David Maybury | Blog

Two links of note this morning from the US - first from the School Library Journal - where Gail Giles gives her opinion on why boys read, or don’t read, as the case may be.

Giles’ premise runs that, above a certain age boys become more influenced by male role models. Follow the hypothesis through and Giles suggests that the number of men working in teaching and in libraries needs to increased in order to encourage young male readers. Not a bad idea and it could work… but…

Somewhere in the middle, Giles slips into a strange Utopian fantasy with this ditty:

Whenever a male enters your home, before you offer him a cup of coffee, make him read to your son. If there’s a live-in male at hand, make sure your son sees him reading books on a regular basis. If you can swing it, get some of the neighborhood men to start a book club. And if you really want to please the reading gods, persuade the local guys to launch a father-and-son book club. - Gail Giles, School Library Journal.

Elsewhere, namely USA Today, Sharon Jayson has an interesting feature on how US teenagers use their mobile phone. A report, commissioned by CosmoGirl.com and the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy, has some interesting statistics - though much of it has already been established as a reality in Ireland and the UK (the heaviest mobile telecoms users in the world).

The statistic that 93% of 18-24 year old US teens use mobile phones there is an easily targeted market for books. With the advent of larger screens that are easier to read and more adaptable to personal preferences - publishers could easily develop campaigns to publish or promote books through the devices. An MMS animation or short YouTube video distributed through a mobile could generate some incredible hype.

Remember Nokia’s The Game campaign about 6 years ago? A brilliant interactive online/mobile phone puzzle game that led users to virtual clues and eventually to a prize. That could be adapted easy enough - for the right book that is.