But the question is, aside from the reading nerds, are teens reading many books these days?
I think the honest answer to this question is "not really". There are definitely still TONS of reading nerds out there (I have a friend that buys
so many books on his kindle), but I think the general person doesn't do all that much reading.
I'll use myself as an example.
I grew up in the US education system and read all of the books on the required reading list. I even read plenty of books on the optional reading list. I was encouraged by my parents to read and write as often as possible, and this trend of voraciously consuming books continued through high school. When I reached college, however, my consumption of books took a nosedive. I was spending so much time studying that the last thing I wanted to do was read
more. So, I turned to more interactive entertainment (read: video games). There were exceptions, of course, but my reading never really picked back up. Even now, I read probably one or two books a year (not counting beta reads), which I know is a cardinal sin for writers. But I've come to a point where I'm insanely picky about what I read. Many of the books I was
required to read when I was younger were hard to get through, but we didn't have a choice in whether we wanted to read them. If the book was boring, I couldn't stop. I had to finish it. Now, however, if I find a book boring, or if the content doesn't draw me in, I stop reading. This is the reason why I stopped The Song of Ice and Fire (book 4 was a waste of paper) and the reason I couldn't get past the second book of The Wheel of Time series (FAR too much exposition).
I think this sentiment transfers to a lot of people my age. My wife reads - a mix of YA and adult fiction - but only occasionally. I have a friend who reads, but only
one specific series (because he's a fan). I have another friend that reads, but he consumes mainly hard sci-fi. The most recent book series he read was the Imperial Radch series by Anne Leckie. Before that, I think it was the Hyperion Cantos...
The point is that
everyone reads
some, but I'd be willing to bet that most of the media consumed these days consists of television and video games.
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On a separate note (and I'm putting this here because I couldn't figure out where to fit it in above), I don't think that YA is dead. If it was, I doubt that there would be so many movies and television shows being developed from YA content. And I think it's also worth mentioning that movies and television can go a long way in spurring interest in the market as well. I mean, I've seen people pick up a YA book because it looked similar to something else that was already popular.
