Current literacy statistics for adults in the United States are startling. More than 50% demonstrate reading skills equivalent to levels for fifth grade and below. While people with remedial reading skills like this are often still able to function in their daily lives, many struggle, especially regarding cognitive skills, as well as comprehension and reasoning abilities. Encouraging young adults to read books for pleasure might help improve literacy rates.
There’s been a significant decline in teenagers throughout the country who read books for pleasure. Advanced technology, especially social media and AI, have captured the interest of young adults, so that they spend more time scrolling and watching videos that merely last several minutes. Holding a book and reading it in its entirety as a pleasurable activity is at risk for becoming obsolete. Making reading for pleasure more attractive to young adults may not only boost literacy rates in the U.S. but may also inspire more teens to become authors.
Ways to compel teens to read books for pleasure
Try some of these ideas to foster a love of reading in young adults:
- Create space set aside in the home to encourage reading, such as a reading nook in a teen’s bedroom or a family reading spot somewhere in the house.
- Set an example by letting your teens see you read books for pleasure.
- Determine your son’s or daughter’s interests and passions, then give books that are relevant to those interests as gifts for birthdays, Christmas, and other special occasions.
- Start a family book club and make it fun by serving festive drinks and snacks at each meeting.
- Read stories to younger children on a regular basis, so they’ll want to read books for pleasure when they become teenagers.
Most neighborhoods still have libraries; in fact, libraries today often have comfy reading nooks, tables with puzzles on them, and even gaming devices and computers for public use. You might also be able to find movies to borrow, as well as audiobooks. Such amenities help make the library a “cool” place to hang out, which, in turn, might foster a love of reading in young adults.
Create a blog for book reviews
Young adults can connect with other teens throughout the country and across the world by launching a blog for book reviews. The more books they read, the more content they can create. Just as negative peer pressure might lead to undesirable behavior, connecting with others who share a passion for fiction might encourage more teens to read books for pleasure.
Who knows? A future best-selling Christian fiction author might be living in your house right now! By encouraging young adults to read books and write about them, you can help ensure that reading books for pleasure never becomes a thing of the past.
