Week 16 prompt response:
Since I was a child my interests in reading and books have changed, obviously. I feel like when we were learning to read in elementary school that I wasn't so quick to catch on, but that might've just been me comparing myself to a super smart girl in my class who read constantly and not out loud. I was probably just very jealous. As a child, I chose books that featured something I was interested in, usually horses or other animals, but I also had books that were given to me as gifts. I remember receiving the Winnie the Pooh series which I sort of liked and then some other books where the morals were very clear in them. Maybe I needed guidance? (Ha!)
As I advanced through elementary school and we started to read chapter books, I remember never liking anything we had to read. I only enjoyed the books that I chose for myself at the library. I remember during this time finding certain authors that I liked and reading everything my school library had by them. Bill Wallace was a favorite. As I got into junior high and high school, I still hated every book we were assigned to read, with the exception of Whirligig by Paul Fleischman in the 7th grade and then a few when I was in 11th or 12th grade (Frankenstein and The Plague).
One similarity to my younger self that I still possess is the ability to not be able to put a good book down and spend an entire day reading it uninterrupted. I remember going through the Dear America series like it was my job as a child. I also still prefer a physical book even through the rise and popularity of the eBook and new technology like the Kindle.
Twenty years into the future, I see books and reading much in the same way I see them today. Physical books will still be popular even though there is an article written every five minutes with the title "The End of the Physical Book?!!" There are people that prefer a physical book and always will, so I don't see them disappearing totally for a very long time, and hopefully not in my lifetime. I think there will be some sort of new technology regarding eBooks in the next twenty years. It could be more improvements on eReaders or a new device altogether. I think there will probably be more titles that are only published as eBooks than there are now just because that's the way the trend seems to be moving.
I don't know if we will read more in the future, I just hope that we don't read less. I would like to see a continuation in the trend that reading is not a nerdy activity and is important to many people. Perhaps our reading will become more interactive with more technology finding its way into the book world. I don't know what that would look like though, maybe choose your own adventure apps? I don't think traditional publishing will go away, but maybe a little less books will be published physically? I'm not in favor of it, but it does seem possible.
Since I was a child my interests in reading and books have changed, obviously. I feel like when we were learning to read in elementary school that I wasn't so quick to catch on, but that might've just been me comparing myself to a super smart girl in my class who read constantly and not out loud. I was probably just very jealous. As a child, I chose books that featured something I was interested in, usually horses or other animals, but I also had books that were given to me as gifts. I remember receiving the Winnie the Pooh series which I sort of liked and then some other books where the morals were very clear in them. Maybe I needed guidance? (Ha!)
As I advanced through elementary school and we started to read chapter books, I remember never liking anything we had to read. I only enjoyed the books that I chose for myself at the library. I remember during this time finding certain authors that I liked and reading everything my school library had by them. Bill Wallace was a favorite. As I got into junior high and high school, I still hated every book we were assigned to read, with the exception of Whirligig by Paul Fleischman in the 7th grade and then a few when I was in 11th or 12th grade (Frankenstein and The Plague).
One similarity to my younger self that I still possess is the ability to not be able to put a good book down and spend an entire day reading it uninterrupted. I remember going through the Dear America series like it was my job as a child. I also still prefer a physical book even through the rise and popularity of the eBook and new technology like the Kindle.
Twenty years into the future, I see books and reading much in the same way I see them today. Physical books will still be popular even though there is an article written every five minutes with the title "The End of the Physical Book?!!" There are people that prefer a physical book and always will, so I don't see them disappearing totally for a very long time, and hopefully not in my lifetime. I think there will be some sort of new technology regarding eBooks in the next twenty years. It could be more improvements on eReaders or a new device altogether. I think there will probably be more titles that are only published as eBooks than there are now just because that's the way the trend seems to be moving.
I don't know if we will read more in the future, I just hope that we don't read less. I would like to see a continuation in the trend that reading is not a nerdy activity and is important to many people. Perhaps our reading will become more interactive with more technology finding its way into the book world. I don't know what that would look like though, maybe choose your own adventure apps? I don't think traditional publishing will go away, but maybe a little less books will be published physically? I'm not in favor of it, but it does seem possible.
It has been fascinating for me to watch my own children learn to read and then develop a love of books. We read to them all the time when they were little and still at 11 and 12 we have a chapter book that I read to them, although not as faithfully as we did just 3 years ago. My daughter picked up reading really fast and loves books- always has a nose stuck in a book! My son would read as required but I worried he would never develop a love of books. And then one day it was like someone flipped a switch and now he can't get enough. Through the last 7 weeks I've often had to tell them both to put the books away and do something else! A good problem to have I guess.
ReplyDeleteArianna-- I chuckled aloud reading your comments about people freaking out over the end of the physical book. But it's totally true! Sure, eBooks have increased in popularity, but that doesn't automatically mean print books will decline.
ReplyDeleteThere are several cases where I stay up all night reading a book because I can't put it down. Totally worth the lack of sleep!
I love your speculation about a "Choose Your Own Adventure" app! Like with the adding of eBooks, I don't think mixed up mediums of storytelling will decrease the overall amount of reading future generations do.
I do think it is interesting how many people try and tell kids what to read assuming that they will like something just because they are kids and don't know any better.
ReplyDeleteI also agree that physical books aren't going anywhere anytime soon- although I do think the publishing industry is going to have to do some serious considerations when it comes to volume and that difference could very well be made up with ebooks- as you suggest.
Hard to say what the future will bring.
When you hypothesized about more interactive ebooks, I immediately thought of the "Choose Your Own" adventure books! It's funny, but I don't remember my reading being very directed by teachers in elementary school, as it seems to be now. We had leveled readers and magazines that we were expected to read in school, but outside of class, we read what we pleased. Until high school English classes, of course, where I was tormented by a number of books I didn't care for, with The Red Pony and The Old Man and the Sea being at the forefront of that list!
ReplyDeletefull points!
ReplyDelete