Young readers are constantly in the publishing industry’s spotlight. They are criticized for not reading enough, under scrutiny for embracing the technology they grew up with, their habits are studied for money-making opportunities, they are praised for sending Young Adult sales through the roof, and then they are criticized some more. I recently happened upon an article asking the question, “How can book reviewing be relevant to the new generation of readers?” This question certainly merits a lengthy discussion, and I was excited to see the respectable list of names taking part. I was not excited, however, to find how many are pessimistic about the future and how often the younger generation is blamed for the problem.
The new generation is often unfairly lumped into a large group of vapid, vampire loving ditzes, who are unable to form a deep thought. “Have the seductions of short-form transmissions–tweets and texts–sucked the vital juices from their minds?” Roxana Robinson mocks. Perhaps this is what The Jersey Shore and the latest Kardashian show suggest, but I take offense to this. Every generation has their ignorant members, as well as their well-educated, motivated, and intellectual members. Furthermore, it is the older generation, the people in charge of television programming and trashy novel marketing, that feed into the stereotype. The intellectuals are getting lost.
Additionally, young readers are not the only group spending less time reading book reviews. Book reviews have, in fact, never truly existed for or been targeted to young readers. Books like Harry Potter and Twilight were only reviewed after they were blasted to the top of the bestseller lists. As Greg Barrios points out, “While alarmists have huffed and puffed over the decline in newspaper book review sections as the end of discourse about books, the bottom line remains that book reviewers and newspapers have paid little attention to much less reviewed popular fiction written for young people.” So it is the older reading generation who is forgetting to pick up the Sunday Book Review.
Nevertheless, the issue of who to blame does not discount the essence of the problem: Book reviews are increasingly less important. Or are they? Book-lovers’ sites like Goodreads, as well as the Amazon website, prove that reviews may be more important than ever. Readers are always looking for ways to talk about the books they love, and what better way than to post a review for all to see. The book reviews on sites like these are a convenient way to judge whether or not to buy a new book. So what the media is complaining about, then, is that the people who were getting paid to review books are needed less these days, since anyone can do it.
I believe, however, that the ‘new generation of readers’ is not dumb. They know the difference between an anonymous post following the price of a book and an educated, lengthy discussion published by an actual journalist. It will be harder to get paid to review books, which I find as sad as the next person, but book reviews will not die. Intelligent readers will still look to reviews for advice. Writing exceptionally good reviews is the best mode of defense I can think of.
Read more of the critics’ thoughts in the Huffington Post article.
Tags: Book reviews, Goodreads, Greg Barrios, Huffington Post, Roxana Robinson, Sunday Book Review, Young Adult books, young readers