Apparently American teens are reading too much fiction and not enough nonfiction. Harry Potter, Twilight, and the like are engaging young minds but at the detriment of developing a significant knowledge base which can be gained by reading newspapers, biographies, etc.
A cognitive psychologist believes that may be one reason why reading proficiency scores have plateaued over the last few years. Nikhil Swaminathan for Good.is provides an overview and a link to Dana Goldstein at The Daily Beast for the study.
I personally have gravitated between the two genres over the years but more recently am reading much more nonfiction. For example, my 27 year old daughter has given me three picks which I have enjoyed immensely.
- Salt: A World History by Mark Kurlansky is "the human story of salt, a mineral that has created fortunes, inspired revolutions, provoked wars, and enlivened our recipes."
- Factory Girls: From Village to City in a Changing China by Leslie T. Chang is an account of the 130 million migrant workers nearly all of them under 30 who work the assembly lines in southern China.
- The Know-It-All: One Man's Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World by A. J. Jacobs is a very funny and enlightening book about the seemingly impossible quest to read the Encyclopedia Britannica from A to Z.
What do you prefer reading? Are you getting a balanced diet?
