Leah Lievrouw

End-of-year closeout

December 30th, 2007

Well folks, while we’re waiting for that slide show to load…(right)…Yesterday in a local literary-minded bookshop I was browsing around. Nearby, checking out the fiction shelves, were a fortyish dad and his son, who was maybe 11 or 12. They seemed to be picking out a novel for someone. The boy made a few surprisingly sophisticated suggestions; but judging from his offhand comments the father seemed to have read just about everything recent and noteworthy already.

After a few minutes of taking down one book after another and putting it back, the father sighed and said to the boy,

“I can’t wait until you’re old enough to really read.”

I wondered what the kid’s been doing up to now — ! With dads like that, there may be hope for literacy yet…

Entry Filed under: CulturlStudys