Queer trends in reading habits of school children !!!

A friend of mine conducted a survey on about 60 school kids to find if any particular factors controlled their choice of fiction books they read, and he recorded very queer observations. Mind you, these readers ranged from casual to very experienced readers; some had the history of reading only what the syllabus had to offer, while others ranged from Rowling to Martin to Tolkien to Archer and a lot others.

The casual readers, had queer factors that controlled their choice of fiction.

• Length of story- The most common factor the casual readers looked for was the length of the story. Any story more than 6000-7000 words was sure to be straight-forwardly rejected by them. Some preferred to get a short summary of the long story rather read it from start to end.
• Author's fame- 'Don't judge a book by its cover', they say; but in the sample space, almost all judged a story by fame of its author. This effect went to the extent that genuine likeness for specific genres was disregarded. For example,  a thriller by a renowned author was preferred to a romance by a less famed author, though the likeness for the latter was more.
• Difficulty level- All preferred a story that had a less difficult language, and easy comprehension. Tough language and long passaged stories were disregarded. Also, the readers preferred to have surface-comprehension level, with no great depths and meaning, no symbolism of any kind. Plain language was the key.

The experienced readers showed completely different perspectives to their choice of fiction-

• Summary- Their choice of books depended on a short summary or a synopsis that let them have a feel of the story. Without falling for the 'author-fame', they checked the story-line of the book before they bought them. Also their choices ranged from short to long books, sometimes even series and novels.
• Logical textual content- They had disregard for language or way of expression. Rather their focus was on logic of the text. They delved deep into the characterization, and tried explaining the actions and events occurring based on their knowledge of the characters. They were also observed questioning every bright scene that did nothing to further the plot of the story. In short, they try seeing through the eyes of the author.

Case study of the Lord of the Rings- 

            The sample was mixed, and all were offered a choice to read the Lord of the Rings. The LOTR was chosen because of the following reasons-

1. Popular- To test the proposed aspect of 'author fame'- it's dominance in novice readers and its absence in experienced readers.
2. Lengthy- The LOTR is quite lengthy, and this was to test the aspect of 'length' on novice readers.
3. Varying difficulty- The LOTR has varying difficulty levels- with some descriptions that are easy, and others that require great thinking to be understood. This was to test the level of difficulty the readers can manage, or rather would like to manage.

Observations: 

      The responses of the experienced and the novice readers were recorded and they were as follows:

1. 95% novice readers refused to read the LOTR, seeing its length and three books.
2. 90% experienced readers agreed to give a try, after knowing a bit of its synopsis, and knowing about its reception by readers of the world on Amazon, Flipkart etc.
3. 50% experienced readers liked Tolkien's use of language, and his descriptions.
4. 5% novices who agreed reading the LOTR, gave up after the first two chapters, owing to disinterest caused by weariness of mind due to complex style and language.
5. All readers were drawn towards the immense back-story of the world LOTR has to offer
6. 'Escapist' ideas were also appreciated by the experienced readers, and the 'larger than world settings' were praised.

These were some of the interesting findings he found out in his little survey. See for yourself in which category you fall, or used to fall :D