Setting boys on road to books

Chris Northover PHOTO/FILE

I could talk about the elections - but just like you I'm sick of the subject.

So, instead, I'll talk about something arguably more palatable - stealing cars and killing prostitutes.

I can talk with authority on this subject because not too many years ago, in a town far, far away, I saw an 8-year-old boy doing just that - stealing cars and laughing when he ran over a prostitute, leaving her crushed and bleeding on the footpath.

Now before you ask - in your best "calm voice" - why such a subject would enter my mind, let me explain that the boy was playing a computer game called "Grand Theft Auto". It's a computer game played throughout the world, freely available here at the time but not without controversy.

The game was bought legally but not, I suspect, intended for one so young. I shudder to think of the damage that today's violent computer games will do to tender young minds.

When I was 8 I was climbing trees and riding my bike. When I was 10 or 11 I was reading books as well as climbing trees and riding my bike.

My generation learned the value of books before television came along and reading has been a pastime ever since.

Now, with wide access to videos of all kinds, I understand the difference a good book can make. A well written book can take you on adventures, relax you, exercise your imagination, teach you language, history and geography - the right book can teach you about life and understanding of other cultures and times.

But you see, I was a fortunate young man. As a boy I lived just across the road from the Marton public library, and the librarian was a wonderful woman called Miss Stroud.

Miss Stroud was superb at finding me just the right book, and she understood the difference between boys and girls. I had quickly tired of Enid Blyton, the Swiss Family Robinson and all the rest that was recommended at school - and the School Journal? Please!

If I had had access to a computer and some computer games, I certainly would have chosen them instead of Enid Blyton. But Miss Stroud introduced me to Alistair McLean and Hammond Innes - books about men doing men's things, not books about "feelings" and other "girl stuff".

Even Denis Wheatley - who was well known for his "horror" stories (which frightened me half to death) - did a good line of historical fiction with a brave and enterprising hero. I can't see that today's feminised education system will be providing any more "boy-friendly" reading material than it did in my day.

Is this one of the reasons that boys are falling behind academically? I'm not certain, but I have asked so many young blokes who don't read - at all - that I believe a definite pattern is emerging.

There are authors around now who I would have read addictively when I was a boy. Authors who I read today when I need the rest.

One of the authors I am thinking of is a man bound to catch the imagination of any young bloke - even enough to turn off the Xbox for a while - Lee Childs. Men love him and women, while they often find the "body count" a little high, also.

His hero, Jack Reacher, is ruthless "never-killed-a-man-who-didn't-need-killin'" sort - but he never killed a prostitute for fun, ever.

Just a start, but perhaps it would set a boy on the "reading road".

Chris Northover is a Wanganui-based former corporate lawyer who has worked in the fields of aviation, tourism, health and the environment.