tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1901961103520079693.post677892052460351102..comments2023-07-14T06:12:32.093-07:00Comments on Kirby's Lane: A Place for Readers and Writers: The Crux of the MatterKirby Larsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18362445818834966589noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1901961103520079693.post-16959568374827248352009-08-31T07:01:32.283-07:002009-08-31T07:01:32.283-07:00Reader Alert! I just read a great post on Tabitha ...Reader Alert! I just read a great post on Tabitha Bird's blog about how her son became a book addict. I think you all will love it:<br />http://tabithabird.blogspot.com/2009/08/ive-created-addict.htmlTricia J. O'Brienhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05993110400088806252noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1901961103520079693.post-38877069377735334962009-08-30T19:47:55.745-07:002009-08-30T19:47:55.745-07:00Woo-hoo, I won a Hattie! I shall email you, Kirby,...Woo-hoo, I won a Hattie! I shall email you, Kirby, and thanks for this great series.<br />A thought on Sarah's comment: Maybe the 'majority' of males aren't fiction oriented, but in bookstores I see young men browsing sci-fi/fantasy, graphic novels and thrillers, clearly drawn to a specific type of fiction. There are also plenty of young men enrolled in MFA programs and at literary-writing blogs I frequent. Perhaps, boys don't stake a claim to fiction as early as girls, although plenty of them read Harry Potter. On a personal level--my father, ex-husband and father-in-law all read a good deal of fiction. So,there's evidence that some boys and men read fiction, does that mean they were simply introduced in a manner that made it interesting and compelling?Tricia J. O'Brienhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05993110400088806252noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1901961103520079693.post-11420816745932252722009-08-30T13:25:24.296-07:002009-08-30T13:25:24.296-07:00Thank you for hosting this interesting conversatio...Thank you for hosting this interesting conversation about a such an important subject. When I started teaching high school English, I remember the dept head telling me that boys won't read about girls, though girls would read about boys, and that statement felt tired and horrible back those twenty years ago. I felt determined to prove that wrong, and as Nancy Pearl points out, thus the importance of those who put the books into hands. And of course as many a teacher of freshman English, I bowed down to the greatness of To Kill a Mockingbird, Scout, and Harper Lee. <br /><br />But this subject, after having written books about girls and women and mostly read by girls, can still make me bristle. As I did when Jon Scieska writes that his son found the men in Toni Morrison's novels deplorable, so there was "no way in." The women aren't exactly role models, nor are they supposed to be; maybe the style or subject matter made him feel he wasn't the best reader of those novels, but I don't buy that as a gender issue.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1901961103520079693.post-59946131883083470442009-08-30T12:49:28.263-07:002009-08-30T12:49:28.263-07:00This blog series is rocking my socks.
I'm stu...This blog series is rocking my socks.<br /><br />I'm stuck by how much of this conversation is still revolving around stories and characters, when the more I read on this issue, the more evidence I'm seeing that the majority of males (young and old) aren't fiction-oriented. As Jon says, many males gravitate more toward non-fiction, magazines, newspapers, humor, graphic novels, etc. -- stuff that a lot of us story-loving women don't consider 'real' reading.<br /><br />So I'm wondering if it's realistic to claim that boys don't read. Seems to me the problem may be one of perception. After all, this whole industry, from writers to editors to booksellers and librarians, is notoriously loaded with females.Sarah Millerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02153201454830937349noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1901961103520079693.post-23616484935153071342009-08-30T12:40:22.238-07:002009-08-30T12:40:22.238-07:00Tricia,
that was enough to earn you a free copy o...Tricia,<br /><br />that was enough to earn you a free copy of Hattie! Email me your snail mail address.Kirby Larsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18362445818834966589noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1901961103520079693.post-56282329723692608882009-08-30T12:33:42.041-07:002009-08-30T12:33:42.041-07:00All I'm going to say is WOW for all the stimul...All I'm going to say is WOW for all the stimulating responses from the panel. Thank you all.Tricia J. O'Brienhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05993110400088806252noreply@blogger.com