Most of my sons have been big readers, and ambitious readers. My youngest, however, has never voluntarily read anything except all the Harry Potter books, numerous times, until they’re falling apart, as a matter of fact. (Although #7 fell apart after only two readings, his and mine, but I digress.)
I have tried and tried to get him interested in some kind of literature. He will read stuff on the internet about things he’s interested in, and his interests vary widely, but to sit down and read a book? No.
Over the years he has failed to get interested in Lemony Snicket, Hank the Cowdog, The Magician, Hatchet, Snow Crash, and a few others. He reads what he has to for school, and writes book reports (but they’re always late). For a long time he was happy to do read-aloud things and share in the reading, but he just didn’t really read on his own, for entertainment.
So a few weeks ago I was rereading (sort of) Infinite Jest (a book that is perfect for the Kindle) and he read some of it, not starting at the beginning but around 200 pages in I think, and it made him laugh. So my husband said something like, “If that’s what you want to read, you might as well read Finnegans Wake.”
So now he is reading Finnegans Wake. We’ll see how that goes.
This kid is perverse. I had to work up to it by starting with Dubliners, and even then I only got about 40 pages into it before realizing it was giving me a permanent daze. (Well it went away a few days after I ditched the book. At least, I think it did. The truth is I have never been quite the same.)
