"Adults Should Read Adult Books" anyone else bugged by this?

[Varkolak]

my boyfriend got me the entire bella sara series, its hardly a challenge, but its adorable and i love it.
this guy sounds so unimaginative.

Post Merge: December 19, 2012, 11:11:12 PM

maybe he should read the books he is talking about before he judges people! i read all kinds of stuff....after i read hunger games, my mom did, then my step dad did.... what i read has no bareing on my intellegence!
 

this. what ever happened to "don't judge a book by its cover"?
which he is clearly doing.

[saply]

whatta pretentious knob

[kaoskat]

Oh well, then I won't have to worry about this boring dude taking the last awesome book off the shelf before I buy it then. I win. He loses. Life is good.

[Beachball]

That said, anyone caught reading Twilight or Twilight fanfiction (regardless of age, sex, etc) should be very embarrassed 

I haven't read the books. I watch the films because it helps having seen them before reading parody scripts of them by m15m on LiveJournal. Those scripts are so funny!
EDWARD: I AM VAMPIRE. HEAR ME TWINKLE.
BELLA: Oh, wow, I spent like $60 at Sephora trying to get sparkle like that. What is that, Urban Decay?
EDWARD: NO!
BELLA: Oh, so it's a drugstore brand?
EDWARD: THIS IS THE SKIN OF A KILLER, BELLA!
BELLA: FINE. WHATEVER. But the lipstick, that's gotta be Cargo, right?
EDWARD: *FLOUNCE*

[Honeycomb]

I love all kinds of books! I have read Harry Potter 1, the Hunger Games 1 and Twilight, and I'm 31. I enjoyed the last two very much, HP was a bit boring because I had seen the movie, but nevertheless they make entertaining pastimes. Definitely much better than watching mindless TV or wasting time on social networks.
The beautiful thing about being an adult is that we can read and enjoy whatever WE want and WHEN we want.
That guy is just a sad little man with nothing better to do.

[fingerpaints]

I will read whatever I want. I don't think there is any problem with adults reading whatever they please, if that be a baby's board book, or a novel, who cares. If it makes you happy, go for it.

I have a bookcase full of childrens books from ones with one word on each page, Dr Zeuss, Mem Fox, and all sorts of other childrens classic and awesome books. I have paid a bit for the occasional childs book too.

I do read novels, but love kids stories as well. I have a heap of my "favourite" childrens books in my bedroom bookcase alongside some of my favourite novels. I don't care if people judge, its their issue, not mine. Some younger literature is great, personally I am not into twilight or harry potter, but I see why it would appeal to some. If you like it, what is the problem?

Its not the person reading the book, its the one judging them that is the problem.

[Beldarna]

As long as people read, I really don't care what they grab from the shelves, be it kids books or adults. Research has showed that kids these days don't read as much as before, and this mainly directed at boys and I think it's worrysome as litterature give us so much when it comes to learning words, expressions, different meanings and using our imaginations. So people reading just makes me happy. Then what they read is their own decisions. When I was studying at the university I hardly had time to read anything but the litterature of the classes.. so to relax on the bus home and get away from those books, I read Nancy Drew and the Sweet Valley Twins books. I enjoyed reading Harry Potter (well, the first five, hasn't read the last onces yet *ducks fakies* ), as well as the Vampie Chronicles as a teenager.
Reading gives so much.. I'll just ignore that guy and his article because he clearly has no clue. Read whatever and enjoy. Don't let one idiot decide what's appropriate or not.

[Rosencrantz]

I'm gonna say they were probably trolling for hits. You get articles like that from time to time, because enraged people swoop down on them and that's more ad hits to the website.

But even if it wasn't a blatant attempt to rile people up, it doesn't matter what he says. He's not the one holding your wallet while you choose which book to read at the store. It's no one's business what you read. They can disapprove all they want, but as long as you enjoy yourself, that's all it matters. Because it's just entertainment.

[SourdoughStomper]

It's been awhile since I've read my Scrooge McDuck comics. I think it's about time to have another read!

[Falconaitae]

And I was thinking, that NY Times tries to maintain some quality. This article is so bad, on so many levels, that I can only blame it on "portalosis" (phenomenon of renowned newspapers employing lowly skilled "journalists" to provide some content for their websites for cheap).

I don't know, where to start, but...

Books are one of our few chances to learn.

No, they are not, unless he had "The Feynman Lectures on Physics" or similar things in mind. Light literature is made for entertainment, and who is he, to tell other people, what they should enjoy. Pure information, that is contained in fiction books (no matter "adult" or "children") doesn't make anyone any smarter, or more knowledgeable. What is valuable (except entertainment, that they provide) is inspiration, that these books might give, and what's wrong, if someone is inspired by HP... to not search too far, just look how many pieces of art (paintings, music, literature and more) were inspired by those little colourful ponies.

There’s a reason my teachers didn’t assign me to go home and play three hours of Donkey Kong.

This is the moment, where this guy "lost the flamewar". By mentioning "Donkey Kong" as an example of computer game Anno Domini 2012, he just prooved that he is not competent at writing anything about modern culture. Computer games are good example of how fast a medium can mature, and even if they still wait for their "Citizen Kane", not acknowledging, that there are some valuable position among this genre, just disqualifies him as a cultural journalist.

I have no idea what “The Hunger Games” is like

Well, this is typical for "portalosis". "I don't know anything about the subject, but I will still write an article on it."

Let’s have the decency to let tween girls have their own little world of vampires and child wizards and games you play when hungry

Hello gender stereotypes. One would think, that NY Times is above such things.

Let’s not pump Justin Bieber in our Saabs and get engaged at Cinderella’s Castle at Disneyland.

Actually no. We don't want to be sad, boring sobs, such as this man.

Because it’s embarrassing.

For him. Anyway I'm happy, that I'm not in his skin, beeing embarassed by so many things, having to watch every step to not break the rules... 

[Malancaiwen]

Let’s not (...) get engaged at Cinderella’s Castle at Disneyland.Because it’s embarrassing.

But what if that's my dream? It's not actuallty, but I have tons of friends who would dream of a romatinc and cute wedding, and hell, why not at Disneyland? I know I'd love to participate in one! Personal freedom much?

I have nothing to add to the "only read adult boks" because I agree with pretty much everyone here. Read what you want. Reading is enjoyment to me. I'd rather spend hours wandering around Harry Potter's school than 10 minutes torturing my brain on some "adult" books that are supposedly so much more intelligent and all...

[StoryDreamer]

Joel Stein is a critic of everything. Man, I would be a disappointment to him. Not only do I read almost exclusively YA and kids, but I sold it for ten years, I blog about it but all my friends are ya and kid lit writers and gasp! I am writing ya too.

[Majesty]

This guy is stupid.  I am an adult and most of what I read are books like The Hunger Games, The Twilight series and I have a book series of The Unicorn Chronicles which is meant for older kids to maybe young teens.  Who cares what this guy thinks.  He even said he hasn't read The Hunger Games so he can't give an opinion on it if he hasn't read it.

I wonder if he would say the same thing if teen girls were reading adult books.

[starrypawz]

He's boring.
I have a lot of fantasy books, a lot are for 'adults' and I've also got my fair share of stuff aimed at teens as they're good stories
If a story is good to me it doesn't have an age limit.
I read for fun, I read to escape real life for a bit so excuse me if I want to read a 'kids' book rather than something meant for 'adults'

[lovesbabysquirmy]

I think what the author was trying to get at is that there are thousands of talented authors out there, with amazingly wonderful books.  But they are overshadowed and ignored because popular marketing in popular fiction over the last few decades has focused on the "all-ages fantasy" book titles like Harry Potter, Twilight, etc. 

It's much easier to market the novels that are shorter and can be finished in a few days.  It's quite easy to convince 14 million teens they need to read "Twilight" as it's trendy to do so, what with the movies and the large fan community.  Not so easy to convince those same teens to pick up a 3000 page epic sci-fi about time travel, ethics, love, human behavior, and quantum physics when there is no movie, no TV show, no t-shirts, and certainly no legion of fans to shriek about how awesome it is.