4 ms·
Many of the books I read as a kid would never have been read if they weren't a physical chunk of dead wood in front of my face, sitting on a book shelf. Now, a
by fideloper 4y ago
Many of the books I read as a kid would never have been read if they weren't a physical chunk of dead wood in front of my face, sitting on a book shelf.
Now, as a full-ass adult with young kids, I usually buy books from Kindle. It's far more convenient to use the Kindle app on my phone.
But there's a voice in the back of my head wondering if I'm doing my kids a disservice. They don't see me holding a big chunk of dead tree and reading. They just see be looking at my phone.
I also feel like Kindle is setting up a situation where my kids won't have the joy of discovering a book, or author, serendipitously. When the books are just sitting there on a shelf (they were in my bedroom as a kid, basically just as overflow because we had too many in the house), it's easy to get bored and pick up a book.
But I wonder if kids even get bored now. They have phones! If they're feeling the slightest bit bored, out comes the phone. (That's how I am at least, a full-fledged adult who didn't have a phone growing up).
Maybe the idea of discovering a good book out of boredom is dead.
- squeaky-clean 4y agoLearn a trick from the kids and hide your phone in a book ;p Works until they ask why you never turn the page
- kevmo 4y agoSounds like you already know you're doing your kids a disservice.
- theNJR 4y agoI have this exact worry as a dad of a seven day old. During pregnancy, my wife and I read various new parent books out loud to each other. The plan is to continue that with baby. Maybe she’ll associate the Kindle with reading, but my dad collects books, so I grew up absolutely surrounded by them. If he just had a big kindle library, not sure it would have had an effect
- vel0city 4y agoConsider taking your kid to the library often, pretty much as soon as they can walk. The library near us even had a good collection of board books. My kid loves going to the library, playing with some of the toys, looking at the small aquarium, and browsing all the books to pick out the three to take home for the week. He's under 5 and has already checked out about 200 books! Be sure to pick up at least one for yourself while you're there to set the example during the week!
- theNJR 4y agoThis is awesome advice! And it turns out the library is less than a mile away from me. How cool!
- vlunkr 4y agoSeems like you’re overthinking it to me. If you want your kids to read books, take them the library or a bookstore. They’re bound to find something they like with enough exposure. That’s got to have a bigger impact than whether they see you reading a physical book.
- killjoywashere 4y agoThe libraries are getting rid of books. Especially bound journals. My alma mater has a fabulous reading room, and just enough shelving still in the building to partition the study cubbies. It's more about aesthetic than knowledge.
- lazyasciiart 4y agoUniversity libraries have notoriously poor childrens sections.
- Vrondi 4y agoUnless you go to a college or university with a strong tradition of teachers' education programs. My alma mater has a terrific "children's literature room" in the library. Heavily used by Education major and Literature majors alike.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- nineplay 4y agoI only read on my kindle and yet I have a room full of shelves overflowing with physical books. Most of the justification for those books and shelves is so my kids have a place to wander into and browse around if they want something new to read. Alas, I have yet to get them to show any interest in browsing the shelves. My daughter reads all the time but isn't interested in "old stuff". I'm holding out hope that she'll get to it when she's older. I recently told her that as far as I'm concerned there are no age limits for books and she can read anything she wants, that seems to have made her a little more curious. It's my quiet little sadness. My love of Tolkien and Holmes and golden age mysteries and sci-fi is all due to the books scattered throughout home. I'd like to share those with her but I know that I can't push it.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- krmboya 4y agoPerhaps if your kids saw you actually reading from the shelves they'd be a bit more curious?
- Vrondi 4y agoYou could read to them, and have them also read to you. Or, you could do family book club, where each of you takes turns picking the thing you all read, then talk about it.
- prashantsengar 4y ago> I recently told her that as far as I'm concerned there are no age limits for books and she can read anything she wants Maybe that's the problem. If you tell her that she is not allowed to read books from one part of the shelf, that will make her more curious about them ;) /j
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- tkgally 4y agoI’m helping to raise my grandson, who will turn three next month. I read only digital books myself, but neither my daughter nor I have any intention of exposing him to digital books any time soon. He loves having stories read to him from physical picture books, and he spends a lot of time flipping through his favorite books on his own. My daughter also takes him to the library and explores books together with him there. On the other hand, he and I listen to recorded music together a lot. I don’t have music on physical media any more, so he is coming to associate recorded music with album cover images and song names on playlists on my iPhone. For some reason that doesn’t bother me so much.
- thfuran 4y ago>I also feel like Kindle is setting up a situation where my kids won't have the joy of discovering a book, or author, serendipitously. When the books are just sitting there on a shelf (they were in my bedroom as a kid, basically just as overflow because we had too many in the house), it's easy to get bored and pick up a book. All the ebooks in the library (actually, all of the several library systems I have access to) are just sitting there in libby, searchable and filterable by multiple criteria.
- yieldcrv 4y agoMy primary concern is the curation. E-book platforms and their algorithms are just showing different things. Libraries and book stores had limitations in this way too, but there was more variety in inventory.