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What College Students are Reading

Great articles--thanks for posting! I think it'sdistressing that younger generations do not seem to be reading books of substance, but, on the other hand, the fact that they're reading at all is a step in the right direction.
 
Wells83 said:
Great articles--thanks for posting! I think it'sdistressing that younger generations do not seem to be reading books of substance, but, on the other hand, the fact that they're reading at all is a step in the right direction.
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Well it kinda feels like you have given up when you are happy enough to see college students spend their time reading childrens books.
 
Zolipara said:
Well it kinda feels like you have given up when you are happy enough to see college students spend their time reading childrens books.
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Hey, that's not fair!! It's not just college students reading Rowling, every booklist has Beedle on top( or near).
Anyway, you can't judge an entire generation based on a survey of a thousand-odd people (if that many are included in the survey, that is). That's not even representative of the reading habits of a city!!
 
Zolipara said:
Well it kinda feels like you have given up when you are happy enough to see college students spend their time reading childrens books.
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I wouldn't say I'm "happy" about it, just that I think it's better than the alternative.
 
College students don't have much time for pleasure reading anymore with all the required reading that they have to do. Fluffy children's books seem like a good way to relax to me.
 
I don't understand why reading for escapism must meaning reading garbage.

I'm working on my MA right now and have many texts to read. I'm keeping up a job at the same time. And I still like to read for escapism. But I like to escape into the strange, intellectual worlds of Jorge Luis Borges, E.T.A. Hoffmann and Bruno Schulz.

Honestly, Twilight? J.K. Rowling? I'd be embarassed to admit I read that at my University.
 
What's wrong with reading Harry Potter or Twilight? I've read them both and I don't see anything wrong in that.

p.s

I am almost done with my junior year at the university and I'm a philosophy major and a poli science minor ( lots of reading).
 
The bad writing?

I have no problem with wanting to read "light" fiction for pleasure. Hell, I do it often when spare time becomes available. The thing is, Harry Potter and Twilight just aren't appealing to me. I tried the first HP book and just didn't get into it. And having read detailed plot summaries and excerpts of Meyer's writing, I didn't even bother with the Twilight saga.

If you find both series worthy of your time, then that's fine. I just think there are many books that are much more deserving of a huge audience than both Twilight and Harry Potter.
 
When I was in college (and graduate school, too), I spent so much time reading textbooks and articles from psychology journals that reading literature became a luxury that I didn't have the mental energy for. I'm absolutely a bookworm and have done nothing but read since I defended my master's thesis, but I can say that this survey may have been a tad unfair. Did it take into account reading over vacations? That's a totally different issue.
 
Anamnesis said:
The bad writing?

I have no problem with wanting to read "light" fiction for pleasure. Hell, I do it often when spare time becomes available. The thing is, Harry Potter and Twilight just aren't appealing to me. I tried the first HP book and just didn't get into it. And having read detailed plot summaries and excerpts of Meyer's writing, I didn't even bother with the Twilight saga.

If you find both series worthy of your time, then that's fine. I just think there are many books that are much more deserving of a huge audience than both Twilight and Harry Potter.
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I don't like Harry Potter or Twilight either but I can see why they're so popular. They're fun, light reading with enough entertainment value to hook a wide variety of readers. The same thing can be found in cinema. A large number of the highest grossing movies aren't anywhere near my favorite, but they have a wider appeal than a lot of the movies I love so much.

I think a lot of people don't take their art too seriously, so they read/watch things that are more accessible and not so taxing on the old noggin.
 
I think it is highly unfair to judge books this way. At the moment I am reading 'On The Road' and until now I don't see any themes for philosophical discussions in that book while I had quite a lot of them with Harry Potter as a background.

With Harry Potter there is also the point, that lots of people my age grew up with it. You started reading it with eleven or thirteen and finished it then in University or a year or two before.
 
I think the point is being missed a bit here. The problem isn't that college student are reading books written for children, it's that they are ONLY reading child fiction.

The "no time to read" and "reading for an escape" reasons are somewhat lame.

A) Escapism is fine, but the medium of fiction is so much better than that. Reading only to escape is like using an atomic bomb to destroy an ant pile. Eventually (hopefully) you'll realize that books that make you THINK are MORE entertaining than pure escapist books.

B) There is always time to read, people just don't take advantage of it.

I think the reason why college aren't reading (or are only reading badly written high school novels with glittery vampires) is simple. They (when I say they, I mean "we") are getting dumber. I'm a college student and sometimes it amazes me how impatient I can be with books more dense than Harry Potter. Hell, recently, I've been reading a lot of books that had been assigned to me in high school that I either didn't read or didn't understand (usually both) and I'm LOVING them. But only in my early 20s am I ready to understand and love them. These are books that were read in 9th and 10th grade. It scares me how "not smart" I seem at times. What scares me even more is that I am, by far, smarter than a large majority of my peers.
 
hawkedup said:
I think the point is being missed a bit here. The problem isn't that college student are reading books written for children, it's that they are ONLY reading child fiction.

The "no time to read" and "reading for an escape" reasons are somewhat lame.

A) Escapism is fine, but the medium of fiction is so much better than that. Reading only to escape is like using an atomic bomb to destroy an ant pile. Eventually (hopefully) you'll realize that books that make you THINK are MORE entertaining than pure escapist books.

B) There is always time to read, people just don't take advantage of it.

I think the reason why college aren't reading (or are only reading badly written high school novels with glittery vampires) is simple. They (when I say they, I mean "we") are getting dumber. I'm a college student and sometimes it amazes me how impatient I can be with books more dense than Harry Potter. Hell, recently, I've been reading a lot of books that had been assigned to me in high school that I either didn't read or didn't understand (usually both) and I'm LOVING them. But only in my early 20s am I ready to understand and love them. These are books that were read in 9th and 10th grade. It scares me how "not smart" I seem at times. What scares me even more is that I am, by far, smarter than a large majority of my peers.
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I'm pretty sure a student spending all day in class and all evening doing homework is not going to have the urge to crack open yet another book. They probably want to relax, and if they do read it's going to be something lighthearted or simple. And on weekends they still won't want to read, because they've associated "book" with "school" and they're trying to avoid that. That's the major problem, I think.

I'm an English major and, logically, I like to read, but I don't go to bookstores (usually) looking for "classics" or fine literature. Why? Because I read them in class. I'm reading fine literature 9 months out of the year. I'm in the major BECAUSE I want to read good books. So outside of class, what am I going to buy? Easier, less complicated reads. And a few equally complicated ones.

I don't think people are getting dumber. I think they're getting smarter. The problem with reading is that people are also getting shorter attention spans, and they don't want to take the time to sit down and get into a book.

And also, I hate how people talk down about children's books. That's offensive. It's basically saying that children's authors aren't as good as others because they don't contemplate the meaning of life. Is it really necessary to get into deep thought every time you read something? Harry Potter is well written. It's simple, but well written. Twilight...yeah okay, that sucks. And that's another thing--the fact that people continue to compare Harry Potter and Twilight is ridiculous. If you don't like them, fine, but that's different than saying they're both written on the same level, which they clearly aren't, just because they're both written for kids.

I just wish the stigma of "children's books" would disappear. That's one of my favorite genres, and I'm a junior in college. Why? Because I've read plenty of crappy "adult" books that people take more seriously simply because its in an adult category. Don't get me wrong, I love some of the classics--Huck Finn, Animal Farm...pretty much any social commentary/satire is great for me. But sometimes, I think it's nice to just read a story, and it's understandable if other people want that too.
 
speechless said:
I'm pretty sure a student spending all day in class and all evening doing homework is not going to have the urge to crack open yet another book. They probably want to relax, and if they do read it's going to be something lighthearted or simple. And on weekends they still won't want to read, because they've associated "book" with "school" and they're trying to avoid that. That's the major problem, I think.

I'm an English major and, logically, I like to read, but I don't go to bookstores (usually) looking for "classics" or fine literature. Why? Because I read them in class. I'm reading fine literature 9 months out of the year. I'm in the major BECAUSE I want to read good books. So outside of class, what am I going to buy? Easier, less complicated reads. And a few equally complicated ones.
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I agree with you, and it's not just English majors. I was reading endless nonfiction about my major, and the only real literature I read was for English classes here and there, but that was enough. It takes mental energy to read quality literature, and when you're focused on your studies, there isn't much left over. Maybe it's the case that I've read more books since defending my thesis last November than I have over the past several years, but it's offensive when it's assumed that it's because I was lazy. If you're really focused on your studies, there ISN'T time to pleasure read, unless you decide to forego sleep. At least in my experience ;-)
 
speechless said:
I'm pretty sure a student spending all day in class and all evening doing homework is not going to have the urge to crack open yet another book.
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Its more like a few hours of lectures and all night drinking. Beeing a student was a pretty relaxed time for me. And when I was working at the university it was definetly not any harder than when I went there.
 
All semester I read dense philosophical arguments and political science books. And while I enjoy reading philosophy and poli sci material, it is summer I can finally relax and read for fun. I am reading the Golden Compass trilogy right now.
 
I've never been able to understand not having time to read. I took two years off after high school to save up money for school (working no less than 60 hours a week) and I had plenty of time to read then. When school started, I still worked 40 hours and carried a full load. Still I had time to read.

I completely understand not wanting to read anything dense, though. I'm reading a young adult book called The Mysterious Benedict Society right now and I'm enjoying it. It's a GOOD THING to read "kid books" sometimes, but going back to the topic of this thread, I don't think that college students should necessarily ONLY be reading them. I know if I had to read more than two or three young adult books in a row I'd go insane without a break, just like I'd go insane if I had to read two or three "classics" in a row.
 
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