Do teenagers still read?

the_watchman

I've been doing a fair few book signings recently, naturally taking me into a wide variety of local bookshops.

I've yet to sell a copy of my book to someone under twenty-five!

In fact, I've hardly seen anyone under twenty-five in a book shop (not counting bored looking fourteen-year-old boys being dragged about by their mum/mad auntie).

Do people under forty still read?

dorothyd

yes they do. On one of the threads, there is a comment from a TBer about an 11 year old buying a book for a friend, and choosing a Jacqueline Wilson book. She, along with some other 'teen' writers, are doing very well. She in particular is a true best seller. My daughter is under 40 and reads extensively, she has just read Stephen Crane's The Red Badge Of Courage and loved it.

Tracy

I was in Waterstones before Christmas and was listening to a group of teenagers - girls and boys - discussing the merits of different books. As an aspiring children's writer I ended up eavesdropping to get a sense of what they liked and disliked. Also, there are a lot of websites that are based on children's reviews of different books so they are actively taking an interest.

Liz

Mine do and have... my son is currently devouring Bringr and has the last Artemis Fowl to go and my daughter asked for lots of books, fact and fiction for Christmas... I found the way to encourage it was to say the one thing I would always buy them whether we had enough money or not, was any book -if necessary I'd go into second hand shops after things they wanted, but as things got better for us that became less necessary. they never abused this, but it did keep them reading, as any interst they had could be fulfilled. We also went to the library if necessary, ut teenagers do not like the library so much...

Carol

Yes two of my 13 year olds do, but they are very selective in what they purchase- if the blurb doesn't attract them they won't read further.
When you have done the book signings, what time of day and week were they?
School holidays and weekends are the busiest time in our bookshops in Nottingham.

goodsuspect

Yes they do. But, and this might be a generalisation, I think that girls still read more than boys. I used to work in an all boys secondary school and, although some were avid readers, it was hard work getting a lot of them to read. Writers such as Anthony Horowitz, JK Rowling and Louis Sachar were big favs.

Carol

I also think you have to remember that a lot of teenagers prefer physical activities rather than reading- football etc. Unless a child is turned on to reading early on, I think it can be a hard battle to get them, as teens interested in reading.

Daisy

Do teenagers still read? Going only by my own three teens (one 20 now) and their friends I'd say yes. Many other teenagers don't read books, but read other stuff - magazines for example. I think most surveys probably suggest that, on average, girls read more than boys and that all the other distractions and forms of entertainment these days lure kids away from books. There is a lot of 'teen fiction' out there though, so unless only adults are buying it and keeping it for themselves then I guess plenty of teenagers must be still reading.

Liz

There's a big 'hole' in the market for good books for 9 yr olds... if you write one of those you'll be in the running to get published more easily than for other age groups. It's around here that you can snare a reader for life... any good writers for boys for this age group out there?

I knew this from reading about it and from what publishers had been saying, but it was really brought home to me when I went out before Christmas to buy a book for our godson, 9 years old...

Dwight

They certainly are, Daisy. And that 'Teenage Best Sellers' bookcase in Borders or wherever is a key to what is attracting the teen readers. Judging by its present 1-20 lists, either girls will read anything, or it is mainly boys who are buying, because the boy-orientated books outnumber the 'girly' books.

I was surprised to discover recently in school that many teenagers have several favourite authors and that they have read everything they have produced. With other authors, and I think these tend to be the crossover types, the upimg readers have tried one and moved on. Perhaps the books do better with teenagers if they are accurately targeted at their level, with not so many of these literary references or appeals to 'adult' general knowledge for humour or some other effect.

Carol and Daisy, I would imagine that reading becomes a part of a child's life when they habitually spend much of their time in the home. Reading is either one of their habits or it hardly features. A teenager who never opens a book is unlikely to, no matter how wonderful their peers say it is. One of the reasons given is that they don't have the time!

Carol

I do think young children are more inclined to at least pick up a book earlier if they grow up seeing their parents reading.
But I agree Dwight time is a problem.

Yes Liz, that 9 year old for boys type books is a difficult area, though I do think that more choice is finally starting to appear. But have to say there seem to be more books that could be read by either sex, rather than just aimed at boys, and boys can be very judgemental on what they consider as a read for them.

goodsuspect

[quote=Carol]boys can be very judgemental on what they consider as a read for them[/quote]

I second that. They can be hard work! :)

Randomguy

I'm a teenager and I still rea... Oh wait. That was 30 years ago... Doh!

Stirling

I'm not surprised your son is devouring Brisingr Liz - I loved it too!

Piper

I agree with Dwight I cannot find the time to read however I'm going to make the time. I love reading. In the holidays I can sit and read chunks at a time whilst listening to my MP3 player. I have said this on another thread somewhere but I have at least 10 books lined up to read not to mention books that I want to read such as the Twilight series. Part of these book I have lined up are The Princess Diaries series, which I did start reading (Out Loud to my mum which I hadn't done since primary school) but stopped to read Girls Aloud: Dreams That Glitter. In the October holidays I re-read the first three Artemis Fowl books in three days. I'm now re-reading the fourth one but I havent had time to read it. I will though because my friend has this book about fairytales in modern times, so I have to start reading soon!

caro

I come from a big extended family with lots of teenage cousins. They're all great readers. They read all types of books. I imagine that if only people over the age of forty were reading nowadays, there would be fewer publishers and fewer books. That doesn't seem to be the case, thank goodness!

Grimmy

I also agree that it's difficult for teenagers to find time to read, especially in the last couple of years of school. I found it difficult to read (except for what I had to for English) during my Year 12 because I would be studying practically non-stop, and when I took a break from studying the last thing I wanted to do was concentrate on more reading- I usually went for the TV instead. Although, I do love reading, so if I didn't turn to the TV in my breaks I'd re-read a kids book or something. Still, most of my friends love reading.

Jay Mandal

So no one's reading Dostoyevsky?

Kangaroo

Umm, not that I know of.

caro

Yesterday I was standing in a queue in Tescos when I saw a little girl, about ten years old, reading Northanger Abbey!

Carol

That's wonderful. :)

Stan2

That is wonderful.

Tessadragon

I'm quite sure I read (I'm twenty two), otherwise yesterday evening's read of John Barrowman's autobiography must've been a very strange dream. I've also enjoyed collecting a few antique books such as editions of Princess and the Goblin, my boyfriend (twenty years old) regularly gets me a gift of a few books on occasions. I've just attended a book signing last weekend for Ali Sparkes' Frozen in Time and there were certainly quite a few children, teens and adults there. (I know she ran a lot of visits to schools to publicise it.)
Also try looking at fanfiction.net...there are quite a few teens there writing fanfiction for their favourite stories as a way of sharing creativity for free. Teenagers often have no income unless they have paper rounds, thus books rising in price become less of a priority compared to a music CD they can listen to, a new Wii game to have something fun to do.
With a little effort it's quite easy to get someone to enjoy reading. When I was a teen, I read a book in tutorial, a friend saw me reading it and looked at the synopsis, liked it, borrowed it from me and then the rest of the series. Since then, well, she's now a qualified nursery assistant, shares a house with her boyfriend and has bookshelves filled with both dvds and books, a few of which are her own copies of those books that I lent her years ago.
However unless people make effort to promote reading, we will see a decline. In school, there are no fun reading activities: students begrudgingly read Othello, Macbeth, Of Mice and Men and then poetry from World War II....whereas give them choice in reading, or else encourage the inclusion of a book likely to appeal to them and they will likely want to finish it, such is the saying: 'lead a horse to water and let it drink', rather than 'drag the stupid horse to the pond, shove its head into the water and it'll get the idea eventually'.

So in summary, t_w, by you not having seen any teenagers, I'm likely to think that either your book isn't aimed at teenagers, or you haven't actually let them know that the book exists. Try paying a visit to a secondary school and maybe you'll find real teenagers. If you want them to read, you have to pitch to them, not to the floor.

Betsie

Of course teenagers still read - you can't lump them all under one umbrella