Reading the game: using sport to encourage boys and men to read more.

• Author: Palmer, Tom
• Position: Report

The received wisdom is that men do plot read as much as women, If it is true. how can libraries use sport to engage men and the men of the future--boys--to read more. If it is not true. how can we redefine respectable reading to include sport biographies, the back pages and the internet, so that men and boys see themselves as avid readers? Edited version of a paper presented at the Reading Critical conference. State Library of Victoria 11-12 April 2008.

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It is a generalisation, but the statistics in the UK bear it out--boys do not like reading. The National Literacy Trust website in the UK is a great source of research and solutions for literacy matters. A recent summary of research on its site www.literacytrust.org.uk/Database/boys/English.html, tells it as it is.

These are summaries of research done with over 2000 children in infant and junior schools in 2006. Girls and boys in infant and junior schools were asked if they enjoyed reading.

Boys who Girls who enjoy enjoy reading reading Infant school 77% 72% Junior school 68% 46% They were also asked what they enjoyed doing Most.

Girls Boys most most enjoyed enjoyed TV 34.8% 24.16% Computer 20.35% 48.99% gaming 42.44% 16.78% Reading a book Why boys do not like reading

Because of statistics like the above, a lot of people wring their hands with despair about boys and reading boys are falling behind girls, boys are doomed because they do not read fiction.

I interviewed a group of boys in Basildon before some reader development work with them earlier this year. They were clear about what reading meant to them

it' s boring it's for swots I hate it I can't concentrate it's a waste of time it's too much like hard work I'd rather play out--football I'd rather play on nay PS3 I'd rather watch TV I did a quantifiable survey too, before and after. Here is what they said they felt about reading and writing before we worked with them. There were only 15 boys in the sample, so this survey was about as unscientific as it comes.

Do you like reading? A lot 2 A bit 13 never 0 Would you like to be an Yes 6 author? No 9 How much do you like reading A lot 10 about football in A bit 3 mags/newspapers? I don't 2 Can reading about sport help Yes 5 your school work? Don't 8 know No 2 Do you enjoy writing? A lot 3 A bit 9 No 3 Are you going to use your Yes 10 local library in the next No 5 month? How much do you like Leeds A lot 1 United? A bit 5 Not at all 9 Will you go to a place that Yes 10 sells books in the next year? No 3 Maybe 2 Why bother?

What does it matter if boys do not like reading'?

The introduction to the UK government's document Got kids? Get reading/ Improving family literacy and learning through reading for pleasure spells out the grim reasons why we take the antipathy of boys to reading seriously.

Adults with poor literacy and numeracy skills could earn up to 50,000 [pounds sterling] less over their lifetime and are more likely to have health problems, to live in an disadvantaged area or to be unemployed. Add to that more facts from the National Literacy Trust website that they are more likely to end up in prison if they do not read; that they will do less well in education; and that they will be less able to empathise and ... be happy, then we have some answers to the question, why bother?

I hated reading

I was the same as the boys of Basildon. I hated reading. I was too busy being a boy: playing football, watching football (Leeds United), playing on my Atari, watching TV and, later, drinking and getting off with girls (or trying to).

My mum would put books into my hands, imploring me to read. But I really couldn't see the point. Reading was hard, boring, a waste of time, pointless. I was living. Then my mum changed her tactics.

Case study

I was 17. I had just achieved three O levels at school. You needed four O levels to do A levels and go on to university. It was bad news, especially in my family. I have six siblings--half and step--but siblings all the same. They averaged seven O levels.

So after a desperate computer studies vocational course, my mum was horrified to see that I was unemployed. I was also drinking, and worst of all, hanging around with undesirables. By now football was my life. I lived Leeds United. The drinking I did was in Leeds United pubs--populated by hooligans, the undesirables. So my mum was worried, very worried.

Then she tried something new--football reading.

She started with newspapers. She knew I would not have the stamina for books. This was like pre season training. I...