Is it me?

Why are so many adults reading children's books these days?

The beauty of the simplicity of the story, a return to our own innocence, and I personally believe, it is important to know what the youth of today are reading. Theywon't be children forever and we should know what helped form the ideas and ideals they have.

It's not just you and I can't understand it either.

agree with all....100%....

Because frankly, I find that young adult novels are concerned with telling a enjoyable, good story. I also feel that a lot of "adult" novels are fairly predictable and bore the pants off of me.

Someone else said this, "Sometimes I feel that adult "literary" fiction is so focused on complexity of craft, that they forget the fact that books entertain. YA books offer the same emotional and plot punch as adult genre fiction, but often the language is just as beautiful, if not moreso, than most adult fiction." and I couldn't agree more.

Is there some type of problem with adults reading YA books?

I wasn't thinking about 'young adult' novels, I was thinking about acquaintances in their 50s+ whose fiction reading is either J K Rowling or Tolkien. I think it's a bit sad actually. Now I've upset everyone I suppose.

Tolkien would have been quite insulted, certainly - he emphatically didn't write for children. But then, Watership Down was a story told to the author's young children, but arguably the book is not 'a children's book' as written.

Although children can enjoy Watership Down, as my son did. Of course he was only able to read it to himself at age 11 because it had been read to him aloud a couple of years before and writing the book report required several conversations with his father, analysing the book and figuring out some of what was going on under the surface story.

But back to the main question. Actually the Rowling books were meant to be YA but younger children latched on to them. For my work, I often need to scan children's and YA books, both fiction and nonfiction. When it comes to the fiction its not at all unusual for me to stop scanning and begin reading if the story is interesting and well-written. These books are often very good books and the fact that they are sometimes quick reads for their length can be an advantage with so many books to check out. The ones that seduced me into actual reading are ones that I can whole-heartedly recommend to the children who ask "What should I read next?"

(I also discover a lot of terrific picture books and beginning chapter books to recommend to the younger ones.)

Why does it make you sad, hazelk? If people are reading books they enjoy, does it really matter what audience the books were originally geared towards? A very small portion of my reading is YA or children's books, but the ones I do read I enjoy very much--including Harry Potter, which I think is a good story for adults as well as for children.

Same here. I like reading classics and there are many I love, but I also love the less challenging books. Which are usually YA and children literature. And I have to say, many of those are written better, more interesting, more gripping than many books for adults. It's harder and more challenging to keep a child's attention so you have to be a really good writer to be successful in that genre. It is also harder to tell a great story in a language everybody can understand, meaning a simple one (either Max Frisch or Friedrich Dürrenmatt said that, I can't remember which of the two).
Many classics, despite the good stories, take a long time to read and sometimes I even struggle to finish them. Children and most teenagers wouldn't bother with books written like that. They'd just move on to the next, better book.
That said, I own quite a few children's books that I bought as an adult. And many of them rank among my favorite books. I don't read a lot of YA though.
By the way, I don't like Tolkien and when I tried to read him as a 12-year-old, I quit after 30 pages because he was just too boring, uninteresting and longwinded for my then very short attention-span. I have read him later on and still found his books to be too longwinded. I do believe though that he definitely didn't write for children.

Much as bookishbunny (#2) said: I read the first Harry Potter simply to see what I was giving to my children. However, I never saw any need for me to read the next four thousand pages of the stuff.

But now that hazelk raises the issue:

Yes, people should read whatever interests them - but I guess I'm coming down on the "What IS up with that?" side of the question. I mean, there's still Dickens and Henry James and Tolstoy out there, still waiting for me. I don't have the time to spend on a hundred hours with Harry Potter.

I don't want to sound snobby about it -of course there are worthwhile children's books, and after all, I certainly read more than my share of trash - but I guess I'm saying that I become increasing aware of the "opportunity cost" of picking a book: for any book you pick up, there's a million books you're choosing to ignore.

(edited to close my tag)

But why does reading read Dickens or James or Tolstoy mean you can't also read children's literature? In the past year I've read David Copperfield and Rob Roy and Moll Flanders, but I've also read Little Women, Love that Dog, and The House on Mango Street.Why not read a bit of everything? I think there's probably as high a proportion of worthwhile to waste-of-time in children's literature as there is in adult literature. Books should be judged on their individual merits rather than the categories in which they're placed. And not all readers can live on a steady diet of classics. It's hard work. Sometimes you need something a bit less challenging.

because being an adult sucks

not all the time, sassafrass....

#12: You're right, of course - there's quality to be found in all genres. And I'm not looking to pick a fight, and of course people should read what they like.

Still, the answer to

"But why does reading read Dickens or James or Tolstoy mean you can't also read children's literature?"

remains: Because there's only finite time.

(edited to fix the typo)

So is it 'acceptable' to read YA/children's literature if we don't work full-time, or read very quickly, or spent our pre-teen years ploughing through Jane Eyre and The Pickwick Papers?

Good job we don't have animated smilies on these boards or I'd be inserting a specific one just >here

which one, BoPeep?
;-)

hailelib, I, too, love picture books. Some of the artwork and imagination is so beautiful. How can a person of any age not be enchanted.

And, Bob, since there in only a finite time for reading, as death comes to all eventually, would it not make more sense to enjoy what you read? For those of us with a gift of finding something worthwhile in a variety of things, limiting ourselves to 'the canon' of literature would be arrogant and foolish, robbing us of a more complete life experience.

#19: no, we don't limit ourselves to the 'canon': my reading includes Booker prizewinners, as well as crime fiction as well as Arnold Bennett. If something, however estimable, doesn't get my interest before page 100 I give up. Life's too short. As a child I loved Noel Streatfield, grabbed each Enid Blyton as soon as I could off the library shelves etc..but as an adult I need more complexity and less wizardry.

Not all children's books involve 'wizardry' (though I did notice some of the 'grown-up books only' camp have an interest in fantasy). The point is, it's not a matter of either/or. I would not dream of questioning someone who did not read children's books (I didn't as a child) any more than I would question why somebody would space their Proust with Milne.

You're right, life is too short. That's why I'd rather spend it reading something I enjoy, whether it is a YA novel, fantasy, classic or non-fiction. There have been times I've found myself trudging through something I don't enjoy reading (and this happened with Tolkien as well as Dickens as well as some YA novels), wondering why I'm wasting my time on it when I could be reading something else.

I read YA to give myself an idea of what my kids will be reading, but I do enjoy reading them for their own sake as well. What should it matter what someone is reading, as long as they are reading and they enjoy it?

I know of few things that annoy me as much as having to read something I don't enjoy. Now that's a waste of time. My reading choices vary depending on how tired I am, how much time I have, what mood I'm in and hundred other factors. Sometimes only Trollope will do, sometimes it's Harry Potter. As an adult I've got enough complexity in my life, I could use a little more wizardry!

Isn't it simple? There are good books and there are bad books. Worrying about labels has more to do with ourselves than anything else.

(Sendak=Good, Brown=Bad - Q.E.D.)

What we read boils down to opinion, some people choose to read what they "enjoy", others choose to read to "learn", others read to "keep from doing things that they should be doing but don't feel like it."
I sometimes read "Childrens" books because they are interesting, short and fun. I choose to do so because I'm me and I view the world in my own way.
(And there are lots of things I should be doing but I don't feel like it!)

bookishbunny #19 And, Bob, since there in only a finite time for reading, as death comes to all eventually, would it not make more sense to enjoy what you read?

Touche'. You win. I utterly and completely concede the field to the "Well, why not?" side of the question.

I think the question gets to me - and I instinctively came down on the "Why would an adult voluntarily read a children's book?" side of the question - only because my kids have only recently reached an age where they DON'T want to be read to.

That is, I've spent a bunch of the last decade or more reading (and REreading...) kid's books. Out loud. Over and over. Every night. Seemingly, for years on end.

I guess I've just OD'd and need to keep off the stuff for a while.

My current aversion to children's books is probably related to my recently-developed allergy to kid's movies: after the 500th viewing of "The Lion King", I set up a separate kid-vid viewing station in another part of the house, because I can't bear to be in the same room with the stuff anymore.

I agree with those of you, such as tunarubber, who aver that children's books are more interested in telling a good story than bogging readers down with unnecessary complexities and agendas. I earned a BA in English in 2005, and being an English major turned me against literature in a lot of ways. I am now working on an MLIS, and I took a class in children's lit. I read about twenty books in that class, and I enjoyed most of them far more than any of the literature I read as an undergraduate.

Being new here and busily entering in books, I came across some of the "Three Investigators" series. I started re-reading them for the first time in more years than I care to admit. Yeah, they might be a bit simplistic in some ways, but they move right along. And while compared to a Brown, Braun, Sayers or Christie, they're somewhat heavy-handed in the foreshadowing, they're certainly less so than "The DaVinci Code." ;)

Re: #27

So maybe the reason we enjoy an occasional move like Monsters, Inc. and I sometimes read children's books for pleasure is because our 'child' is all grown up?

Trust me, Bob things like Fox in Socks turn out to be pretty good if you are NOT reading them three times a day, everyday. And we have great fondness for Pooh, Bunnicula and a host of other characters we only met when reading to our son. But there can be too much of a good thing.

#28: my experience was the opposite to yours. If it hadn't been for the modern literature element of my Open University course I would never have tried Achebe, R.K. Narayan or V S Naipaul etc. But what you say does ring a bell when I think of VIth form dissections of Shelley's poetry at school which put me off Romantic poetry for life (except Keats).

I'm intrigued by Bunnicula... will have to look out for it.

I read a Charlie and Lola book six or seven times a day most days, and am not tired of them yet! It's the mixture of funny narrative and quirky illustrations that works for me - I would probably be bored by less inspiring things if I had to read them over again, but luckily my son's previous obsessions have been with books I can bear, like Found You, Little Wombat or Knuffle Bunny.

BoPeep...

Are you a Bookcrosser? I have a copy of Bunnicula ready for release. Even if you're not a BXer, I can send it to you. It's one of these books I didn't read as a kid, and I loved it (I rated it a ten).

And Bob (#27), you have my sympathies! As it is, I hate reruns, and I dread the 3x a day readings and endless replaying of movies. When I become a parent, I'll think of those who bravely went ahead of me.

Ooooh. I'm not a Bookcrosser (although I am on BookMooch) but yes please! I'll pop a comment on your profile...

Be Warned. Bunnicula leads to: Howliday Inn, The Celery Stalks at Midnight and others featuring these same characters.

Honestly sometimes the children's books have less superflous sex and more plot.

Sometimes though, books that were adult books have somehow become children's

Maybe it will even teach her things like the proper use of capitalization?

:)

(edited to add smiley face because it was supposed to be a joke)

I'll try again.

In the grand scheme of things, does it really matter to you if someone doesn't capitalize their thoughts on a message board? Does that somehow make her less intelligent than you? Does it make you feel superior somehow? I find it unbelievably rude that you would comment on something so stupid.

Yes, it does matter or I wouldn't haven't commented.

The rest of the questions are more insulting than my original post, so I'll just leave it at that.

Honestly that is just so rude.

I don't think it's rude or insulting in any way. Judging from other entries, benwaugh is a very intelligent and well-read person, therefore I personally don't see the need for spelling everything wrong. And yes, not capitalizing words is spelling things wrong. Also, his entry above is very interesting and intelligent, so I actually think it rude of tunarubber to insinuate that morphidae thinks of herself as superior (and me for that matter as I would have pointed it out as well).

Misspelling bothers me everywhere, not only in books, also on message boards. Very often I am simply amazed at how poor the spelling of some people is, especially Americans (but not exclusively). My spelling is better and English is only my third language. Honestly, don't you learn how to spell at school? Sorry if that's insulting, but it also matters to me a great deal. There are rules for a reason. To be used.
Sure, benwaugh wasn't misspelling words, he just didn't capitalize anything, but in my eyes it's the same.

Just my two cents on the subject.

To be honest, if the post hadn't been from an obviously "intelligent and well-read person," as Thalia pointed out, I wouldn't have bothered. I normally roll my eyes at posts with a lot of misspelling, lack of punctuation, etc. and move on - unless it is obviously by someone who doesn't speak English as their primary language.

I normally wouldn't comment on something like spelling but I have to agree that the lack of any capitalization can be bothersome. It definitely made a long post like benwaugh's harder to read. As far as spelling goes, American schools are just coming out of a period where things like spelling and grammar were greatly de-emphasized.

So, back to the subject at hand...

I'm starting to re-read some childhood favorites because they were beloved back then. I don't remember them being this simple to read. At the time they were so rich and complex. Examples are The Little House on the Prairie, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory and Heidi.

On the other hand, I read His Dark Materials by Pullman for the first time and I loved them for the characters and story.

Personally, I don't understand a lot of the heat against the Harry Potter stories. It seems to be similar to the anger against The DaVinci Code. Why do people react so strongly against the most popular books? I don't get it. Obviously they touch something in many of us. Why is this so wrong?

So saying "honestly, that is just so rude" is abuse? Funny, it doesn't seem to fall within lt's guidelines for flagging something as abuse.

And if there's one thing I hate it's the grammar police and book snobs. And of course pointing out someone's lack of grammar makes you feel superior, why else would you do it? In my experience I've found that it's much easier to attack someone's grammar and spelling versus their arguements. The other reason people point it out is that it makes them feel superior. Why does it personally offend and/or bother you that someone doesn't capitalize things on a message board? This is a message board, for God's sake; it isn't her dissertation. And yes, I still find her original comment quite snarky and rude.

So go ahead and flag this.

Like many of the people here, I read YA books because they're good stories and because it's nice to have some light reading occasionally. My current binge of YA reading started because I kept seeing A Great and Terrible Beauty on display at the bookstore, among the adult books, and because I decided to catch up on the last few years of Tamora Pierce's work, since she's a favourite author of mine. I had read barely any YA for the last few years, so now there's so much that looks interesting!

I don't think people are against Harry Potter and The DaVinci Code for quite the same reasons. I haven't read the DaVinci Code, but I get the impression that it's not actually a very good book - it's suspenseful, so you can't put it down, but not otherwise great.

Harry Potter, on the other hand, is actually a good children's series, and generally the only thing that people have against it is that it's for children. (Though it sort of annoys me that it's so popular, because I definitely don't think that JK Rowling is the best author ever; I think a lot of the people who love Harry Potter just haven't read that kind of book before. I would recommend Diana Wynne Jones over JK Rowling any day.) I really don't understand why some people refuse to read even the first Harry Potter book.

Also, I can't help commenting on the subject of grammar.... Do the people who object to lack of capitalization also object to small grammar mistakes too? I often find myself using comma splices to get a more colloquial feel on message boards, for example. I don't think this is as objectionable as not using capitals, since it doesn't really hinder anyone's understanding, but I hope I'm not annoying anyone.

It's interesting how much difference the smiley made in that message.... Before, I was inclined to agree with tunarubber, but now it seems okay.

I never mention small mistakes. I make too many myself! And the first time I heard about comma splices was a few weeks ago.

However ,when misspelling or lack of punctuation or blocks of text (no paragraphs) make something difficult to read, yes, it pays to mention something. Especially when someone seems otherwise intelligent or interesting. I figure, if they are posting, they WANT to be read! If someone rites like this cuz they r l33t or dont kare, then no, I don't bother.

So, to get back to the subject of books, my question is what defines a good book? To me, if it keeps my interest throughout, then it's a good book. If it is boring, then it's a bad book.

Good books and bad books are personal judgments and I don't criticize someone else's likes or dislikes. It is their opinion and everyone is free to have their own.

Continuing on the subject, my husband recently recommended that I read Black Beauty. I was so surprised to have my Star Trek novel reading husband recommend a children's book that I put it near the top of my TBR pile. I figure it must be fantastic!

I love reading children's books because they're surprising, witty and often have illustrations. I'm with Alice: what use is a book without pictures? My favourite at the moment is You're a bad man, Mr Gum! by Andy Stanton, which made me howl with laughter. I'm reading it to some children I teach and they love it too. Because I have an excuse to, I've been buying Sendak in bulk: he really was one of the authors who started my life-long love of books.

Some books meant for children / YA have astonished me with their depth and beauty: The curious incident of the dog in the nighttime and His Dark Materials particularly. I actually wept freely at the end of The amber spyglass: nothing meant for adults has had that affect on me since my early twenties (the awful Jude the obscure, which broke my heart).

I don't like JK Rowling for a variety of reasons, but I have read all of them and wouldn't 'diss' someone for reading YA literature: even Rowling, who is loved throughout my family by adults and teens alike. Incidentally, my mother had never read Enid Blyton's 'Barney' or 'Adventure' series, so I found some for her. Despite being hooked, she was ashamed to be seen with them on her daily commute and hid them behind her handbag!

On the Grammar Nazi theme: I am resident GN on several fora. However, my favourite poet is ee cummings so I am fully able to read unpunctuated text, though it is a struggle.

Yeah, any book that makes me bawl like a baby is great.

Morphidae, have you heard about the Japanese craze for morbid stories that are designed to make you cry? They are stories of horrendous childhoods, doomed romance and terminal illnesses.

Just like Hardy, in fact. ;)

When I was 13-14, I was discussing "adult" fiction with my friends' parents, and they were always initially surprised that I was reading The Kite Runner or A Clockwork Orange instead of The Princess Diaries, and that I could hold an intelligent conversation regarding them.

Then again, I'm 16, which is largely considered to be too old to be reading A Series of Unfortunate Events or Artemis Fowl books, but I picked them up when I was "young enough" and still enjoy them. And I read them right alongside The Fountainhead and Joan Didion.

Why should age determine when you're ready to read a book? If you're at a point in your life where you're going to enjoy it, by all means read it, whether it's Winnie the Pooh or War and Peace. My mom tried to stop me from reading Night Fall this past summer because of "inappropriate" scenes. My dad later bought me copy, because we realize it's foolish to smother anyone's interest in reading simply because you don't enjoy the particular books they chose.

Hera,

No, I've never heard of such a thing. What a hoot!

Okay I am one of those "adults" who like series such as Lemony Snicket books and Harry Potter. =) I'm glad to see others like The Little House on the Praire books. My hubby bought me a full set of these years ago and yesterday for the first time I took them out of the box. Can't wait to read them.

I don't think one should not read YA books if he/she is an adult. I believe (and follow my belief) in reading what you like because, let's face it, reading should be, first of all, a pleasure.
I heve never vetoed my children to read "adult" books. For some of them, I only suggested it would be better to wait for the simple reason that a)they might find the book boring and/or b)they might miss the writer's message. In fact, my youngest son, who is 12, just finished reading A streetcar named desire and enjoyed it immensely, commenting in a way that made me think I was listening to an adult. So, nicoletort, enjoy your reading!

I suppose I should be charmed. I have always felt, sort of, that form is substance - and here, in a small way - I can be right. Insofar as offending your sensibilities goes, well, I blame only myself. With the topic being “is it just me” and the subject “why do other people have such unsophisticated reading habits” – I should have suspected that this was a support-swarming of little moths, with manifestly nothing to say, fluttering around a dim bulb in the hopes they might be able to shine in the borrowed light.

And, dear Schweizer, it is good to know that up from a polyglot lot of currency-sterilizers and clockfixers YOU have at least risen to the, er, "grosse Hoehe" of knowing where the big letters go. Zu allen Ihren kleinen Augen, auf wiedersehen.

PS: all in fun. Smiles :)

And now a quote from a delightful movie called "A Bug's Life"...

Bug #1: No, Larry! Don't look at the light!

Bug #2: I-can't-help-it. It's-so-beautiful.

(ZZZZZzzzzZZZZZt)

benwaugh: ...polyglot lot of currency-sterilizers and clockfixers? That's actually hilarious :-)

thank you-de-lay-dee-hooooo! :D