Number of fiction books a year requirement

[mom31257]

What number of fiction books a year would you require for a boy who rarely finds a fiction book he likes? Ds really doesn't enjoy fiction, even what I would think is interesting to him. I think he doesn't like all the set-up in a book to establish character, setting, etc., and he just wants to get to the action of the story. I will be leading a book club for my homeschool group this year, and we will read 6 books, 3 each semester. I will be doing SOTW Volume 2 with him this year, and I'll add historical fiction sometimes, too.

[Pen]

At age 9, Zero if he were reading non-fiction instead. I don't think authors of fiction expect it to be force fed to unwilling readers, but rather hope to delight willing ones. I don't think an unwilling reader of fiction will get much out of it.

[laughing lioness]

My almost 22 yo did not enjoy reading fiction as a child. She had several dictionary/encyclopedia type books (dog, horse, human anatomy, etc) worn to the bone, partially memorized and carried a dictionary and thesarus with her all.the.time. (in fact 2 1/2 yrs ago, after we were burned out of our house, one of her first purchases was pocket dictionary and thesaurus).

We did have a read-aloud going all the time, and she listened to books on tape, so she was hearing fiction, just not reading it herself. She still doesn't really enjoy fiction- but she LOVES theology/philosophy, etc.

 

I think 6 books a year is fine... but I wouldn't force it on him. Are you going to read aloud while he plays legos or something?

[Hunter]

My youngest son was not able to empathize with fictional characters. He was able to empathize with the biographies of famous men as children, though. I remember being up on his top bunk reading to him, when he had a migraine headache because school was so stressful to him. He said to me, "Mommy these boys are just like me!".

 

He also read a lot of encyclopedias, because he found them to be the least biased non-fiction. Textbooks drove him crazy. He always complained about textbook writers by their name. Multiple choice worksheets and tests--forget it! According to him there were no correct answers and he would lecture me on things I just didn't care about or even want to know. I kinda like being stupid sometimes and just rehash the same myths I learned.