The general attitude my generation (12-18) has to reading is quite appalling. The amount of people that laugh at me for reading a lot is, quite frankly, hilarious. Even though it is they who are laughing at me for being a ‘nerd’ or a ‘geek’ it is really them who are missing out.


They are yet to discover the endless worlds just waiting for them when they open a book. All the characters they could meet, all the adventures they could go on, yet they persist in telling me that I’m wasting my time. They couldn’t be more wrong. These are the sort of people that watch TV endlessly. They can watch all their soaps and there is nothing wrong with that but I don’t think that they realise that books aren’t really that different. Books tell stories, books have realistic characters, books have interesting storylines, books have almost everything that TV does yet they are the ones who are laughing at me? Really they’re just the same as I am so they might as well be laughing at themselves. Still not convinced? Well then how comes so many books are made into so many films and TV series, it’s because they’re so similar. Books just require a little bit more brainpower than staring at a television screen.


There are so many teenagers that don’t read or don’t read books that are at their reading level. A study has even shown that the most popular book among girls of 14-16 was ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’ children’s picture book. I think that this is absolutely appalling. Of all the fantastic literary works out there the most popular book among girls my age is a children’s picture book? There are books about everything, fantasy, real life, crime, horror, mystery, science-fiction. There are lots of young adult books that aren’t challenging to read but are interesting, tell amazing, memorable stories and have many loveable characters to take you through them. The most popular books among teens are the ‘Harry Potter’ series by JK Rowling and the ‘Twilight’ series by Stephanie Meyer rather than ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ by Harper Lee and ‘Wuthering Heights’ by Emily Bronte that were favourites in previous generations, it is better than not reading at all. Having read all these books, if I were asked to put them in order of preference I would put ‘Harry Potter’ first, then ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’, ‘Twilight’ and lastly ‘Wuthering heights’. This could be an example of a typical teen and would make me seem hypocritical. However, the fact that I’ve actually read these is more than most the teens I know.


Teens these days that do read do not usually read books that stretch their reading levels, a result of this might be the fact that British teens are now less literate that those in countries such as Poland and Estonia.  Maybe some of my fellow teens should think more about books and less about their TV shows and other various activities that they may be partaking in.