I’m surely not the only person who goes through phases with my reading, devouring classics for two months straight before abruptly switching to contemporary young adult for six months, and then shelving those to focus exclusively on, say, Civil War-based non-fiction. Right?But then the other day someone said to me, “Morgan, you need to put down the YA for a while,” and that person had a point. We all have reading diets that are particular to our own preferences, and while I fully agree that any type of reading is positive, there’s certainly something to be said about diversity in reading.
So I got to thinking about how important it is to balance one’s reading diet. I asked the other bloggers what their breakdowns would look like if they had to create a book pyramid, much like the iconic food pyramid seen here. Here’s what they said: Amanda: 60% non-fiction, 20% quality contemporary fiction, 10% classic lit, 10% mass market.
Michael: 37% young adult, 24% middle grade, 19% parenting non-fiction, 12% adult fiction, 8% picture books.
Dante: 40% cultural history, 25% criticism, 20% world literature, 10% classic American fiction, 5% contemporary American fiction
And then there’s me. My book pyramid looks something like 60% young adult, 5% middle grade, 25% contemporary adult fiction, and 10% re-reads of classics. (Like right now – I’m in the middle of My Antonia, which is one of the books I listed in my Bookprint!). Clearly, I know what I like – but even more clearly, it wouldn’t kill me to crack open a work of non-fiction or some more picture books now and again.
There's a lot of talk in the education world (and here on OOM) about engaging reluctant readers, letting students pick what they want to read, and what "counts" as reading in today's digital world. With that in mind, what’s your own reading diet, and how important is it to you to keep it balanced? Let us know in the comments.
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Previously On Our Minds:
* Book Fairs: A "grand" celebration of reading
* Why teaching is about more than just improving a child's test scores
* Swimming through stories -- an intern guest post
love this topic--i did a similar post not too long ago: http://booklineandsinker.com/2009/08/14/literary-diet-how-do-you-measure-up/
ReplyDeletei tend to have a 'lighter' diet in the summer and a more fiber-rich one in the winter. :) i thing it's because i teach the classics during the school year and need some fluff in the summer! :)
nat @book, line, and sinker
ps. could you open your comments to allow for NAME/URL comments? it's a bit tricky to leave a comment here otherwise. thx!
Thanks for the comment, booklineandsinker! Great blog post you wrote!
ReplyDeleteWe're actually switching up our look, feel, and blogging capabilities later this month, which should ease the commenting difficulties. Stay tuned -- and thanks!
Love this idea! I have a bit of a YA problem, so my pyramid would be 50% YA, 25% Fantasy, 10% popular fiction, 5% literature and 10% non fiction.
ReplyDelete