Generation of readers

[saliotthomas]

Or more caricatural " Is there authors for young and old?".Including ourself at different stages in life.
Like i know my father would not be very interested in reading Easton Ellis, Murakami,Palahniuk or Irvin welch and he would be more into Irving,Roth,Miller and mccarthy.I take those because both have sex and vilance in them but through different angle and treatement.I would call the first more "trendy" and the segond more "classic"
There is also stages in life when certain books can be aproche(Reading Proust when your 20 seems unthinkable) and not before.


Ok i know Jaybe will say but grannies you love Transpoting,last exit and junky are not usual.

 

[Libra]

My father never read,other than a newspaper,but I am lucky in a sense that both my kids have taken from me and enjoy reading.My son reads his own things,Stephen King and Fantasy/science fiction. My daughter is reading fantasy but keeps asking me how old does she have to be to start reading my books,so maybe I have instilled in them the passion and they will continue forward.

 

[Robert]

Or more caricatural " Is there authors for young and old?".Including ourself at different stages in life.
Like i know my father would not be very interested in reading Easton Ellis, Murakami,Palahniuk or Irvin welch and he would be more into Irving,Roth,Miller and mccarthy.I take those because both have sex and vilance in them but through different angle and treatement.I would call the first more "trendy" and the segond more "classic"
There is also stages in life when certain books can be aproche(Reading Proust when your 20 seems unthinkable) and not before.


Ok i know Jaybe will say but grannies you love Transpoting,last exit and junky are not usual.

I really don't know, saliotthomas. Tastes might differ some. I believe my generation might be more inclined to read Westerns or sea fearing novels then the current generations of twenty somethings. My taste in literature has changed some, but I don't know if that's due to life experiences or perhaps it has something to the fact that I read more now then I did twenty years ago.

 

[Peder]

I'm not sure my reading tastes have changed that much. Early on, perhaps I was more interested in catching up on classics. I read Ulysses rather early, for example. Nowadays I probably read more broadly across genres and styles but more selectively in picking out the individual books to read. There are still too many books to read, and I am still thrilled to find truly excellent ones of whatever sort.

 

[Comeflyaway]

Reading preferences vary in my family somewhat, but more by personality than age.

My mom seeks out best-selling mysteries and thrillers a la Jonathan Kellerman, Faye Kellerman, Patricia Cornwell, Robin Cook, etc. My dad reads similar things, but I think he also really likes Dick Francis. They both like seeking out the same authors over and over, once they've found someone they like.

My older brother (a bright, nerdy high school chemistry teacher) loves Tom Clancy, Michael Crichton, John Grisham, and Robin Cook. Very detail-oriented, analytical, precise stories. If it's got science (especially biology) or math in it, it's a bonus. It's got to be brilliant and make him think.

Personally, I get tired of mysteries (I think I read too many of them at some point), and tend to favor contemporary literature -- authors like Barbara Kingsolver, Sue Miller, Anne Tyler, Wally Lamb, etc. I care more about the characters' development and realistic (though creative) experiences than some ingenious plot to overthrow the Russian government or create a killer strain of bacteria that will do xyz, like you might find in my brother's books, if that makes sense. Still, I'm much more likely to read my mom's books than my brother's when I need a change of pace.

And I don't think my younger brother reads much of anything other than Harry Potter.... He's never been the reader that the rest of us are!