Books

[denis567]

Reports in today's papers saying that 4 million children in the UK do not own any books. I find this hard to believe. What do you think?

[brionon]

Have you heard them talking ? Most kids in Europe speak better English.

[ummmm]

That's a bit of a sweeping statement brionon....

What age group are we talking about? Under 16's?

[paddywak]

I don't. A lot of the poor sods leave school with virtual no education at all despite the so called schooling they get, I read somewhere this week that one of the big supermarkets was having to give a lot of applicants basic reading writing and math training for checkout work. I don't know if it was true or just a make up but I wouldn't be surprised.

[joggerjayne]

I've heard that too.

Also, in the last 12 months, for the first time, the number of hardback books sold in the UK was fewer than the number of electronic downloads.

It won't be long before downloads exceed paperback sales.

Some entire bookshop chains have vanished, like Borders.

The next generation of adults, today's children, won't buy books. They will click a download on some electronic device ... if they even bother to do that.

Caxton invented the printing press. It was good while it lasted.

[ummmm]

Well my kids read.

[rockyracoon]

So do mine Ummm

[naomi24]

If it's true, I think it's very, very sad indeed.

[SlackAlice]

It's a shame ,but they are not cheap.
When I was a child I didn't own any books either, just used to borrow them from the library, read them take them back.

[karenmac60]

Lots of kids read - they did before Harry Potter and they do now. I see them every day borrowing a stack of books and dying to get home and get stuck into them.

[masma]

Yes I can believe it - can't blame the kids though when you see some of the parents they probably don't own a book either. I was talking to a 36 year old man and he said he'd never read a book. Sad eh?

[Buenchico]

Many families can't afford books. (I remember asking a 12yo pupil what he had for Christmas. He'd received just one pair of plain woollen gloves. I taught plenty of other kids like him).

Other families don't see books as being part of their lives. Mum doesn't read books (and, apart from compulsory school reading, has never done so). dad is the same. The idea of having books around for their simply doesn't occur to them. (In Grays recently I spotted a hairdressing shop which only does kids' hairdressing. They had a special £60 styling offer on promotion. I'd be prepared to bet that many of the parents who fork out that sort of money for a child's hairdo, plus more money on their ear piercings and jewellery, would never go near a bookshop. Actually I don't think that there is a bookshop in Grays anyway!).

Chris

[paddywak]

But at least you used to read Alice i used to do the same in fact I still use the library though I do buy some books as well. I still have the first book I ever bought a copy Moby Dick.

[ummmm]

I didn't read much as a child...I was busy playing out.

[SpikeyBush]

I find it a shame that the Poles and Lithuanians I have working for me have a better grasp of spelling and grammar than the 'natives'.

There is too much reliance on spellcheckers that don't differentiate between "There", "Their" and "They're" so the spellchecker says it's all OK so it must be right. Same with "Your" and "You're", and "Our" and "Are"

[joggerjayne]

I love books.

I love the whole tactile thing of holding a book.

I love being in a bookshop, surrounded by walls of books.

I don't have ornaments on my shelves, but I do have hundreds of books.

I only ever buy from Amazon if our local bookshops absolutely can't get hold of a book for me.

And I would NEVER buy a kindle, and click to download.

I don't know how many years the book market can survive. Sooner or later, when Kindles have driven the bookshops out of business, I will have no choice, and I will have to buy a kindle.

Until then, we need to urge everyone to buy books, read books, carry books around wherever they go.

Oh, heck ... if kids don't want books any more, then I'm flogging a dead horse.

[jno]

libraries are closing down, which won't help.

For all that, I didn't "own" books, except for the odd Famous Five adventure, until I was 12 or more. I wonder what age range the report was talking about.

[joggerjayne]

Oh My God ...

I typed the word "kindle" (in the context of "I hate Kindles and I hate Amazon"), and AB turned the word "kindle" into a link to Amazon, selling Kindles.

There really is no hope.

[ummmm]

I had The Folk of The Faraway Tree series...

Besides those I didn't read a book until I left school. Then I got hooked....

My youngest son devours them. He sits at the computer making lists of books he wants. Gets his order delivered and disappears for days....

[Maydup]

I haven't read a book in ages. I really think its an uphill battle to get children to read when there are so many options vailable to them.

I'm a reasonably intellegent middle aged person and if I fall victim to all the distractions in this technological world, they don't stand a chance.

[SpikeyBush]

You may be able to access certain titles easily and quickly with a kindle, but a kindle will never recreate the smell of a book.

That is magic!