Are readers born, or made?
Kathleen Bolton on Sep 22 2008 | Filed under: REAL WORLD, Uncategorized
I asked myself this question as I watched my little sproutlet destroy a carefully-designed gift basket she’d gotten for her birthday to get at the Borders giftcard nestled in the middle. Nothing else mattered to her in the basket: not the hair bands, the Jonas Brothers cd, the sweet little paper flowers that crafty moms make. It was all about the gift card. Followed shortly by me being bugged to take her to Borders so she could load up.
My daughter is a book-aholic. So am I. So is her father. Books aren’t something we pick up once in awhile at our house. We have piles everywhere, each nightstand groans, shelves are higgly-piggly with titles stuffed as space permits. It’s an addiction I feed in my kid, but I never nurtured it. I didn’t have to. Oh, I held her on my lap and read to her when she was little, and we treasured our moments. But as soon as she could string letters into words, then words into sentences, she was off on her own, reading, reading, reading.
My niece, on the other hand, is kinda meh on books. She lives the same sort of bookish household, where my brother has piles of books all over the place. She doesn’t lack for reading opportunities. I’ve given her pop-up books, princess storybooks, some of the snappier classics. She’s polite, but they don’t get devoured. She’d just rather be doing something else.
Sci-fi author Darrell Bain also wonders if readers are born instead of made (ht Teleread):
“Betty and I have taken sort of an informal survey of our families and friends on the subject of who reads for pleasure as a principal form of entertainment and who doesn’t. We’ve discovered that it apparently doesn’t matter how much or how little parents try to influence kids to enjoy fiction and reading for pleasure. They either do or they don’t and the amount of influence or exposure from parents isn’t much of a factor. We’ve come to the conclusion that readers are born, not made. There’s something in the identity of the person that makes some people gravitate to reading fiction but we don’t have a clue what it is. Does anyone?”
Good question.
The only hard research I could find (okay, I only spent 20 minutes searching) was a study done by the University of Melbourne on identical twins. The findings suggest that it’s about 50-50 innate reading ability combined with personal experience that creates readers.
I think — all things being equal like access to books, a supportive reading environment, and a decent education — that I’m coming down on the side of readers being born. I don’t mean to devalue literacy drives and Read-Aloud To Me initiatives. But there’s got to be something within that makes readers want to be entertained by books rather than the million other things that we could be doing.
Do you think readers are born, not made? Did you start devouring books at an early age? Do you know siblings where one was a reader and the other not so much? I’m interested in hearing your thoughts about this.
Kathleen Bolton
Therese Walsh
Ann Aguirre
Porter Anderson
Brunonia Barry
Carleen Brice
Keith Cronin
Anna Elliott
Jane Friedman
Donald Maass
Juliet Marillier
Sophie Masson
Jael McHenry
Jan O'Hara
Debbie Ohi
Barbara O'Neal
Crystal Patriarche
Ray Rhamey
M.J. Rose
Chuck Sambuchino
John Vorhaus
Yuvi Zalkow
Sharon Bially
Anne Greenwood Brown
Tracy Hahn-Burkett
Suzannah Windsor Freeman
Kristan Hoffman
Jeanne Kisacky
Erika Robuck
Lydia Sharp
Very interesting issue.
My parents were not GREAT readers, but they had a very decent library (mainly classics) that was available to me and my sister. And although my sister liked to read once in a while, it was never an addiction and she never had the amount of love I have for books. So, we basically had the same conditions but we turned out to be very different concerning books and reading (and many other things, actually).
So, I agree with the conclusion that a reader is born. Probably, that reader is more easily discovered when his/her parents have the right means for that to happen (i.e., a lot of books at home), but ultimately there has to be some kind of gene that makes people love reading. I guess when the parents are both book lovers, there is a good chance that the child will become one too.
I don’t have kids yet and my future husband is not a book lover. I’m curious to know how my kids will be :)
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I’d come down on the born not made, though all I have is limited anecdotal evidence.
I don’t have children, but am very close to my 3 nephews, who are being raised in a home filled to overflowing with books and by two parents who read to them and for their own pleasure all the time.
Nephews 1 and 3 have been readers since they learned to hold books. The older one, who is now 14, will read anything that falls within his eyesight. The younger one is a little pickier, but I figure he’ll branch out as he gets a older. He is 9.
The middle one, however, would rather play football, basketball, ride his skateboard, play the bass, do almost anything but read. Books sit in front of him and he barely notices. When he does read, he enjoys it and talks about what he’s read. But reading is almost never at the top of his list.
It’s an interesting question, and certainly one that ought to be important to writers! Thanks for making me think on a Monday morning!
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This is news to me. I’ve always thought that my being a bookworm has a lot to do with the fact that both my parents read all the time and that my childhood home is like the one you describe. But now that I think about it, I realize my brothers are not avid readers and my sister, although went through bouts of reading frenzies in her teen years, now reads mostly non-fiction. Hmmm.
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My parents like books….my sister (who is less than a year younger than me) wouldn’t go near them with a ten foot pole. I….have a slight infestation of them climbing my bedroom walls and, of course, my nightstand. My parents built a basement a year ago for an entertainment room, and it has since become my library. My bookshelves LINE the walls.
My sister and I both had the same parents, similar opportunities, and actually we still have very similar interests…but she is just not entertained by the written word. IT DRIVES ME BATTY!!!!
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What an interesting topic for research! I think, as with so many other issues, that it’s a combination of nature and nurture that determines action. If Sophie had a negative environment–say you didn’t provide her with books, her friends thought reading was stupid, or she was somehow otherwise discouraged in her reading–would she still be a voracious reader?
I was never a book gobbler; I read what the English teachers told me to read and generally liked those books, but I didn’t read much for pleasure as a child or teen. Alternately, my sisters were both huge readers. Weird?
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I come from a family of bookworms, mostly the women in my family. But both my sons are serious readers. I love it when they share favorite books with each other. One is avid on historical and political non-fiction and the other reads everything. I like to check out the one or two books he’s got going – the subjects are rather eclectic at times. He loved reading from babyhood. My younger son was too busy having adventures to sit down at read. His second grade teacher read classics aloud to her class every day and he loved listening. But when he was in fourth grade, he read “Hatchet” as a class assignment, about a boy who is stranded and only has a hatchet to survive. My son was riveted. Once he was able to relate to a character, he then became an avid reader of adventure stories. My nephew does not enjoy reading as much. He had a vision problem and needed glasses while still in elementary school. His early struggles with reading put a damper on things. He really loves reading the newspaper now, though. I think they just have to be caught at the right moment. I think Harry Potter caught a lot of children’s attention creating many new life long readers. But I do feel coming from a family of readers doesn’t hurt. I consider passing on my love of reading to my sons one of the best gifts I could give them.
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I grew up with 5 sisters and 2 brothers, and out of t he eight of us, I am the ONLY one that has an overwhelming passion for reading! My mother read to us all and got me started in a book club as a birthday gift one year and I was hooked! But my siblings could do without, so being born as a reader sounds much more believable to me…although teaching one to love reading is a great concept that the world should continue to achieve!
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I’m not sure where I fall on the spectrum, but I’ll throw this out. My son 10 is a voracious reader. It gets to the point where we have to make him set his book down to go outside and play on a sunny day. His mother read to him every night for about an hour when he was little. She is not a big reader herself, but this was her quality time with him.
My daughter on the other hand who is seven doesn’t seem to be into books near as much. She does read, but seems to do it among a long list of other things she enjoys. I am in charge of putting her to bed, and confession time. I don’t read to her near as long as my wife read to our son. By that time of the night I’m shot, and can’t keep my eyes open long enough to read for an hour, that and my daughter usually has a whole spectrum of things that seem to keep her from getting in bed on time each night. I however am a book-a-holic.
So is it environment, in the genes, or because of a conscious part on the parents behalf to read to their children. Probably a combination of the three.
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I’ve always assumed both my daughters were eager readers because their father and I are readers (coming from families of avid readers) and we started reading to them when they were very young.
Maybe it’s not just a matter of being raised with books, but finding the books that capture a child’s attention.
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I agree it’s got to be a combo of nature/nurture, but I also wonder if people who are more visually-oriented instead of tactially oriented gravitate to reading more often. My brother never liked fiction, but he read everything he could about reptiles, war, UFO mysteries, fishing — typical boy non-fiction. He’s still more of a non-fiction person to this day.
I, on the other hand, loved my Little House books, Narnia, Lord of the Rings, Beverly Cleary. I also still prefer fiction over non-fiction. So there are levels to this thing.
Therese, that’s odd that you didn’t discover the joy of books until you were an adult. And now look at you!
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Okay first of all: if she doesn’t want the Jonas Brothers CD, SEND IT TO ME!! :D
Second: I always thought I was a reader b/c of my family, and I still sort of think I am, BUT I realize now that it ISN’T because my parents read a lot. Because they don’t. Probably 50% of the books in our house growing up were mine (and keep in mind that I was 18 or under, whereas they’d had their whole lifetimes to amass a library). They didn’t read THAT much themselves (I’d say an average amount, although my dad reads TONS of newspapers and magazines) BUT they fostered reading in me. Books were the one thing I was allowed to buy without limit or guilt or “earning” (unlike candy or toys). So I “blame” my parents for my voracious reading habit, but I don’t think it’s exactly something I “inherited” from them.
(How do you like all my parentheses and quotation marks, eh? It’s been one of those days…)
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I’ve been a lurker here for a while but I’m suddenly reminded of how I fell in love with books.
My parents were avid readers and we had a house full of books. Unlike most children in West Africa I was lucky enough to go to a good school and have college educated parents, but I was not interested in reading. My mother would buy books for me, and read to me, and even beg me to read, but I was simply not interested.
Oddly enough though, one day my mother brought home one of the Redwall books and there was this cute mouse in the cover holding a sword in his paw and I was intrigued. So I read the book. In three days. And I went to the library and got every book in the Redwall series they had and I never stopped reading after that. Especially fantasy books. My mother and I love to read and we exchange books all the time, but my sister doesn’t read as much as we do, so I think it has more to do with nurture than nature in our family.
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Ixtab, you reminded me of a situation I had in junior high or high school. I had to pick up a book during the library period (school rules), so I grabbed a fantasy novel. For some reason, I started reading it, instead of letting it collect graham cracker crumbs in my backpack along with my other library books. And, surprise, I fell into it. I wasn’t a quick reader, though, and had to turn it back into the library the following week unfinished. I guess I wasn’t nervy enough then to ask the librarian for an extension. I never did reconnect with that particular book, but knowing what I know now, I understand why I was hooked: I love a good fantasy. I believe that was my very first.
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I really never had any close friends while growing up, so I’ve always found refuge at the public library, where I would read anything that grabbed my fancy.
Since I’ve always read newspapers, the first genre I connected with was non-fiction, specifically true crime. I did branch out to other genres (historical fiction and fantasy are my two faves) as I got older, but never really got into straight fiction until about two or three years ago.
Now my reading consumption has dropped off a bit, but I still try to read a book a week in a few new genres (at least for me): mysteries and romance.
One other thing, in my opinion, readers are born, not made. My parents never really read much of anything beyond the newspaper, the tabloids, sports magazines and pulp fiction. And my brother was the same way, only reads when necessary.
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I am a firm believer that readers are born – at least that is my experience. I grew up in a home where books were a luxury (I don’t think we even owned one) but as soon as I began school and discovered the library I was hooked. On Saturday, when we went to town (yeah, you’re right I’m old and very rural) my brother and sister would go there own way and I would head to the public library. The folks always knew where to find me. So, I was born a reader and now my house overflows with all the books I didn’t have when I was growing up. I’m content.
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A great post..
I agree, readers are born not made, though there can be a latent tendency in some people that gets triggered at at a later stage–for instance my siblings and I grew up in a house full of books–and we had no TV either. I am an absolute book-aholic and was from the start; my younger sister hated seeing me read and would snatch books out of my hand and demand I go play–she never read as a kid but reads a lot as an adult now. my other sisters read moderately only..one of my brothers reads heaps of fiction and never non-fiction, though he’s an aerodynamics engineer and quite mathematical and scientific otherwise; the other brother will only read non-fiction and then only specific sorts of books–on sport, on geography, on curious facts–As to my kids, they all read, and they all prefer fiction, though very different sorts–and they will read non-fiction too if they are interested in the subject.
I think it’s very important to read to your kids, regardless of what happens later–because even if they don’t read much later, their minds and imaginations will still have been furnished with lots of rich and interesting material which will stand them in good stead later..
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