With technology encroaching space in all the facets of our gen-next, their reading habit has waned to a great extent. But there are many, especially in their teens, who despite a tight schedule, continue reading for fun though their interest keeps reducing by the day due to mounting school and tuition books.
Less enthusiastic readers
Nowadays the pressure of academics has been so high commensurate with technological accessibility to easy information that the teenagers prefer watching television or keep busy with their phone to amuse themselves in their free time. Maybe, reading as a habit is not being inculcated into the minds of the children from an early age.
Sujit Mahapatra of Bakul Children’s Library feels, ‘‘The children have not grown up seeing their parents reading and so do not get inclined to read for fun. There is no peer pressure either. The literate public is not the reading public. Though the youngsters want to be cool, their attention span is limited to FB updates. Moreover all information is easily available in capsules on Wikipedia and so the need to read the whole book weakens.’’ He says bestsellers like Chetan Bhagat, campus block and fiction and fantasy are most preferred by teenagers.
Teenagers’ choice of books
These days the young readers have a plethora of books to select from and the diversity has multiplied manifold. A spokesperson from a leading book store in the city informed that apart from the age-old favourites like Enid Blyton and Secret Seven that are still read by the present genre, there is a demand for writers like Ruskin Bond and Roald Dahl. The boys pick Rick Riordan series of Percy Jackson, Heroes of the Olympus, Harry Potter and are more into adventure and thrillers whereas the girls are still fascinated by Nancy Drew, Agatha Christie, fairy tales and the latest craze is the Barbie series.
As per the book stores, the most sought after Indian writers are Ravinder singh, Nikita Ahuja, APJ Abdul Kalam and Sudha Murthy. Many youngsters are hooked to Chetan Bhagat as well. Tintin and Asterix are the most read foreign comics and Amar Chitra Katha and Tinkle remain desi favourites. ‘’Holiday homework based on old classics has indirectly increased the sale of the old classic books. Even though technology has made it easy for availability of information, the trend to read and gift books still prevails , may be the proportion is less,’’ informed AK Mishra, from AK Mishra agencies.
A good technique to cultivate this habit of reading among teenagers is starting a book club where books are read through shared reading and later discussed in a friendly setting. As parents or teachers, a dependable, child-safe website can be found out where the children can post their personal experience of reading that book.