BY RACHEL GAMBACH
Books have changed lives, altered our views of the world and even started wars. However despite its glorious history, Its sad to say that in todays world, more middle school boys declare themselves “non-readers” than girls. This shift can be possibly be attributed to the fact that young adult novels have plots that only appeal to girl readers. Out of the hundreds of books to choose from in the Barnes and Noble teen section maybe ten are interesting for guys. Nevertheless, despite this complaint, vampire books and love stories continue to litter the shelves.
Even the action and adventure stories have an element of romance to them that makes them unattractive to boys. Science fiction and adventure fiction have all but withered away. Fifty percent of the adult book market is romance and it’s easy to see that teen books like Twilight or How To Be Popular are aimed at future romance readers.
Being an avid reader myself, many of my favorite books could be easily altered to appeal to boys. Books like The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins have all the elements of a story that would work for male readers, but they lose interest with the overly sweet and silly love triangles. While most guys don’t actually mind a little romance in a book, when the romance becomes overly gooey and sentimental they check out.
Paranormal books could easily lure a boy’s attention, but looking for one that isn’t a romance is nearly impossible. While you would easily find a girl reading a book centered on a male protagonist, guys are less inclined to ready books with female protagonists. This could be because books narrated by females have a sort of internal development going on throughout while guys prefer external action.
While girls are an easy sell and inspire the kind of rabid fandom that can turn books like Twilight and The Hunger Games into multi-million dollar franchises, publishers seem to be ignoring a large, untapped market of male teen readers. As series like Harry Potter and comic books like The Walking Dead have shown, guys will read if you give them something of interest.
