Drawing People Into Reading by Allison Symes

Image Credit:  Mainly via Book Brush using Pixabay photos. One image from me.

I remember years ago being at a Book Fair when someone walked past, looked at my table and said loudly to their friend, “I don’t like books”.  I so wanted to say “what are you doing here then” but judged it best not to! But it did throw up an attitude problem which worried me. 

Why is it, in some circles, considered a good thing to boast about not reading? What are they hoping to achieve? 

 

I know reading has never been “cool”. I was the typical girly swot at school. Always had my head in a book but I’ve never seen that as a problem. (I always associated myself with Velma from the cartoon series Scooby Doo rather than Daphne, and with Jo March from Little Women rather than, say, Meg March. I’ve always had a soft spot for the girls with glasses and the ones who love to write. Can’t imagine why that is - possibly the fact I am still a girl, albeit an older one now, with glasses who loves to write may have something to do with it).

I must admit I do hope my genre, flash fiction, may prove to be a way of drawing in reluctant readers. At a maximum word count of 1000 words per story, I’m not asking them to commit to too much in one go. And if you can get them reading short fiction, maybe they’ll build up to novellas and from there to the novels. 

Do you think reluctant reading stems from lack of confidence in reading or from people assuming entertainment has to come from a screen or technological gadget? Are people thinking that books are full of description and “boring bits” and, if so, how can we overcome that image?  

I don’t have a problem with e-books. For me, they are just another format, though nothing will ever replace the paperback. I also hope the Kindle does encourage people to read more. Likewise audio books are wonderful. Some of my family are not big readers but they do like to listen to books. Fine, they’re taking in stories in a different way then, but it is the almost being proud of not reading that irks.

Reading for pleasure has been proven to have hidden benefits, not least is an increased vocabulary. Do people not see the use for this any more, do you think?  

It is good to see the slow return of live events though I do hope at my next one, the people there definitely do like books and want to read them. 

Any thoughts as to how to draw in the reluctant reader? After all a world of wonderful books and stories await. If someone tells me that, my first response is “lead me to it” but if only everyone thought that!