Foggy mornings are great for reading.
Here’s what they were actively reading:
Tim at 18 (to whom we gave The Book Thief by Markus Zusak): As he heads into college at U. Mass. Amherst, he is reading the college’s 2012 Common Reading book, Ready Player One by Ernest Cline. A lead-in page bound into the paperback printed for this purpose explains that all incoming new students need to have read it by orientation time, and it will be “used in a variety of ways” during their first semester. The author will be the keynote speaker at the New Student Convocation.
Lauren at 16 (to whom we gave Misery by Stephen King): She is rereading The Christopher Killer by Alane Ferguson. She is rereading it because she wants to read the next of Ferguson’s books (The Angel of Death, I think) but wants to refresh her memory first. Her reading choice reassures me I wasn’t wrong to give her Stephen King’s Misery.
Jeremy at 14 (to whom we gave Damned by Check Palahniuk): He brought with him a book he was given by another set of grandparents, which is Little, Brown and Company’s binding of David Foster Wallace’s This Is Water: Some Thoughts, Delivered on a Significant Occasion, about Living a Compassionate Life (Wallace’s only speech ever to a graduating class, this one in 2005 at Kenyon College). It’s about making conscious choices, and Jeremy has grocked it.
Before their week with us, I knew the kids could claim such mega-bestsellers as Harry Potter, Twilight, Hunger Games, and Wimpy Kid. But after their week with us, I’m reassured they’re reading a lot of other books too.
If you have teenaged grandchildren, what are they reading?
Good to know that at least some kids are reading books other than Paranormal & Romance categories!
Yes, Alison – and adults too!