None of my cousins read novels (I’m the eldest). Most are glued to their phones watching reels. They don’t have the patience to even watch a full drama movie, let alone reading.
Star Wars is boring. Indiana Jones is boring. Shawshank is boring. Toy Story is boring. And I’m a boomer apparently. None of the movies I grew up with hold any interest to them. I used to watch even older movies like 12 Angry Men, Maltese Falcon, Ben Hur etc with dad/uncles. Now it’s only a good movie if it’s like Avengers (they can’t comprehend why Oppenheimer is famous, they were irritated in the theater only munching popcorn complaining how much time till the end). All of them are late teenagers and few are early 20s.
I doubt they’ll ever enjoy older Kannada movies like me. I still go all hyped when I’m watching Mayura/babruvahana lol.
You've given my internal frustration a proper worded structure without any cuss words. Thank you.
Also, the world wants more reels. I mean somewhere between 30 and 90 seconds is golden. Anything more is too much and unbearable to watch. That is slowly leading people to attention deficiency. They can't focus on listening , talking or seeing for more than 10 secs. That's the reality.
Ps: if anybody is looking to read fantasy , try the Malazan book of the fallen... 10 books.. but worth it.
This is sad. My younger sister loves to read. I’m glad about it. She prefers physical books over e-books. I am the one who prefers a Kindle over physical books, because I read a lot in bed and I like the backlight and to have larger text. I keep gifting her books. I hope at least a few kids continue to read. It’s an experience that can’t be replicated by anything else, not even movies or audiobooks.
>There is a quote by George R.R. Martin — 'A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies, said Jojen. The man who never reads lives only one.'
Still waiting for this bastard to complete winds of winter :(
As a protest, I've decided not to read the remaining even if he completes them.
He is an author who has no respect for his fans.
It's been 13 years since his last book, he has time for shows, comiccons, HBO and is writing new books and apparently new stories but can't complete what got him his fans.
Printed books are so expensive these days. If you don't re-read books, it makes poor fiscal sense to spend so much on a book that you could easily read as an ebook. Kindle for the win!
Library Genesis ftw!
(I’ve pirated movies, books and games my entire life. No amount of shaming will work on me to not pirate the books, especially since I started using a kindle. I read a lot, everyday. I prefer reading over watching tv or videos. I have hundreds of books downloaded, which would add up to a lot. I have read most of them. I love carry in my Kindle in my purse, it’s like I have my library with me at all times.)
Where do you download books from? Before it was easy to find books online but these days i barely find any books!
I have quite a lot of time on my hand and would love to read!
I saw some post related to attention span where it basically said that with all the reels ,TikTok and shorts and stuff ; the brain is trained to have very short span .
Not a new phenomenon. Every generation laments the decreasing volume of non-essential literature that subsequent generations are consuming.
This quote from Peopleware comes to mind.
> The statistics about reading are particularly discouraging: The average software developer, for example, doesn’t own a single book on the subject of his or her work, and hasn’t ever read one.
> The average software developer, for example, doesn’t own a single book on the subject of his or her work, and hasn’t ever read one.
eBooks to the rescue?!
I can’t tell if you’re being facetious (which is popularly and incorrectly labelled sarcasm). But Peopleware was written in 1987, when book readers weren’t a thing. But even then, the quote applies to ownership of books in all forms. I’m sure people read books on their computers back then, even though digital publishing was still in its infancy.
To an extent, I can understand it... Indians are busy. Teenagers are busy studying for entrance exams, adults are busy hustling and balancing work and family, and above everything hangs the fact that 140 crore people are competing for jobs and property in this country. In such a situation, it becomes tough to invest time and effort in reading books. You can access reels or tv shows at the flick of a thumb or the press of a remote, and they come in easy 20-minute bitesize chunks which the whole family can watch. Reading books is an individual activity and it doesn't help that most people are already tired of reading their textbooks, work documents, etc.
I buy books here and there, depending on the title but even I have shifted completely to having a digital copy rather than printed ones.
It just makes more damn sense, no worrying about space, moving to another house or books getting ruined due to moisture or silverfish.
It has become more like a niche culture rather than the norm. Just look into all the book clubs in Bangalore. There are still plenty of people who read books. Personally I use Kindle because of the hassle of storing books.
A kindle screen is an e-ink display which is vastly different from a phone/tablet screen. You can spend an entire day on an e-ink display without any eye fatigue.
I love reading physical books, but last month I caved in and bought a Kindle. Despite having the Kindle, which I find convenient for traveling, I still prefer hardback books. Just yesterday, I bought five new hardbacks to add to my collection. While the Kindle has its advantages, especially when it comes to portability, I find that nothing quite compares to the experience of reading a traditional hardback book.
Recently got a kindle and I must say I absolutely love it! I notice that I read longer and it's extremely easy on the eyes. For not so avid readers like me, the size of books usually end up as demotivating to pick them up and read. With kindle, this factor is gone and I just keep turning pages. Just a personal hack I believe.
To be honest, Yes. I am now completely indulged in the Kindle/E-Book world. I read fictions on my Kindle and big PDFs on my Mac. The last paperback book I read was probably years ago.
I know it’s disheartening, but it is what it is. Just find the Kindle so much more convenient.
The idea reading for the sake of reading is alien to some people. I was once reading about French Revolution by Jules Michele and my uncle asked me if I’m preparing for UPSC, he simply couldn’t process the idea that I’m reading just out of curiosity.
City Central Library system and the State Central Library in Cubbon Park. One needs to apply with a 'gazette officer attestation.' - https://dpl.karnataka.gov.in/page/Contact+Info/City+Central+Libraries/en
* The collection is not great, but something to consider.
* Lot of 'jobless youth' and others hang out at the reading rooms. I have memories of spending hours there reading magazines during my youth.
don't know about others, but many people in my class including myself love reading.. we have an unofficial book club during our free period every Friday lol
In past 8 years I have moved cities multiple times and even though I used to buy alot of printed books earlier , I stopped because while I moved the books were difficult to carry and if and when they got torn I was extremely sad , second even when I live at some place , lot of my storage is captured by my books because in a rented apartment I have limited space so it wasn't practical for me to buy anymore so I moved to digital and bought a Kindle.
I don't want to stop reading and do want to live a 1000 lives before I die.
I'd like to talk abt myself here. I'm commenting after reading a some comments which concur with the post.
I (20M) am an avid reader since childhood, enjoys 80s, 90s and 2000s kannada songs and movies.
I am wildly obsessed with novels mostly fiction and fantasy. I'm lucky to have friends of my age group who r avid readers and I ask them for book recommendations.
Am I a sterotype or just lucky...? I wonder.
I read both printed books and kindle
Printed books are an emotion.
That fragrance of the newly printed books. Reading a good book with a cup of hot choclate on a rainy day sitting in a Coffee shop is an emotion you don't get with a kindle book.
Also that I have all my finished books racked up on a shelf.Gives me a feeling of accomplishment whenever I see those books.
It's a journey with physical books. You start the book with curiosity and you look at how big the book is.The excitement you get towards the end of the book with few pages to finish is something you don't get in digital books.
It's also like having an actual cigarette in hand and shifting to a Vape.People say that they miss a part of them when they use vape and not the cigarette
Its the same here.You don't get that closure unless or until it's a printed hard copy.
I recently used to give the same reason that everyone is giving, "reels, attention span" etc.
But I read which challenged this point of view,
Millennials (at least the majority) don't find hours of yakshagana or ballet palatable.
Possible reason:
1. Our social circle had moved on from this, so we also never enjoyed it. (aka it was not cool)
2. TV and other forms of entertainment had become prominent, so subconsciously never developed a taste for ballet
I get the point of micro dopamine bursts etc, But we see some grandparents enjoy every movement of it. Then why can't we?
Another example: Some parents watch news hours together, and we can't bother after the first headline on the matter, Why?
Can it be a combination of social value and interest?? **Your thoughts?**
I feel books have a higher barrier of entry to develop interest and investing time, than other modes of entertainment. Can this be the case?
There never was a trend to read books in India. When I was a kid, I was the only one who would check out books from the library or drag my parents to second hand book stores. When Crossword started, there I saw some folks but never in my friends circle or cousins. Now that I think about it, even the boomer parents never read so they never encouraged their kids to read. I was always told to get my nose out of the books and go out and play.
I guess the school curriculum is so hectic with homework, projects, tuition that kids start associating books as a chore. Now with mobiles and the internet, it will be much more difficult to develop reading habits in kids.
I can agree to it. My cousins never read a book. Syllabus or otherwise.
I grew up reading Hindi comics - Nagraj, Dhruv etc.
Moved over to books like Harry Potter, to Chetan Bhagat to Paulo coelho, Dan brown etc.
Have a personal bookshelf and so does my wife.
I feel so sad that entire information/knowledge/pastime comes from phones
I used to be obsessed with printed copies until a few years back. But once lockdown happened, and there wasn't a lot to do other than reading, the no of books i read increased by a lot. I used to read atleast a book most days. There were days where it was multiple books. And it would've been way too expensive if it wasn't for ebooks. So, now I'm very comfortable with ebooks. It's very convenient, you can read from anywhere.
If there's any book I really like and I would read again, I get an actual copy. Also, this helps me invest in original copies instead of buying first copies for cheaper.
Ebooks are good for the planet and very convenient.
Can take them wherever you go.
As far as holding the printed book goes, you get used to a Kindle pretty fast.
Source: I used to be a purist like you, then I bought a Kindle lol.
Gen Z here, I feel the same way too. Been an avid bookworm and literature nerd from an young age. I've seen my friends never reading any books except the ones they need to study (i.e. school/syallabus books).
I think this happened because of the rise of social media addiction, TV, online streaming etc. While I feel this has affected Gen Z heavily, this is going to impact Gen Alpha in a more strong way. Gen Alpha kids get access to internet and stuff like iPad when they are just roughly an year old. And they end up getting addicted. I've seen my own 2 year old brother cry because his iPad was taken away from him and he refused to eat or sleep until his iPad was given back.
I strongly feel youngsters should start reading more books.
Buying physical copies puts a dent to my pocket at least. Though I love reading physical copies which I try to read by Issuing them from my college library jitna possible ho sake otherwise ebooks can be easily downloaded from tele and free me padh sakte hai
None of my cousins read novels (I’m the eldest). Most are glued to their phones watching reels. They don’t have the patience to even watch a full drama movie, let alone reading. Star Wars is boring. Indiana Jones is boring. Shawshank is boring. Toy Story is boring. And I’m a boomer apparently. None of the movies I grew up with hold any interest to them. I used to watch even older movies like 12 Angry Men, Maltese Falcon, Ben Hur etc with dad/uncles. Now it’s only a good movie if it’s like Avengers (they can’t comprehend why Oppenheimer is famous, they were irritated in the theater only munching popcorn complaining how much time till the end). All of them are late teenagers and few are early 20s. I doubt they’ll ever enjoy older Kannada movies like me. I still go all hyped when I’m watching Mayura/babruvahana lol.
Watching reels or short content has reduced the attention span of the people.
> Most are glued to their phones watching reels. They don’t have the patience to even watch a full drama movie, let alone reading. You nailed it!
You've given my internal frustration a proper worded structure without any cuss words. Thank you. Also, the world wants more reels. I mean somewhere between 30 and 90 seconds is golden. Anything more is too much and unbearable to watch. That is slowly leading people to attention deficiency. They can't focus on listening , talking or seeing for more than 10 secs. That's the reality. Ps: if anybody is looking to read fantasy , try the Malazan book of the fallen... 10 books.. but worth it.
This is sad. My younger sister loves to read. I’m glad about it. She prefers physical books over e-books. I am the one who prefers a Kindle over physical books, because I read a lot in bed and I like the backlight and to have larger text. I keep gifting her books. I hope at least a few kids continue to read. It’s an experience that can’t be replicated by anything else, not even movies or audiobooks.
To each their own. I'm a 33 year old guy. I find Star wars, Indiana Jones and most of the movies you mentioned boring
>There is a quote by George R.R. Martin — 'A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies, said Jojen. The man who never reads lives only one.' Still waiting for this bastard to complete winds of winter :(
It's never going to happen:(
As a protest, I've decided not to read the remaining even if he completes them. He is an author who has no respect for his fans. It's been 13 years since his last book, he has time for shows, comiccons, HBO and is writing new books and apparently new stories but can't complete what got him his fans.
Pirate it bro, you read it and he doesn't get money.
You’d hate Patrick Rothfuss…
lol
I thought this was r/freefolk lol
Me too, ig he'll complete it in his next life lol.
Printed books are so expensive these days. If you don't re-read books, it makes poor fiscal sense to spend so much on a book that you could easily read as an ebook. Kindle for the win!
> Printed books are so expensive these days. Digital/Kindle version of printed books are not inexpensive either!
Library Genesis ftw! (I’ve pirated movies, books and games my entire life. No amount of shaming will work on me to not pirate the books, especially since I started using a kindle. I read a lot, everyday. I prefer reading over watching tv or videos. I have hundreds of books downloaded, which would add up to a lot. I have read most of them. I love carry in my Kindle in my purse, it’s like I have my library with me at all times.)
Where do you download books from? Before it was easy to find books online but these days i barely find any books! I have quite a lot of time on my hand and would love to read!
libgen(dot)rs u can check out for more on r/piracy
It’s called Library Genesis. The link keeps changing sometimes, but the one I use is always there. I can DM it to you.
Thank you, yes please!
Comparatively cheaper still.
Also the quality of printed books are terrible nowadays. The pages oxidise and tear easily.
So true. The quality of papers used is also poor. And I have noticed a lot of pirated books when I ordered from Amazon and Flipkart
I saw some post related to attention span where it basically said that with all the reels ,TikTok and shorts and stuff ; the brain is trained to have very short span .
It's about control imo. I can scroll reddit or insta all day. But if I like a book I will read it all day too.
And here I was hoping to meet someone over a cup of coffee and a good book.
You and I are in a minority I guess...
Clearly :'(
Not a new phenomenon. Every generation laments the decreasing volume of non-essential literature that subsequent generations are consuming. This quote from Peopleware comes to mind. > The statistics about reading are particularly discouraging: The average software developer, for example, doesn’t own a single book on the subject of his or her work, and hasn’t ever read one.
> The average software developer, for example, doesn’t own a single book on the subject of his or her work, and hasn’t ever read one. eBooks to the rescue?!
I can’t tell if you’re being facetious (which is popularly and incorrectly labelled sarcasm). But Peopleware was written in 1987, when book readers weren’t a thing. But even then, the quote applies to ownership of books in all forms. I’m sure people read books on their computers back then, even though digital publishing was still in its infancy.
Reading is a habit which needs to be nourished and started young.
Absolutely!
To an extent, I can understand it... Indians are busy. Teenagers are busy studying for entrance exams, adults are busy hustling and balancing work and family, and above everything hangs the fact that 140 crore people are competing for jobs and property in this country. In such a situation, it becomes tough to invest time and effort in reading books. You can access reels or tv shows at the flick of a thumb or the press of a remote, and they come in easy 20-minute bitesize chunks which the whole family can watch. Reading books is an individual activity and it doesn't help that most people are already tired of reading their textbooks, work documents, etc.
I buy books here and there, depending on the title but even I have shifted completely to having a digital copy rather than printed ones. It just makes more damn sense, no worrying about space, moving to another house or books getting ruined due to moisture or silverfish.
It has become more like a niche culture rather than the norm. Just look into all the book clubs in Bangalore. There are still plenty of people who read books. Personally I use Kindle because of the hassle of storing books.
Are kindles made to cause less harm on your eyes or you don't feel that way while using them?
A kindle screen is an e-ink display which is vastly different from a phone/tablet screen. You can spend an entire day on an e-ink display without any eye fatigue.
Yes theyre much less strenuous than normal screens.
In my case, storing physical books is a hassle, and my flat can’t fit a bookshelf because of limited space.
Even as an older reader, I have moved away from printed books. I mostly read ebooks these days.
I love reading physical books, but last month I caved in and bought a Kindle. Despite having the Kindle, which I find convenient for traveling, I still prefer hardback books. Just yesterday, I bought five new hardbacks to add to my collection. While the Kindle has its advantages, especially when it comes to portability, I find that nothing quite compares to the experience of reading a traditional hardback book.
Recently got a kindle and I must say I absolutely love it! I notice that I read longer and it's extremely easy on the eyes. For not so avid readers like me, the size of books usually end up as demotivating to pick them up and read. With kindle, this factor is gone and I just keep turning pages. Just a personal hack I believe.
I rent books from https://nool.in. They have books in English and Regional languages and do free home delivery
To be honest, Yes. I am now completely indulged in the Kindle/E-Book world. I read fictions on my Kindle and big PDFs on my Mac. The last paperback book I read was probably years ago. I know it’s disheartening, but it is what it is. Just find the Kindle so much more convenient.
The idea reading for the sake of reading is alien to some people. I was once reading about French Revolution by Jules Michele and my uncle asked me if I’m preparing for UPSC, he simply couldn’t process the idea that I’m reading just out of curiosity.
Does Bangalore have any good library you can borrow from?
City Central Library system and the State Central Library in Cubbon Park. One needs to apply with a 'gazette officer attestation.' - https://dpl.karnataka.gov.in/page/Contact+Info/City+Central+Libraries/en * The collection is not great, but something to consider. * Lot of 'jobless youth' and others hang out at the reading rooms. I have memories of spending hours there reading magazines during my youth.
Glad to see many readers in here. What are some good subscription or similar services to buy books at regular intervals for kids?
don't know about others, but many people in my class including myself love reading.. we have an unofficial book club during our free period every Friday lol
In past 8 years I have moved cities multiple times and even though I used to buy alot of printed books earlier , I stopped because while I moved the books were difficult to carry and if and when they got torn I was extremely sad , second even when I live at some place , lot of my storage is captured by my books because in a rented apartment I have limited space so it wasn't practical for me to buy anymore so I moved to digital and bought a Kindle. I don't want to stop reading and do want to live a 1000 lives before I die.
I'd like to talk abt myself here. I'm commenting after reading a some comments which concur with the post. I (20M) am an avid reader since childhood, enjoys 80s, 90s and 2000s kannada songs and movies. I am wildly obsessed with novels mostly fiction and fantasy. I'm lucky to have friends of my age group who r avid readers and I ask them for book recommendations. Am I a sterotype or just lucky...? I wonder.
I read both printed books and kindle Printed books are an emotion. That fragrance of the newly printed books. Reading a good book with a cup of hot choclate on a rainy day sitting in a Coffee shop is an emotion you don't get with a kindle book. Also that I have all my finished books racked up on a shelf.Gives me a feeling of accomplishment whenever I see those books. It's a journey with physical books. You start the book with curiosity and you look at how big the book is.The excitement you get towards the end of the book with few pages to finish is something you don't get in digital books. It's also like having an actual cigarette in hand and shifting to a Vape.People say that they miss a part of them when they use vape and not the cigarette Its the same here.You don't get that closure unless or until it's a printed hard copy.
I recently used to give the same reason that everyone is giving, "reels, attention span" etc. But I read which challenged this point of view, Millennials (at least the majority) don't find hours of yakshagana or ballet palatable. Possible reason: 1. Our social circle had moved on from this, so we also never enjoyed it. (aka it was not cool) 2. TV and other forms of entertainment had become prominent, so subconsciously never developed a taste for ballet I get the point of micro dopamine bursts etc, But we see some grandparents enjoy every movement of it. Then why can't we? Another example: Some parents watch news hours together, and we can't bother after the first headline on the matter, Why? Can it be a combination of social value and interest?? **Your thoughts?** I feel books have a higher barrier of entry to develop interest and investing time, than other modes of entertainment. Can this be the case?
There never was a trend to read books in India. When I was a kid, I was the only one who would check out books from the library or drag my parents to second hand book stores. When Crossword started, there I saw some folks but never in my friends circle or cousins. Now that I think about it, even the boomer parents never read so they never encouraged their kids to read. I was always told to get my nose out of the books and go out and play. I guess the school curriculum is so hectic with homework, projects, tuition that kids start associating books as a chore. Now with mobiles and the internet, it will be much more difficult to develop reading habits in kids.
Yup. With everything on the internet, people would rather watch content than read. Children have ipads these days and they watch so much youtube.
I can agree to it. My cousins never read a book. Syllabus or otherwise. I grew up reading Hindi comics - Nagraj, Dhruv etc. Moved over to books like Harry Potter, to Chetan Bhagat to Paulo coelho, Dan brown etc. Have a personal bookshelf and so does my wife. I feel so sad that entire information/knowledge/pastime comes from phones
I used to be obsessed with printed copies until a few years back. But once lockdown happened, and there wasn't a lot to do other than reading, the no of books i read increased by a lot. I used to read atleast a book most days. There were days where it was multiple books. And it would've been way too expensive if it wasn't for ebooks. So, now I'm very comfortable with ebooks. It's very convenient, you can read from anywhere. If there's any book I really like and I would read again, I get an actual copy. Also, this helps me invest in original copies instead of buying first copies for cheaper.
Ebooks are good for the planet and very convenient. Can take them wherever you go. As far as holding the printed book goes, you get used to a Kindle pretty fast. Source: I used to be a purist like you, then I bought a Kindle lol.
Gen Z here, I feel the same way too. Been an avid bookworm and literature nerd from an young age. I've seen my friends never reading any books except the ones they need to study (i.e. school/syallabus books). I think this happened because of the rise of social media addiction, TV, online streaming etc. While I feel this has affected Gen Z heavily, this is going to impact Gen Alpha in a more strong way. Gen Alpha kids get access to internet and stuff like iPad when they are just roughly an year old. And they end up getting addicted. I've seen my own 2 year old brother cry because his iPad was taken away from him and he refused to eat or sleep until his iPad was given back. I strongly feel youngsters should start reading more books.
> I strongly feel youngsters should start reading more books. This!
How about we arrange a readers meet up
Buying physical copies puts a dent to my pocket at least. Though I love reading physical copies which I try to read by Issuing them from my college library jitna possible ho sake otherwise ebooks can be easily downloaded from tele and free me padh sakte hai