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I've been reading a lot about books -- books published, books for sale, books in libraries, and books recommended, especially for young people whose opinions and expectations are still being formed.
One thing I've noticed is that young people are not reading older books and are not being encouraged to do so. In many cases, these books are not available to them unless they dig, and they don't know they exist, so they can't do that.
My formative years were spent reading older books, and this helped form my (admittedly old-fashioned by today's standards) core beliefs about dating.
I'm not talking about fairy tales -- I'm talking about ordinary fiction. In the books I read, men kept themselves clean-living in the hopes of meeting a good woman someday and being a good choice for her. If he met her, he didn't overestimate his chances, because he knew she had the right to be selective. He would court her thoughtfully, respectfully, and honestly. He would take his time. His actions would match his intentions.
I could write a lot more about these books and the things they taught me. I feel that today's young people are simply not being given any examples to emulate. Old books are viewed as "boring" or "hard to read" or "out of touch." The idea of inculcating any kind of morals or good behavior through a book is looked at with horror. When it comes to selecting books, all you're supposed to prioritize is the diversity of the protagonists. Why not have both as priorities?
I also saw a story where a school library was purging anything written before 2008. To someone my age, 2008 is like five mintues ago. There are both good and bad books being written. Fifteen years is not long enough to figure out which ones are going to stand the test of time.
Which books do you recommend?
I'm a young woman, Gen Z, I don't really like reading books in fiction, especially if it's romance, but I read non-fiction books like self-help books about finances, self-development, human behaviours, dating, and recommended books from the FDS sub reddit. I haven't finished reading all the books (I already finished some) but I'm suddenly curious about the books you are referring. I'm going to put it on my lists to read.
Also, I agree that a lot of my peers don't really read books, they are always on social media. I limit my time on social media and honestly, it made me unrelatable and they always joked how clueless I am and that I am living under the rocks or something. I don't care about trends, dramas, etc. and I don't care about their opinion because I know there are more important matters. I think part of this is because I'm an introvert and reading books are my hobby.
Though, I'm studying regarding media, I don't like t.v. and other social media platforms but I saw the power these platforms bring. I suggest if you want to influence a lot of young people, you should make it a trend like reading these old-timey books makes a person aesthetic or cool. Like post about the preview story on Tiktok, YouTube shorts, Facebook reels, etc. with aesthetic picture of the main character. Make it romantic, this is the best strategy to encourage them. (Also, please don't use the gen z slangs or stereotypical words, it's cringe and embarrassing, most of us don't really talk like that).
I saw a niche on YouTube regarding reading romance fiction books, so I believe there are still a lot of people who reads, but probably not the majority if you are expecting. This is just my suggestion if you want to write about these books for the young people and I apologize if I come of as giving advice without consent. 😭
But, I assure you there are still young people who reads, maybe not a lot. One of my friends love reading classic literature books and poetry.
I agree. I found myself agreeing with aot of the Victorian ideas of courtship because they advised women to not accept too many gifts from a man she wasn't interested in (in the offchance he was love bombing) to be selective and go out with different men and not overcommit to one ( a la FDS) and not hang out with strange men without an escort or female chaperone while travelling (maybe not necessary but helpful during travel in developing countries) a lot of this is still stuff I agree with. I happen to live irish authors so currently I am reading James Joyce's Dubliners. I also read a utopian female society story written in 1915 (Herland) and I find myself agreeing with our ancestors on many matters of humanity. I love watching old movies too and I recently watched Charlie Chaplin s The Great Dictator (brilliant) and Marilyn's Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.
Years ago I googled "books everyone should read", but I kept finding my results filtered by gender. The "books ever MAN should read" were classics, "books every WOMAN should read" were self-help and relationship books. So I said "eff it- I'll read the books every MAN should read". And I sh!t you not, it changed my life. I read nearly a hundred books over 2 years. The ones that were the most life-changing were "Animal Farm", "1984", "Brave New World", and "Fahrenheit 451".