I’m getting pretty excited about writing my book, The Last of the Steamers, and I think it’s about time I dipped my toes in to see quite that the audience out there likes or dislikes, lest it turns out I’ve wasted six months of my life with this whole thing.
From what I can tell, literature (by that I mean the written word, not really including txt msgs) is a bit of a stagnating medium. Whilst there are ever-more ways to consume writing, I get the distinct impression that people my age, my peers, as a whole, seem to steer clear from a good book for whatever reason, and I’d like to know why.
I want to conduct a survey into why my generation is, from what I’ve gathered, averse to reading, in the sense of books and other “traditional” means. I’d like to get an insight into the minds of my peers to see what sort of things they like to read, whether it be in an online form or in more traditional methods such as books and paper magazines, and why other things might take a great precedence over sitting down with a dusty book and losing oneself in it. I’m also trying to be flexible in that not everyone reads books, but enjoys magazines on a series of subjects, though those might be trailing off too.
When this post gets federated to Facebook, I’ll tag a random selection of people I have there and hopefully get their answers.
Answer the questions in the comment box below:
1. What three things do you read regularly? These can be magazines, newspapers, websites… anything that you read and digest regularly.
2. Let’s take the thing from the question above you favour or enjoy the most. Why do you enjoy it the most? What drew you to become a regular reader/viewer of it in the first place?
3. How many text messages do you send a day, roughly?
4. How many emails do you send a day, roughly?
5. What was the last book you finished?
6. When did you finish it?
7. Did you buy the book, or was it a gift?
a. Would you buy a book like that yourself?
b. If not, why not? What sort of book would you buy if you had to?
8. Was it a fiction book or a non-fiction book?
a. Which do you prefer?
9. Why did you read it? Was it for school or college? Or did you read it for fun?
10. Have you started any books and not finished them?
a. If so, why not?
11. Do you think that books are “for geeks”?
a. If so, why?
12. How much do you read a week?
13. What distractions do you have that might take you away from reading anything? Games consoles, drinking… anything.
a. Why do these activities take such precedence? What compels you to pick up the games console every time as opposed to sometime abandoning it for a magazine, or a book?
14. I’m writing a book. What’s the first thought that occurs to you when you see that I’m doing that? Do I come across in any particular way because I’m doing this?
a. If so, why?
15. What was the last thing you wrote, over 500 words?
a. Was it for work, education or fun?
b. Would you write for fun? Why or why not?
16. Do magazines count as being for “geeks”?
a. If so, which ones stand out as being particularly “geeky”?
17. What opinion do you have of magazines like “Zoo” and “Nuts” (for guys) or “Heat” and “Take a Break” (for girls)?
a. Do you think these sorts of things are good-quality magazines for everyone?
18. What do you think makes this sort of low-brow populist tat appealing to you, or, if it’s not appealing to you, your peers?
Thank you.
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