To read or not to read?

As a graduate of English Literature, I have always loved reading. When I was a child, my parents used to take me and my brother to our local library every Saturday morning where we could take out 12 books at a time on our library cards and we’d always finish them before next Saturday’s visit. This love of books spurred me on to thoroughly enjoy English Literature throughout my education before I went on to study the subject at university.

I find that there’s nothing quite like the feel of a book and the turning of a page, so the results reported on BBC News today that fewer than 50% of children aged 8-17 read a novel a month outside of school worried me. Additionally, one in eight children claimed they had never visited a bookshop. That’s 12.5%! Perhaps it’s my literature purism speaking but I find this to be a frightening statistic, though not quite as terrifying as the discovery that in the reading preferences of children, text messages came top.

It's never too young to get them reading

The reason I find this to be a worrying state of affairs is because I know how much reading benefitted me. It inspired me to be more creative and I’m sure it improved my writing skills in turn - so what will happen to our children if they live their lives through digital media? A decline in literacy, predict many bestselling authors such as Phillip Pullman and Kate Mosse, pointing to the one in six adults who are illiterate, and little wonder if the younger generation spend their time reading text messages instead of Shakespeare.

Let me assure you that I wholeheartedly embrace the digital age that we live in but I can’t help but feel many of us might now be missing out. With the decline in popularity of books, we are losing an institution as one of the pioneers of literature. Having produced some of the greatest novels, plays and poetry ever written, more needs to be done to entice our youth to step away from their games consoles and pick up a book in celebration, and recognition, of our cultural heritage. I can’t help but wonder whether the decline of the book is directly related to the ‘instant’ culture we seem to have created in our society. We, as a population, seek immediate gratification in most of our activities, as demonstrated in the roaring success of websites such as Twitter and television shows such as The X Factor that provide instant fame.

So what can we do? I would suggest that we need to get kids hooked on books at a younger age. Once we’ve lost them to Facebook, YouTube and Playstations they’ll never come back to the written word which is not only a shame, but may also have lasting repercussions on their literacy skills. Though I suspect this is easier said than done, we need to encourage kids to read from an early age whether this is at home or in the classroom. Aside from bribery with extra packet money or sweets, parents need to instil in their children a love of books from as early an age as possible, as my parents did with me. Along with their Nintendo DS children should be packing a book when they go on holiday with their parents, and reading time should be an important part of their everyday routine at school and at home.

Or is there another way? Whilst I personally hate the idea of reading on a product such as Amazon’s Kindle (that’s the purist in me again) I have to admit that if I had children, I would prefer them to read ebooks rather than none at all. Though I do think the experience is diminished somewhat without that booky smell and the rustle of each turning page, there is something to be said for forming a coalition between technology and books if that’s what it takes to encourage our kids to read. Though I will be resolutely holding onto my library card.