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I grew up in a house that had a library with 1000+ books. Unfortunately I didn't read much of any of them. Nobody ever tried to get me to read them. However, I
by izzydata 8y ago
I grew up in a house that had a library with 1000+ books. Unfortunately I didn't read much of any of them. Nobody ever tried to get me to read them. However, I blame myself for not reading much as a kid.
My point being that the mere presence of books is not enough.
- xvector 8y agoI don’t think it makes sense to blame yourself. It is absolutely the job of parents to encourage their kids to read from a young age. To kids, reading looks terribly boring, until they actually find a book they like - then they devour everything in sight. How much I miss the combination of childhood imagination and fantastic stories!
- philipov 8y agoI believe that talent is best understood as arising from liking the thing you do, thus seeking it out from a young age, during the period when practice is most effective. It is the fact that one does not find most things boring that makes a person talented. Having casual access to books at home is critical for cultivating a talent for reading, because it increases the likelihood of the child stumbling upon the books that will catch their attention.
- izzydata 8y agoI had mostly infinite access to all kinds of media so would always turn to video games and TV. These things are now so affordable that I imagine that is the norm for kids today. I am curious if there is a big difference between immersing yourself in video game worlds compared to a books. Books would require more imagination, but early video games were pretty sparse and often required a large amount of imagination as well.
- Izkata 8y ago> To kids, reading looks terribly boring, until they actually find a book they like - then they devour everything in sight. So important and always ignored. My mom read to us often, and I and my brothers hated reading. Later I encountered an Animorphs book and that was my gateway. One of my brothers, several years after that, discovered Redwall, and that did it for him.
- 2snakes 8y agoRedwall and Salamandastron were great stories. Go Matthias.
- fhood 8y agoFair, I grew up in the middle of nowhere, tv was a weekend only activity, and internet was pretty strictly regulated. As a result I read a lot.
- iopuy 8y agoI read an average amount as a child and frankly I found books such as "The Count of Monte Cristo", "The Red Badge of Courage", "Great Expectations", etc to be absolutely mind-numbingly boring and would have to force myself to finish them. As a young adult I actually picked up some books I found interesting (i.e. nonfiction) and became a voracious reader. It was like an entire new world had opened up that wasn't constrained by the boundaries of some form of supervision. Admittedly, most of my reading as a youngster came in school and you were either reading fiction, or nonfiction that had to do with the holocaust or WWII. My advice to young people struggling with books is to find a genre that interests you, and dive in.
- RugnirViking 8y agoI mean those books you listed as examples are not aimed at children at all and indeed in the modern era are not really particularly good in a modern cultural context. That does not mean that they are not worth reading, but if they were the things that you thought most worth reading as a child it's not a surprise you were dissapointed.
- darkerside 8y agoWhy does that point follow? Do you feel your literacy, numeracy, and technical skills are lower than the average population?
- matwood 8y agoKids are not supposed to make the right choice on their own. Someone should have nudged you a bit into reading. Growing up, we had very few books in my house. My grand parents on the other hand had a library, full encyclopedia, and hundreds of National Geographic back issues. Combined with nothing else to do at their house, I would often just sit and read from random articles. At the time, I found fiction boring. It was not until much later that I began to appreciate fiction.