Citing the dilemma that "as children reach adolescents, they become less likely to read in their in leisure time and thus visit libraries less" Clare Snowball sets out in her aptly titled: Teenager Talking About Reading and Libraries, to discover the reading habits and perceptions of teenagers. She attempts this through an examination of 41 highschool aged participants; each teenager was assigned to one of a total of seven focus groups.
The article explores three basic concepts: Do Teenagers Read, What Do Teenagers Read, and Teenagers in the Library. Each area is covered rather well with great attention to detail and sensitivity to the issues; however, little in the way new insights are contributed -perhaps outside of that which was revealed in her discussion of graphic novels, the refusal of some teenagers to read from left to right as was required to do for magna comics. The article basically concludes that the diversity of the teenage reading habits and preferences are as diverse as the population of teenagers in general. Additionally, the argument is made that in order to stoke the interests of 'non-readers' and help encourage further reading among self-admitted avid readers librarians must be vigilant in promoting and providing young adults materials.
I must admit I did enjoy the authors discussion of what constitutes reading; it naturally got me thinking are some formats better than others, is not all reading created equal? In most cases I tend to agree reading is reading, except perhaps for that which occurs on instant messaging or facebook. The latter type of reading, although, it does engage the brain, it mirrors the pattern of speech far too much, I think, to be considered proper -especially as it is often riddle with abbreviations and spelling errors. However, I am not entirely entrenched in this belief.
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