Sorry if there's already a topic on this, but I couldn't find one.

A lot of people think reading is dying out, what with films, the Internet an suchlike. What does anyone else think?

I've noticed that very few young people read much nowadays. For example, of my classmates, only three or four (including me) could be said to be readers. And the others are all girls! It seems to be a rare thing for a teenage male to read a lot, like me. I think this is a very sad thing, as some current authors are extremely good, like Terry Pratchett and Anthony Horowitz.

I don't know. When I was in school (not that long ago really), it was about the same. I think MOST people just generally don't read a lot. Not here in the states anyway. Most of my friends always read a lot, but I surrounded myself with people like myself. When I was in high school, the Pentium I was a big deal, so it's been a decade since then, but the real advent of the World Wide Web and computer gaming has happened since, and I don't think that a whole lot has changed.

I've always loved reading. J. K. Rowling has done a lot for getting the younger children into reading

If one looks at publishers' data, it doesn't seem at all like reading is dying out. Yet some publishers are dying. It does seems like there is a shift in what is being read, even if the raw numbers look healthy.

My reading is picking up again, but in part because with my iPod I can read by listening as I drive or exercise. I prefer the regular way of reading, but am very thankful whatever I can get.

I know I read a lot less since the Internet came about. I would be on 3-4 books a week and now I'd be lucky to read one that didn't have Tigger or Bob the Builder as a main character.

I edit in the Lit category here, and, from the number of submissions we get from young people, I think reading is alive and well. I agree with Lothruin - most people don't read, never have. I'm in my forties, things don't seem so different now than when I was a kid. There were always a few kids who read, and a lot who did other things. The *other things* have just changed, that's all.

The internet certainly does take you away from regular reading habits but there is nothing like picking up a good book.

Even if people do lessen their reading these days, reading will never die out.

Eh, like I said, I'm just not sure how much impact the internet really has on reading in general. There may certainly be people who read (books) less because they spend more time on the internet. There are other people, like me, who divide their time between hobbies, reading, knitting, internet, games, etc., and simply sleep less. Of course, my adult reading habits formed along with my internet use, so it would be difficult for me to say whether I really read less than I did before the internet, since comparing my childhood reading habits with my adult ones isn't exactly fair. However, I will say that I still get through at least 1000 pages a week. Plus play around on the internet for hours and hours during a week, including games. Plus I spend at least 10 hours a week knitting, which is less than I wish I spent. I also usually only sleep about 5 hours a night, if that... We all find ways to cope. Oh, and I have actually read books online, so internet time isn't without it's reading. I think I've read Jane Eyre and A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court online. I prefer reading actual books, but I'm poor and if it's copyright free and there's a copy online, I'll read it online before I buy a paper copy of it. If I don't already have a paper copy of it, that is. If you're comfortable reading a computer screen for a long period of time, I actually highly recommend it. I know my computer space is intentionally comfortable, and if you're planning on going somewhere you can alsways print off a few pages at a time to take along.

I have always been an avid reader for as long as I can remember. My daughter reads and always has, my son who is nineteen months younger doesn't and never has been much of a reader.

To me life would be dreadful if I couldn't have my books.

I find reading just as another hobby of mine. Most people my age (16) don't read books. They think only "geeks" read, which is sad, because the people who read more become more literate and make it further in life. But that could just be the people around me, where I live. Like stated above though, JK Rowling and authors like her do reach out to the younger generation and will get people to read. So unless technology gets a huge boost and people grow up only reading or listening to books on some sort of techno thing, I think reading will go on for a long time.

I've always read non-technical material very, very slowly. These days I often have to read pages over and over again. *sigh* But its worth it.

I don't remember much about being a little kid but I remember all my summer vacations by what book I read that year.

Gotta thank J.K. Rowling for getting some kids reading.

Well, since Norman has come out, I can too. I read about half of my books with my walkman. Get tapes from the library, and I can now read while doing housework, walking the dog, working out, driving.... I don't ever have to stop reading!!
I'm intrigued by what he says about using his Ipod - Norman, do you download books from the net? I don't have an Ipod, but I'd get one if I could use it this way.

I do read...I promise I do!...although it is so much easier to slip on a cassette tape or cd! Helps me nod off to sleep too!

I frequent the school library, and my classmates are amazed that I read. They can't seem to understand the joy of reading. This is frankly upsetting.

There doesn't seem as many "younger" (as in teenager 13-19) members at my local library, which seems a shame. Harry Potter has encouraged a lot of people to read however. Reading has always been part of my life.

I know I haven't been doing a lot of reading lately. I have my tremendous schoolwork load to thank for that. Now I can't read a book without feeling some measure of guilt. Mom said that college 'cured' her of reading and I vowed that that would never happen to me...but look what's happening! Still, determined to carry on my 'book-life', I borrowed a book this evening in hopes to get a little my-book-and-I time. Hopefully, I'll get through with my plan although it really is tough for me to balance out school and reading.

Just speaking for myself and my particular friends, I read, (I'm 13), My best friends read (12 and 13) my other best friend who is a guy reads and hes 16. I think basiclly all my friends read, both my 17 year old friends read, my 18 year old friends read. All in all, theres a lot of reading going on with US. But, then again, I am homeschooled. So perhaps that changes things. I dont know, my friends who go to school read as well though.

Both of my kids (14 and 17 ) read, quite a lot. Most of their friends read as well - though a lot of what they read is manga.

This might have something to do with our family, though. A few years ago the school that the kids go to had a competition - all the kids in a class had to document the time they spent reading, and the class with the most hours would win a pizza lunch. To encourage family literacy, the reading hours of siblings and parents were also included. The season was the slack time of year for my husband, so he was taking his accumulated days off, just going into work maybe one day every two weeks, to keep up with his paperwork. This was before we had a home computer, and he spent maybe 12-14 hours a day reading - he really had nothing else to do. When this was added to my and my son's 2-3 hours a day each, and my daughter's 5-7 hours (she was going through a "Babysitter's Club" phase) well, I have to tell you there were accusations of cheating.... Luckily one of the subsitute teachers at the school also worked part time at the public library, and she vouched for us. I think kids raised in this type of a household will just naturally be readers - it would be strange if they weren't.

I inherited part of my love for reading from my mother although I haven't seen her pick up a book in...wait...I don't think I've ever seen her read a leisure book my entire life! Well, as I said before, college cured her of reading. I actually got through with my plans last night! I got to read 43 pages of 'The Watsons' but my plan wasn't entirely successful. I kept falling asleep and waking back up for every two pages. Not that the book wasn't good, I was just naturally wiped out. So, at 43 pages I stay for now because I'm back in full swing with work and studies today and to tell you the truth, I don't know when I'll be able to pick it up again. Probably tonight when all is said and done...but then again, I'll probably fall asleep on the book again just like I did last night.

Accd.g to the Columbia University Press:

Quote:

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Reading - process of mentally interpreting written symbols

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When I define 'reading' I think of it in those terms, literal as they are. And, as such, reading is "dying out", if one wants to see it that way. But, I think, the exercise of reading is just evolving in the ways we do it (just like the way[s] we "go to the movies" have changed so drastically, too). To me, hearing a book being read is a good thing to happen as it presents a topic/theme, clearly establishes a respect for the book the words came from and gives the audience the opportunity to create the important mental pictures in the head as it is heard (which sparks imagination which, in my opinion, is what written words are supposed to do). I'm a purist, though, and like my books to have pages that I can look at, return to, 'dog-ear' and such - but that's just me. In terms of "literature" and the absorbtion of it? Nah, it's no less now than what it was 50 years ago. As a society, however, we are much more passive in our area(s) of exploration now so audio books or abbreviated novels or what have you fit into the scheme of life better and more handily.
I wouldn't/won't get nervous until there's a resounding notion that audio books, etc., are better than books overall. It would seem that would rob younger people of the opportunity of reading a particular passage in a book and put their own inflections, interpretations, pauses and "spin" on the words without having someone doing that for them. There's a boundlessness to the written word as it filters into the brain that doesn't quite exist in the same written words being read TO a person. In some ways, that alone is a boundary in the experience of total reading.
At least that's how I feel .

I'm going to be the devil's advocate once more and try to define the problem, if it is one, of why younger people in well, France and the States, aren't reading as much in my opinion.

However, first of all, I've always been someone who reads absolutely everything, without a hierarchy however. I tend to not exclude something because it isn't highbrow enough and, I tend to exclude 'classics' if I find them dreadfully boring. Nothing kills my desire to read something if I've been told it's a must.
I was read to, and far beyond my early childhood. My parents read to each other and listen to books on tape and read a lot on their own. My grandparents all read a lot of books and magazines and papers.

I'd have to say that only two out of four siblings are really big readers though, the other two aren't as intense.

My children's father is rather erudite in terms of his reading and tends to read things that I wouldn't bother with..but, it varies.
I read a lot to the children, and I mean a lot, over and over, and they loved it, but my kids prefer writing to reading!
I noticed this happening when school imposed reading material on them, and they lost their love for pleasurable reading gradually.

The boy kept up his reading with the comic albums the French do so well, and then once school imposed boring things on him, stopped picking up books.
The girl also tended to read stuff for school, but, reading for pleasure became rare.
Harry Potter turned it around for her...and she read those books with pleasure in English though she was in France by then.

Now, it's really hard to find the boy reading for anything but school, and the girl is doing things at the university level that require a higher order of reading.

I think that school is turning many kids away from it who were book lovers when they were small and had parents who modeled the behavior and who read to them.