Who reads books nowadays

I'm on my seventh book of the year. My oldest daughter is an avid reader like me.

My sone reads, but only when it suits him. I'm on the lookout for the types of books he likes. When he does read though, he devours the book.

My youngest also reads, but is flighty about it like her mother. They both will start a book, read it for a day or two, then eithehr forget about it or put it on the backburner and read a few pages every now and then.

My youngest surprised me though. She started one of the books in my queu, Beyond Band of Brothers, and actually bought Flags of our Fathers and started it as well.

We'll see how far she gets before I catch her. I'm about halfway through my seventh book.

Reading is just such a fundamental thing and enjoyable to boot. It's also relatively inexpensive if you shop right.

Thanks for the post.

Maybe it's just the way I got old because I seem to lack the concentration and ability to maintain interest.

I quit reading fiction many years ago, primarily because the quality of writing and research is inferior and I lost the ability to "see" it on my brain's cinema screen. My first wife, who is an author, added to my cynicism when she would point out the glaring errors and poor scholarship in the many, many books she read day after day.

My youngest brother has always been a poor reader, in spite of my efforts to read to him when he was little and pique his interest. One mistake I think I made was not reinforcing his attempts. He would zoom through a book in minutes that was well below his grade level and after minimal praise, I would point to a much thicker, more difficult book that he should tackle next. Turned off at 7, he struggled throughout school because he abhorred reading.

Times have changed and tastes along with them, but the library I grew up in had many adventure and nature books, especially "1st person" animal books by an author named Montgomery, that I simply devoured. I was also a big Tarzan fan, reading all of Bouroughs including the books set on Mars.

I haven't read any of J. K. Rowlings books (who incidently looks and acts as strange as my first wife, who I suspect is undoubtedly very jealous) but I hear they're very good at instilling a desire to read.

rdmstr