grew up without a TV. I would love to be dropped off at our library and spend an hour or so checking out books. I would read a couple of books every week throughout the whole summer. I don't read like I use to. If I get a really good book that interests me, I can't put it down and nothing else gets accomplished. This is a rarity though. I will sadly say that my computer has changed this in me. I find it harder to focus on what I'm reading more often than not.

It's interesting to see the desire to read wane in my boys. My older ones who did not have the "wi-fi" hold on them so much LOVED to read and did so all the time. Whereas my younger ones who have grown up with all things media can't sit still long enough to read a book. It has really irritated me. A couple of summers ago, I was so fed up that I offered a challenge. For every 100 pages they could read I would give them a $1. One son took it seriously and earned $100 by the end of the summer...that's 10,000 pages read! Whereas another one couldn't muster the energies and only read about a couple of dollars worth.

[captainfearnot]

In conversation with my teenage niece last night, it came about that she hates reading books. It's just too hard, they're not fun, and anything more than a page long is "difficult". I've heard this from her older contemporaries as well. They will watch countless hours of YouTube videos or Facebook, but in terms of actual reading (for whatever purpose), they find it too tedious and not worthwhile.

With my kids it depends on the book, and access to technology. It's like pulling teeth to get them to read books for school, but they will devour stuff they actually like. Harry Potter proved that kids will read 800 page novels they are really interested in.

That said, they never read—even their favorite books—if there is a more brain-dead alternative like surfing youtube on a phone or a tablet. When those are unavailable, reading books suddenly becomes attractive. So it might help to make screens off limits during certain hours, like before bedtime, while still allowing reading.

[iWriteStuff]

In conversation with my teenage niece last night, it came about that she hates reading books. It's just too hard, they're not fun, and anything more than a page long is "difficult". I've heard this from her older contemporaries as well. They will watch countless hours of YouTube videos or Facebook, but in terms of actual reading (for whatever purpose), they find it too tedious and not worthwhile.

With my kids it depends on the book, and access to technology. It's like pulling teeth to get them to read books for school, but they will devour stuff they actually like. Harry Potter proved that kids will read 800 page novels they are really interested in.

That said, they never read—even their favorite books—if there is a more brain-dead alternative like surfing youtube on a phone or a tablet. When those are unavailable, reading books suddenly becomes attractive. So it might help to make screens off limits during certain hours, like before bedtime, while still allowing reading.

There's the oddity.... The wife and I asked the niece about Harry Potter, Hunger Games, even Twilight for heavens sake (blech!), but we couldn't get her interested in a single teenage demographic series. I do NOT want this for my kids. We read books to them every day and they love them and ask for more. Somehow I just have to keep this up until they are adults and pray it continues when they leave the nest.

I should mention my parents shut off the cable TV in our house when I entered middle school. We were mad then, but it's the best thing they could have done. We got jobs, new hobbies, spent time outdoors.... best thing ever, seriously.

[Arenera]

In conversation with my teenage niece last night, it came about that she hates reading books. It's just too hard, they're not fun, and anything more than a page long is "difficult". I've heard this from her older contemporaries as well. They will watch countless hours of YouTube videos or Facebook, but in terms of actual reading (for whatever purpose), they find it too tedious and not worthwhile.

Is this the new norm? How many books does the average individual read on a yearly basis? Is it shrinking?

Just read a few. Discovering the Word of Wisdom is excellent, and inexpensive on kindle.

[Baysimove]

I love books and if my schedules are not really busy I always grab 1 before bedtime. My last book I read is "Daily Bread" I need this especially when I'm down and need my spiritual side lifted up.

[Z2100]

I like reading books, mostly spiritual ones; but I either don’t have the time or I don’t feel like it!

Lately I have been reading the volumes of the “Doctrines of Salvation” by JFS. Needless to say that they contain a few interesting things we normally do not talk about.

[brianj]

In conversation with my teenage niece last night, it came about that she hates reading books. It's just too hard, they're not fun, and anything more than a page long is "difficult". I've heard this from her older contemporaries as well. They will watch countless hours of YouTube videos or Facebook, but in terms of actual reading (for whatever purpose), they find it too tedious and not worthwhile.

Is this the new norm? How many books does the average individual read on a yearly basis? Is it shrinking?

Yes. At least one company has cropped up that rewrites classics as a short sequence of tweets.

Bradbury wrote Fahrenheit 451 as a warning about where society would go because of television. He was wrong about that, but smart phones and text messages brought about exactly what he feared: attention spans too short for even one full page.

[buffalo_girl]

Anyone read the 'old' hardback classics like War & Peace, Hunchback of Notre Dame, David Copperfield, How Green Was My Valley?

For the past three decades my hardback book reading has been nonfiction, but the old classics gave me a wonderful grasp of how things 'work' in human society. I sometimes return to them as I've become increasingly cynical about 'reality'.

[Sirocco]

A lot of my books have found their way on the tablet, but I still own quite a lot of actual novels and genuinely enjoy the act.
I've even written a few.

I wish you would post one on here and let us read it.

I'm not sure they'd have a lot of fans lol
Some of the short stories yeah, I'll dig up a few of the fantasy ones and post them for sure.

[inho]

A lot of my books have found their way on the tablet, but I still own quite a lot of actual novels and genuinely enjoy the act.
I've even written a few.

I wish you would post one on here and let us read it.

I'm not sure they'd have a lot of fans lol
Some of the short stories yeah, I'll dig up a few of the fantasy ones and post them for sure.

I remember that you were once writing a story which had a Mormon break off sect and you wanted people to give you some ideas. Did you finish that story? Can one find it somewhere?

[JohnnyL]

It's not just screens, it's the ability to read--it seems to be dropping overall. For example, I taught a 4th grade class in Title 1, and there was ONE good reader in class. Teachers use screens because:
1)you have 30 non-readers in class, how are you going to keep their attention and keep them out of trouble?
2)How are you going to keep your wits?--it's easier on the teacher.
3)They don't really teach alternatives, like storytelling.
4)"Educators" have taken the fun out of reading.

There were, and are, lots of bad books. Books that "got famous" or "hit a sweet spot" but weren't really good, and forced on students. Books that are taught because they are "classics", or because "my teacher's teacher's teacher taught them." (Hey, let's read "Romeo and Juliet", even though no one will understand literally half the book. Yeah, let's kill any desire for reading...)

Books that are read because of hype, but are nowhere near as good as others. (Like "The Shawshank Redemption" for movies--good, solid--but #1 all time???)

Horrible lessons that teachers put up and everyone uses because it's still easier than making one up yourself. / A plethora of often aimless questions that are there for "comprehension checks", but as you get older you realize are mainly for busy work. It's easy to teach reading when you give a story and 50 questions...

Books that are favorites, but were never used scholastically--Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, The Three Investigators, and lots of others.

Seeing as how the great majority of people are visual learners, what's watching videos where most of the information is auditory doing to the nation's learning?
When people need constant outside stimulation, and can't stand to be alone or by themselves, or be bored, or deal with "I have no life" or "I'm guilty" or "I can't deal with life", what's that doing to learning?

[eddie]

I would suggest a book that everyone should read, ( I will head up our book club here, for a small fee of course)
It is, "The Meaning of Life," by Victor Frankel. He went through Hell while managing to discipline himself to endure. Amazing!! Someday I intend to read it in its entirety, Who has read it? You will get a star on the Book Club bulletin board, a very prestigious honor.
P.S. This is a good behavior book club, only "I" get to break the rules! Kind of like the "Trump good behavior post."

[buffalo_girl]

Who has read it?

I read it in my late teens - five decades ago. I haven't since, but it did leave a powerful incentive to continue exercising one's agency despite seemingly unendurable circumstances.

I'm not sure I still have a copy. I have boxes & boxes & boxes of books stored in every nook and cranny. I'll look.

[Yahtzee]

Man's Search for Meaning?
Fantastic book!!!! I'd have my kids read that before any depressing Steinbeck books. I can't believe it's not on their reading list. Need to amend that, thanks for the suggestion.

[Original_Intent]

I enjoy reading, and have to a degree avoided the "audio book" phenomenon. I don;t even want an eBook (although at least in that case you are actually reading.) But today I stumbled upon a lot of C.S. Lewis audiobooks on Youtube. Today, while doing other things on the computer, I have listened to "The Screwtape Letters", "The Great Divorce", "The Abolition of Man" and am currently listening to "Mere Christianity". Taking the time to dedicate to reading these, that I will have completed in their entirety in one day, would have taken weeks to read a few pages here and a few there.

And I have gotten a pretty good amount of retention/comprehension. Definitely there is some value. I kind of regret all the years that I have shied away from audio books.

[eddie]

Man's Search for Meaning?
Fantastic book!!!! I'd have my kids read that before any depressing Steinbeck books. I can't believe it's not on their reading list. Need to amend that, thanks for the suggestion.

I got the title wrong? It's been a long time since I read it, but it made an impression on me, that's for sure!

I spent a lot of time in school watching, " To Kill A Mockingbird," so I could do a book report. Shame on me, anybody else do this?

[iWriteStuff]

I enjoy reading, and have to a degree avoided the "audio book" phenomenon. I don;t even want an eBook (although at least in that case you are actually reading.) But today I stumbled upon a lot of C.S. Lewis audiobooks on Youtube. Today, while doing other things on the computer, I have listened to "The Screwtape Letters", "The Great Divorce", "The Abolition of Man" and am currently listening to "Mere Christianity". Taking the time to dedicate to reading these, that I will have completed in their entirety in one day, would have taken weeks to read a few pages here and a few there.

And I have gotten a pretty good amount of retention/comprehension. Definitely there is some value. I kind of regret all the years that I have shied away from audio books.

Generally I listen to audiobooks when I'm on the road for long periods of time.... which is every day (minimum two hours). Ebooks have been useful for document searches - like the Journal of Discourses pdf, History of the Church, or any other free classic book or material I can find out there. If I know a specific topic is discussed in them, I can search the document for those keywords and shorten my research time considerably. I've also taken Nibley's books that are available from the Maxwell Institute and put them in pdf format (15 books in total). That makes them both searchable and extremely portable.

That being said, I loooooove printed books. Highlighting, footnotes in the margins, and of course something I can pass on to my kids when they get old enough to tackle deeper subject matter than Gruffalos and fairytales. I consider books to be a form of treasure, but the knowledge itself is the important part, and I consume that any way I can.

[Yahtzee]

Man's Search for Meaning?
Fantastic book!!!! I'd have my kids read that before any depressing Steinbeck books. I can't believe it's not on their reading list. Need to amend that, thanks for the suggestion.

I got the title wrong? It's been a long time since I read it, but it made an impression on me, that's for sure!

I spent a lot of time in school watching, " To Kill A Mockingbird," so I could do a book report. Shame on me, anybody else do this?

He's written a few books with similar titles so I just wanted to clarify. That's more his editors fault. ;)
And yeah, I've definitely watched my share of novels I couldn't finish. Wuthering Heights was just so tedious!

[Rose Garden]

I was an avid reader in my younger years. I blame motherhood, not technology for my inability to read now. Part of it is focus but the larger issue is time. I get so caught up in books that I neglect everything else. My children have gone hungry at times because of a fascinating novel. I've learned to treat it like an addiction--I just can't start in the first place. I suspect my problems will clear up in a few years.

[Rose Garden]

I enjoy reading, and have to a degree avoided the "audio book" phenomenon. I don;t even want an eBook (although at least in that case you are actually reading.) But today I stumbled upon a lot of C.S. Lewis audiobooks on Youtube. Today, while doing other things on the computer, I have listened to "The Screwtape Letters", "The Great Divorce", "The Abolition of Man" and am currently listening to "Mere Christianity". Taking the time to dedicate to reading these, that I will have completed in their entirety in one day, would have taken weeks to read a few pages here and a few there.

And I have gotten a pretty good amount of retention/comprehension. Definitely there is some value. I kind of regret all the years that I have shied away from audio books.

Because I'm more visual than audio, I also did not appreciate audio books for a long time. However, recently I've been enjoying them due to the fact that I can still wash dishes, do laundry, etc. while listening. I miss more when I'm listening but at least I get something instead of missing out on the experience completely. I'm working my way through as many classics as I can that way.

[eddie]

Man's Search for Meaning?
Fantastic book!!!! I'd have my kids read that before any depressing Steinbeck books. I can't believe it's not on their reading list. Need to amend that, thanks for the suggestion.

I got the title wrong? It's been a long time since I read it, but it made an impression on me, that's for sure!

I spent a lot of time in school watching, " To Kill A Mockingbird," so I could do a book report. Shame on me, anybody else do this?

He's written a few books with similar titles so I just wanted to clarify. That's more his editors fault. ;)
And yeah, I've definitely watched my share of novels I couldn't finish. Wuthering Heights was just so tedious!

What? Wuthering Heights is a favorite of mine!
" Heathcliff, Heathcliff!"

[iWriteStuff]

Man's Search for Meaning?
Fantastic book!!!! I'd have my kids read that before any depressing Steinbeck books. I can't believe it's not on their reading list. Need to amend that, thanks for the suggestion.

I got the title wrong? It's been a long time since I read it, but it made an impression on me, that's for sure!

I spent a lot of time in school watching, " To Kill A Mockingbird," so I could do a book report. Shame on me, anybody else do this?

He's written a few books with similar titles so I just wanted to clarify. That's more his editors fault. ;)
And yeah, I've definitely watched my share of novels I couldn't finish. Wuthering Heights was just so tedious!

What? Wuthering Heights is a favorite of mine!
" Heathcliff, Heathcliff!"

I never read fiction. Never. My mother, the librarian (literally), suggested I read Wuthering Heights a few months ago, so I did out of respect to her good judgment and sense of refinement. Worst. Book. Ever. I kept waiting for some redeeming feature to emerge, and it never did. The whole book reads like a resume of people I would work diligently to avoid in real life. As Dante Gabriel Rossetti described it, "A fiend of a book – an incredible monster. The action is laid in hell, – only it seems places and people have English names there."

As a result, I felt I needed a good palette cleanser so I digested Don Quixote. Thoroughly enjoyed it. Now it's back to good old fashion non-fiction again. Yay!