I find this movement in reading very interesting.
Part of me wonders if this has something to do with the reading levels of us as Americans. Are people starting to read "young adult" literature because they do not feel comfortable reading "adult" literature Now I am by no means saying this is the case for everyone. As I know from class, everyone can read adult literature and still enjoy young adult lit. But I was thinking more people outside of academia, maybe people without any college or with very little.
Maybe people have been corrupted by lifestyle and technology, and now feel that adult lit is too different from who they are and too much to read. It seems to me that what is popular in young adult lit is things that are very big in the media (and not for being controversial). Maybe that is a big reason for this phenomenon.
These are all just thoughts. Maybe literacy and reading level have nothing to do with why young adult lit is such a phenomenon. It could all just be a matter of taste, or something else. It would be hard to come up with statistics on these things unless you did some sort of wide-ranging, scale-upable survey.
Monday, May 10, 2010
Sunday, May 9, 2010
Men in Book Reading Groups
Our discussion on men in reading groups was very interesting and I thought that maybe I could make comment on it, seeing as how I am a man.
Now I don't know if I qualify as a "regular guy" or if there even is such a thing. But I wonder if one of the reasons that men do not attend book groups is because of a feeling of alienation. Because women seem to be dominating book groups, men might feel like they won't belong. Now women might feel differently or even offended that someone might feel like they won't belong, but it can be intimidating.
Another reasons could be because men might be lazier, or feel they have more important things to do with their time. Now this does not necessarily mean watching the sports game thats on tv or something, but maybe they value time with other men or friends more than participating in a reading group.
A third reason might be that reading groups simply aren't reading books that men want to read, or they feel that they will not in the future. Girls might be more comfortable reading from a large spectrum of books. Men however, are probably less comfortable with books that are considered to be "feminine."
Finally, maybe men are coming to expect reading groups to be composed mostly of women and reading "feminine" books, and thus won't even give advertisements for them the time of day. Because reading groups have been so for a bit now, men might have bad assumptions about reading groups.
It seems that the hurtles reading groups have to overcome for more men to join are quite a few. As for myself, I simply don't have the time with graduate courses and work. But hopefully I can help up the statistics for men in reading groups in the future.
Now I don't know if I qualify as a "regular guy" or if there even is such a thing. But I wonder if one of the reasons that men do not attend book groups is because of a feeling of alienation. Because women seem to be dominating book groups, men might feel like they won't belong. Now women might feel differently or even offended that someone might feel like they won't belong, but it can be intimidating.
Another reasons could be because men might be lazier, or feel they have more important things to do with their time. Now this does not necessarily mean watching the sports game thats on tv or something, but maybe they value time with other men or friends more than participating in a reading group.
A third reason might be that reading groups simply aren't reading books that men want to read, or they feel that they will not in the future. Girls might be more comfortable reading from a large spectrum of books. Men however, are probably less comfortable with books that are considered to be "feminine."
Finally, maybe men are coming to expect reading groups to be composed mostly of women and reading "feminine" books, and thus won't even give advertisements for them the time of day. Because reading groups have been so for a bit now, men might have bad assumptions about reading groups.
It seems that the hurtles reading groups have to overcome for more men to join are quite a few. As for myself, I simply don't have the time with graduate courses and work. But hopefully I can help up the statistics for men in reading groups in the future.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)