Reading for Pleasure has to Start with Something Children Love
Whether it’s mountain biking or Minecraft, reluctant readers need to be engaged and interested in a book or they'll never get going, says best-selling author Max Brooks…
- by Max Brooks
I hated reading. That’s right. I said it.
When I was a kid, in the suffocating, heart-breaking prison system we called 1980s American schools, reading was the last thing I wanted to do.
I had a learning disability called ‘dyslexia’. Nowadays we call it a ‘difference’ so people who have it don’t get their feelings hurt – and that’s a good thing.
No one should feel the way I did – to have to work twice as hard and do half as well. I thought I was stupid; my teachers thought I was lazy. They couldn’t understand why I didn’t just automatically love to read.
And this is an issue some teachers still have, and not just when it comes to dyslexic people like me. The chances are, when they were young, reading came easy for them – books were their buddies.
That’s not the case for many of us. For me, books weren’t buddies, they were bullies. They made me feel bad because I was so slow at it and over time, I built up a natural hatred of them.
After breaking my brain every day reading for school, the last thing I wanted to do was read for pleasure.
A journey of discovery
So I was always behind in class, always the dumb one, always wondering what was wrong with me. And I probably would have never picked up a book outside of school if it weren’t for that one person who not only gave me life, but saved it as well… Mom.
My mother, who was one of the world’s most famous Hollywood actresses, saw that I was struggling and put her career on hold to become my personal coach.
She started by finding the animated cartoon versions of books, hooking me on the subjects, then reading those books to me at night, and finally asking if I’d like to read some of those books myself.
That’s how I learned to love Robinson Crusoe and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. That’s why, at 10 years old, I curled up in a corner of the local comic bookshop and read Rom: Spaceknight for a time-stopping hour.
That’s why, at 16, I bought a book called The Hunt for Red October with my own money, which would shape the kind of writer I wanted to be.
That’s why, in college (which I never would have gotten into without Mom’s help), I spent my free time devouring the 1,000+ page Masters of Rome novels by Colleen McCullough.
And that’s why, in my early 20s, after reading every sci-fi author from Heinlein to Turtledove, I worked my way up to Odyssey by Homer.
Follow your passion
Now I love reading and my only regret is that, as an author myself, I don’t have nearly enough time to read for fun; too much of my time is taken up in researching facts for my own books.
But stories… ah… there’s nothing like the original words on the printed page. Time stops, the world leaves you alone and for a few minutes or hours, you’re there, in the adventure, seeing it, feeling it, living it.
It takes time, though. And practice. And it has to start with a subject you love!
That’s why I wrote Minecraft: The Island (Century). I love the game, I play it all the time and I wanted to write a story that took place in that world – where you could imagine yourself trapped, having to survive, feeling the fear and joy of crafting.
So the message for kids is, don’t worry if you’re not a ‘reader’ right now – you will be. Just start with what you love: Harry Potter, Star Wars or maybe a new book called Minecraft: The Island.
That’s the only way you’ll fall in love with reading and once you do, it’ll never leave you.
In books you can go anywhere, do anything, be anyone. That’s why I’ve made writing my career. That’s why I read every day.
Books used to bully me – now they’re my best friends.
That’s why reading matters.
Max Brooks is the best-selling author of World War Z and Mindcraft: The Island.
