When asked why teenage boys don't read:
Searching for a suitable answer, I raided my bookshelves and reread a pile of my favorite books from my teenage years. Both high and low culture were represented; there were books by men and women, contemporary authors and ones from bygone eras, literature in English and literature in translation, books I still loved and books I can no longer stand, but the books all had one thing in common: They were filthy.
What do you think? Were you a reader when you were a teenager? Would a different kind of book have enticed you?
I would have wanted escapism, either speculative fiction or how to literally get out, because I lived in a town with less than 500 people.
This reminds me of a story...
Years ago I was a tutor. This one student I had needed help with the math proficiency exam. So the strategy was simple: go through the math proficiency study book problem by problem, teach him all the ones he can't do.
Thing was, he never had a problem with any geometry problem. Even the hardest ones! Turns out, his geometry teacher was, apparently, smoking hot.
One day he totally got this really hard problem, and I said, "damn, she must have been hot."
In three syllables with a somewhat dropped voice, he just said, "oh-oh yeah."
Oh!
Here's a strategy to get teenage boys to read. You ready? Simple.
Ban the book.
