Good grief.. my reader

[choirfarm]

I volunteered to answer phones at church this afternoon. Boys mowed a lawn and did yard work for the 102 year old lady in our church with other youth. (She still teaches 4 year olds!!!) Anyway, they finished and I still had an hour left. I was looking over prep for my literary analysis class for co-op and the boys next year. Part of it had "The Short Happy Life of ..... " by Hemmingway. "Oh, he must die with a title like that! Is that like that other story by the guy that wrote The Crucible.. " and he proceeds to give me a very good summary of Death of a Salesman.

"When did you read that?" I asked.

"Oh, I was bored some time last year so I read it. "

Ok, he must have been reading out of my old literary anthology from college. Who does that for fun??? And to remember it so well when we didn't even study it..

The question is, can I get him to really look at these works in depth and actually write about them. AT 14, he just doesn't think that is important. It is "stupid." Sigh... I just don't get him. He devours all books and history and biographies. But what do you do for a living? He amazes me and frustrates me all at the same time.

 

Christine

[tntgoodwin]

lol. I was like that growing up. My mom was studying to be a teacher, so I read all her books she had for English and what-not when I was in elementary school. She had to set a rule that she got to read the books before me, which irritated me since I was a faster reader!

[creekland]

Middle son reads everything in our house including some books he read before I got to him when he was a bit younger.

 

I distinctly remember one book. Here's the conversation:

 

Me to hubby: I just finished this (travel) book. We probably ought to keep it somewhere different.

 

Hubby to me: Why?

 

Me to hubby: It just has some adult issues in it that I don't feel like explaining just yet.

 

Hubby: Ok.

 

Middle son (who neither of us knew was listening): What's wrong with the book?

 

Me to middle son: Nothing is wrong with the book, it just has some things in it that are more intended for adults and not kids.

 

Middle son: What things? I already read the book when grandma gave it to us... What are you talking about?

 

Me: Well, remember that time when the author was talking about ______?

 

Middle son: Yeah, that was boring, other sections of the book were better. ;)

 

This past summer he got his hands on a Romance Novel at my grandma's house. It's my aunt's that she had left there as she often stays with grandma to help her out. He's 17 now... and the conversation went like this:

 

Middle son: Whose books are those up in our bedroom?

 

Me: Oh, I don't know, Aunt _____'s likely.

 

Middle son: What kind of books are they?

 

Me: They're Romance Novels, why?

 

Middle son: They're DISGUSTING! I picked one up thinking it was going to be a nice mystery or something and... DISGUSTING! Who reads those???

 

Me: Lots of people. You'd be surprised how often they get checked out of the library. (I used to work in a library in my teens.)

 

Middle son: Well, I don't like them!

 

 

I guess we overlooked a genre in his education... but he found out about it anyway.

[choirfarm]

Middle son reads everything in our house including some books he read before I got to him when he was a bit younger.

 

Middle son: What kind of books are they?

 

Me: They're Romance Novels, why?

 

Middle son: They're DISGUSTING! I picked one up thinking it was going to be a nice mystery or something and... DISGUSTING! Who reads those???

 

Me: Lots of people. You'd be surprised how often they get checked out of the library. (I used to work in a library in my teens.)

 

Middle son: Well, I don't like them!

 

 

I guess we overlooked a genre in his education... but he found out about it anyway.

 

He sounds so much like me. I read everything on my mom and dad's bookshelves, too. I read a couple of her romance novels and thought...YUCK. I don't even like Christian romance novels. I don't have any here for him to discover, but he may have read them at his grandparents house. I know he found Twain books there and read them all. In some ways he is so mature for a 14yo. I mean he loves to read and I had to get the new Jeff Shaara book the day it came out. He thinks all the vampire and other teen literature looks horrible. Why would they read that? But in other ways... his room, patience with his sister..etc GRR He has no idea what he wants to be when he grows up and neither do I. I bet he would make a good history teacher or youth worker. He is good with younger kids with the exception of his sibling.

 

Christine