And by “readers” I’m talking about people who read for pleasure.
I’m asking because when I was in the hospital earlier this year there was this young nurses aide who came in while I had one of the Harry Potter movies on the TV. She said she’d never read the Harry Potter books or actually sat through any of the movies. Had only caught bits and pieces here and there. Kind of surprised me. I mean, she was young but not that young. I guess it could happen, though.
On talking to her further, I realized she wasn’t that big on science fiction or fantasy at least in video form. Mainly, because she went on to say that she’d never seen any of the Star Wars movies.
O-kay.
Then she admitted that she didn’t do a lot of reading for pleasure in general. Again, though, she was young and probably still taking a lot of classes, so I get it.
I don’t understand it but I do get it. It’s just that I can’t remember a time in my life, even when I did have a heavy class-load in college, that I didn’t find time for the occasional fiction book just to be reading something for fun. Then, again, that’s the way I was raised and the way I raised my own children. I mean, my ex was not a reader. At all. Probably never will be. I still managed to turn both of our children into readers in spite of him.
Sometimes I truly worry for a world where the young aren’t taught the pleasure of reading . . . just for the pleasure of reading. It takes time and effort but it is worth it.