We’ve always been a huge bookworm of a family. My older brother, me, and my mom are all voracious readers. Mom read to us from the time we were as little as I can remember being. The three of us have our favorite genres but generally try to branch out and read lots of kinds of different things.
When my younger brother was born (he’s ten years younger so there’s quite a gap) we were all really excited to read him our favorite books as he became old enough for them. But surprisingly he was very meh about books. He didn’t dislike them or anything just indifferent. He’d be okay with spending time hearing us read him our favorite books and would say he’s liking it, but we could be on a cliffhanger and have to go to bed and he’d simply shrug and go to bed without complaint.
I thought maybe he just wasn’t going to be fantasy fan and so read him some other genres throughout elementary school but he just wasn’t excited or enthusiastic about anything. And then one day he came home having been assigned a book for a school assignment, a biography of Walt Disney. And he could not put it down. He never read voluntarily on his own for free time before. He preferred to be active and out there doing things. But he read this book all in one sitting and then after the assignment reread it.
So it turned out he liked non fiction best which is good that he does like reading. We never really pushed him to read fiction after that as it wasn’t his cup of tea clearly. He became very interested in science and even read college level physics books for fun when he was 12.
And then a few years ago in middle school his teacher read them a historic/realistic fiction book called The Wednesday Wars. He came home with a copy wanting to read *it* to *us.* Which he did and we enjoyed it. I’m still not really sure just what it was about that one book that despite being fiction he just loved. He’s read other realistic fiction books with humor before and not been into it like he did for this one.
Now he’s in high school and was assigned reading To Kill A Mockingbird. Once again we’ve been surprised to find he’s found another book he absolutely loves and can’t put down. I really love seeing him enjoying reading and want to help him find more books he can love as much as these few he’s liked over the years. But they’re all so different from each other and it’s hard to really pin down just what kind of books he’d be interested in based on the above.
I’m hoping someone here can help me figure out some good book recommendations for him. He’s a tricky customer but I really want to try because I love seeing him love reading.
by Forward_Cat_4300