What are you reading in 2025?

[TwoSix]

I got into a debate with someone a while back with someone who said that school libraries should only have academic works, and not contemporary popular fiction (including graphic novels, manga, etc.). My counterpoint was exactly what you said here: that schools should have things which make reading fun for kids, rather than seeming like work.

Eventually the debate shifted to "well, why can't they just go to public libraries for the fun stuff?" which went down an entirely different avenue regarding accessibility, parental oversight, and several other issues.

Considering how constantly inundated kids are with visual and aural distractions from the various screens available, any medium that can get them to ingest text for a period of time more than a few seconds is worthwhile.

 

[overgeeked]

Considering how constantly inundated kids are with visual and aural distractions from the various screens available, any medium that can get them to ingest text for a period of time more than a few seconds is worthwhile.

Yep. There are always readers. Some kids go through a phase of reading then stop, others become lifetime readers. It takes all kinds. Comics, graphic novels, manga, light novels, short stories, novels...horror, sci-fi, classic literature, poetry, history, cookbooks...doesn't matter. Just read something.

That attitude from my parents got me through the Satanic Panic. They didn't care what I was reading as long as I was reading.

I had the same attitude with my kid. The house was and still is filled with books of all kinds. Didn't matter what, just read.

 

[Old Fezziwig]

That attitude from my parents got me through the Satanic Panic. They didn't care what I was reading as long as I was reading.

I had the same attitude with my kid. The house was and still is filled with books of all kinds. Didn't matter what, just read.

I asked my mother about this before she passed because my brother and I read a ton of comic books and Dragonlance/FR fiction before high school and she didn't personally have much time for genre fiction. Her position was exactly what your parents' position was: as long as we were reading, she was happy. She never wanted us to feel like reading was a chore, which probably helped in college and grad school.

 

[prabe]

Yep. There are always readers. Some kids go through a phase of reading then stop, others become lifetime readers. It takes all kinds. Comics, graphic novels, manga, light novels, short stories, novels...horror, sci-fi, classic literature, poetry, history, cookbooks...doesn't matter. Just read something.

That attitude from my parents got me through the Satanic Panic. They didn't care what I was reading as long as I was reading.

I had the same attitude with my kid. The house was and still is filled with books of all kinds. Didn't matter what, just read.

My parents very much tended to the "if you can reach it, you can read it" thing. This got awkward: My mom worked as an OB nurse and had books on pregnancy and childbirth that I was reading when I was ... like four. My parents were fine with that, some of my friends' parents, though ...

 

[Eyes of Nine]

I've bounced off Verne's 20,000 Leagues a few times. It should be right in my Venn diagram of interests, but nope. I should try it again sometime.

I took a class on H. G. Wells in college. So many short stories, novellas, and novels. We barely had time to talk about them we were reading so many in such a short time. Time Machine, Moreau, Invisible Man, War of the Worlds, Sleeper Wakes, First Men in the Moon, Food of the Gods, Modern Utopia, Shape of Things to Come, on and on and on. Lots of great stuff in there along with quite a few duds.

H. Rider Haggard is a great action-adventure writer. He did some great stuff. Gotta watch out for the racism and colonialism, but really ripping yarns. Roughly similar writers to check out are Dumas, Edgar Rice Burroughs, A. Merritt, Robert Louis Stevenson, Rafael Sabatini, and so many more.

Also Artie Doyle (aka Arthur Conan Doyle)'s Prof. Challenger books.

 

[Eyes of Nine]

On the topic of Ulysses, one benefits from an annotated copy. Which one of course as one redditor stated "ask 2 Ulysses scholars the best annotated version, get 3 different answers"


My opinion, if one is not taking a class on it, to have the annotated version where the annotes (why isn't "annotes" a word?!?) stand in for the teacher, to some degree.

I enjoyed reading Ulysses in college - but it was my final semester and I had trouble a) making it to class and b) finishing the final paper on time. My prof took pity, giving me a D so that I could graduate. BUT I did enjoy the book, especially the puzzle-like nature of it. Still have my college text around here somewhere.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

why isn't "annotes" a word?

Because it's slang for "annotations."

 

[jian]

Also Artie Doyle (aka Arthur Conan Doyle)'s Prof. Challenger books.

I read all the Sherlock Holmes stories as a kid but could never get into any of his other books - the White Company, the Roman stories, Brigadier Gerard, or indeed Professor Challenger. It was generally pretty pompous and self-important.

 

[Pedantic]

I love Moby Dick, but I appreciate that when you are faced with entire chapters such as the following, fury or despair may be warranted:

• The Whiteness of the Whale
• Of the Less Erroneous Pictures of Whales, and the True Pictures of Whaling Scenes
• Of Whales in Paint; in Teeth; in Wood; in Sheet-Iron; in Stone; in Mountains; in Stars
• The Whale as a Dish
• The Sperm Whale’s Head—Contrasted View
• The Right Whale’s Head—Contrasted View
• The Tail

My deeply misguided parents thought my voracious fantasy habit was a waste of potential in middle school, and demanded I start reading classics, for some reason starting with Moby Dick. I was not, at age 11, ready for Melville, had a very bad time, and stopped sleeping so I could secretly read the books I actually wanted to read at night.

Imagine my horror, when I reencountered him in college, and discovered he's an absolute genius of prose. Unfortunately recognizing that did absolutely nothing for my learned antipathy, and I'm frankly quite mad I'll never properly appreciate Moby Dick.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I read all the Sherlock Holmes stories as a kid but could never get into any of his other books - the White Company, the Roman stories, Brigadier Gerard, or indeed Professor Challenger. It was generally pretty pompous and self-important.

You and pretty much everyone else. Thing was, Doyle was pompous and self-important, and wanted to be a Dostoevsky (or more accurately, a Kipling) when all he was actually good at was writing (as he saw it) popular tripe.

I have read all the Challenger stories, which have some interesting SF ideas, but it's no coincidence that the only one that's well known, The Lost World, is the least pompous.