Losing patience to read deeply?

[shootingstar]

The only reason DS #1 got in trouble at at school was for skipping gym and going to the library to read

Rather amusing, if you think about it.

[Veronica]

I think children will rise to the expectations you have for them. I'm constantly being told by my peers that I get "all the good kids." No, I just expect them to be the "good kids." Current project in my class is a Newberry book report.


Veronica

[Owlie]

PS - I've never had the patience for Victorian or Edwardian novels. Not even 30+ years ago when I was studying Anglo-Saxon homilists.

I don't either. Dickens? Blech.

[Pax]

PS - I've never had the patience for Victorian or Edwardian novels. Not even 30+ years ago when I was studying Anglo-Saxon homilists.

After immersing myself in reading lots of current novels/websites and blogs/and magazines, I use pre-1900 literature as a jump start for a sluggish brain.

[Pax]

I don't either. Dickens? Blech.

I have a second edition of Great Expectations, my honey will read it aloud on long car trips. I love the way Dickens turned a phrase.

[Biciclista]

Pax, me too. And I love Dickens. The color!!!

[zoom-zoom]

Zoom Zoom- Another cyclist (male) father of 2 teen boys, also voiced the same annoyance/concern of lack of social skills.

I was sort of like that child, except I was raised in a big family so one is forced to acquire social skills anyway .. If the child already has 1-2 good buddy friends, that's at least a good sign.

Children with intellectual interior life (in their brain) who appear lonely, in my opinion, do have great potential...well to become well-rounded. It's easier in my opinion to take a slightly introspective child and help them become more "socialable" because they may already be aware of certain gifts/skills that they can share/use more broadly.

So I was the child /teen bookworm, art dabbler and seamstress at that time. I had lots of time to think about what I was/wasn't capable of and explore it.

Of course cycling is a bit solitary too.

Yeah, I think part of DS's "problem" is that he's an only child. My DH was/is very much like our son in many ways (and also an only child), though he has a VERY tightknit network of friends, now. Mostly from work and cycling. My brother (middle of 3 kids...and my son takes after him in MANY other ways) also didn't really develop a lot of close friendships until college. So part of me doesn't worry so much about the social stuff, because I think part of it's genetic/inborn personality type as much as it is the bookworm thing.

[Pax]

Pax, me too. And I love Dickens. The color!!!

Yes! I love the way he painted a picture for his readers; before color photographs/TV/movies it took an excellent writer to put you in the story.

[Penny4]

I'm not sure it is any worse today than when I was in school 25 years ago. I would say the majority of my classmates (myself included) had to use Cliff Notes to get through the Scarlet Letter. WHile i found the plot interesting, I just couldn't wrap my head around the language. And the teacher never helped us with that part of it. Same with Chaucer, SHakespeare, etc...

[limewave]

I'm not sure it is any worse today than when I was in school 25 years ago. I would say the majority of my classmates (myself included) had to use Cliff Notes to get through the Scarlet Letter. WHile i found the plot interesting, I just couldn't wrap my head around the language. And the teacher never helped us with that part of it. Same with Chaucer, SHakespeare, etc...

My parents had subscribed/bought some series of children's abridged version of the classics. We had almost every children's versions of the novels on my AP reading list. It was AWESOME. The abridged version had all the important details without the old-english I couldn't understand. That with the Cliff Notes, I aced AP english. My reading comprehension is pretty low, I've always struggled with it. I have tried--forced myself--to be a better reader. I just don't have the aptitude for it. However, I love reading for pure entertainment.

[Crankin]

OK, I have more time to respond now.
I have always been a voracious reader, since age 5 when I learned, both fiction and non fiction. Both of my parents are (were) very intellectual, even though my mom only went to college for 2 years and my dad skipped that to do WW2. They were always, always gong to the library, or renting books from the local bookstore. And, Book of the month Club, along with getting 10 magazines, and doing Theatre Guild every month. No wonder I became an English teacher.
However, despite loving American Lit (Fitzgerald, Hemingway), I hated the obtuse language of Victorian, Renaissance writers, whether it was Old English, or something translated from the French or German. I used the Cliff notes in HS, but I do remember having 2 really good English Lit teachers in college. Then, after I got my master's in Special ed, and I was working on my English certification, I took a more advanced English lit. class. The whole thing was related to literature that was based on Christian allegories/New Testament, which,ah, was not in my brain. I got a B+, but I struggled.
DS #1 is just like me, but even smarter. I mean, frighteningly intellectual. He is the one who reads all of that "hard stuff" in the original, speaks a foreign language, and is a published writer. He collects old books now, as well as reading on a Kindle and print. He was very social as a kid and did all of the kid stuff, but he always was a reader and writer. So were all of his close friends. I even enjoy reading his reviews on Yelp.
My other son didn't read as much as a younger kid. He mostly read non-fiction, until HS and then, all of a sudden, became just like his brother. Despite no college degree, he is extremely well read, and he can do that hard stuff, too. He read 40 books on his first deployment! Now he just downloads the stuff to his Kindle.
DH, well, not a reader. He reads non fiction, about all of his technical and hobby interests (cycling, etc), magazines, work stuff. Every year, he reads one or two big long non- fiction books, usually biographies of presidents or other political figures. He said his goal this year is to read more, but he always said he didn't know what the heck the 3 of us were talking about, when we asked each other what genres we were reading.

[shootingstar]

The whole thing was related to literature that was based on Christian allegories/New Testament, which,ah, was not in my brain. I got a B+, but I struggled.

Much of the older literature 17th century and back, was like that --full of religious allegories and metaphors, etc. That was part of my problem as well: except for me that was my primary undergraduate degree focus.

Literature is both universal in subject, but cultural in context. And religious in my mind, is twinned/embedded in culture.

Probably part of my problem not wanting to read novels, is the quality novels are more serious and require some careful thought at times. I guess either I don't want to make the effort or...I'm avoiding something. After all, good literature prompts the reader to reflect on what they know/experience.

I just want an easy read but still learn something so I turn to full length non-fiction books.

I never used Cliff (in Canada it's Coles) notes.

I do think there is interest in reading still but do seriously wonder if more and more people want sound byte like info. or a novel length cut in half.

I used to read 1 book in 1 day years ago. Now it's spread out over weeks. If it's good, I like to savour it.

[Crankin]

I haven't read a book (other than professional) since October. So unlike me. I read (fiction) all through my recent grad program, probably as an escape. I like historical or realistic fiction; nothing too difficult. I've been on a kick reading about Spain or Portugal and the Inquisition, mostly about the Marranos, or "secret" Jews of that time.

[Koronin]

I've never been one to read much. If I'm not interested in the book to begin with (doesn't matter what it is) I can't read it. Heck, I got through HS without reading much of anything for English Lit. College I carefully picked the Lit classes to where I knew it wouldn't take much to get a good grade in them. Actually one had something or other to do with movies and the other one had to do with plays. Then again you can say the same things for anything I had to take in school as well, if I didn't like or care for the class I didn't really bother with it and typically still got A's or B's. (The exceptions being Foreign Language and Chemistry). The only other class I had a C in was Physics and I actually liked that class, but they changed teachers part way through the year and I could figure out the new teacher.

[shootingstar]

Whenever I walk by a bookstore, I remind myself:

I still have 100 more books in another province that I haven't shipped over yet.