The rise and rise of video games and DVDs have been blamed for many things , from obesity to illiteracy. News today though shows that perhaps the fabled “Harry Potter phenomenon” of the turn of the century was the beginning of something more significant than it at first seemed. Easily (if snootily) dismissed as a fad at the time, today sees teenagers’ fiction added to the list of 700 items included in the “typical shopping basket” used to calculate inflation.
My knowledge of current teenagers’ reading habits is limited, but I wonder how they are experienced in Cornwall? The funding cuts to public libraries have been rightly decried but it would appear more people are now buying, rather than borrowing, books. When I was a teenager my family was bankrupt but I distinctly remember my mum telling me that the one thing she’d never resent buying me was books, and that they’d always find a way: so lower earnings in Cornwall are not necessarily an impediment to less access to books in Cornwall, although I do not deny that they may be. What are your thoughts? Do any of you know any teenagers currently living in Cornwall and if so, are they reading more or less than in the past?
BBC News – Cost of living: Chunks of data to calculate inflation.
Cornish Literature 