Jul
15
Why aren’t many kids reading Heinlein, Doug Adams, and Robert Asprin much any more?
By
chorle questioned:
Pride and Prejudice always seemed like a book equivalent of a ***** flick to me so I never read it to but now the that the rewrite has Zombies in it.
And since author started podcasting I am buying more books and reading less but consuming more books
Storybooks That Teach Child Development
Pride and Prejudice always seemed like a book equivalent of a ***** flick to me so I never read it to but now the that the rewrite has Zombies in it.
And since author started podcasting I am buying more books and reading less but consuming more books
Storybooks That Teach Child Development
Who, who, and who?
If it makes you feel better, I’m fourteen, and I like A Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.
Anyway, this is based on my experience with my classmates. I’m not generalizing the whole teenage population.
A lot of my classmates **** reading. In my class of 44, when we were questioned if we liked to read, less than 10 of us raised our hands. I reckon the reason why a lot of them don’t like to read at all is because of electronic gadgets. They prefer the TV, the computer, the Wii, etc. to books.
As for reading books by the authors you mentioned:
The only books many of my classmates ever read willingly are well loved “teen” books like Twilight, House of Night, Evermore, etc. because they consider those kinds of books to be “simple reads.” These same classmates reckon that “enigmatic” is a college-level word. My friend once tried to read Pride and Prejudice but couldn’t know it. So their reading comprehension’s also got something to do with it. If they can’t know it, it won’t interest them. Also, some of them feel that they can’t really relate to those kinds of books because they’re “ancient”.
“Many” kids never were reading them, because “many” kids don’t read and haven’t since TV became widely available.
My son likes Douglas Adams. He’s a bit young for Heinlein. Never heard of Robert Asprin.
Because of our failing education system
Some kids are only reading what they absolutely have to. In some schools that means they only read Accelerated Reader quiz books because they need the points and only one of Heinlein’s juvenile books has an official AR quiz. I did write quizzes for the rest of them and will gladly share the quiz with any teacher.
And Jody Lynn Nye who wrote with Robert Asprin is a personal friend of mine. The Myth books are a lot of fun. Phil Folio who does the covers of Robert’s books was selling some of his “suggestive” art at Capricon and someone teased him about being a *******. The whole audience chorused “No he is a PERVECT!”