Yesterday’s post about Dave Eggers‘s belief that the youth of America still love literature prompted YA author Lorie Ann Grover to send us an email about the passion for reading shared by the 6,000 members of the Readergirlz social network (which she co-created). She quotes one of the teenage girls who participates in the site:
“I just wanted you guyz to know what a terrific job you all are doing. I was reading a Holly Black novel at school the other day, killing time before my next class, when another student came up to me and told me that Black is one of her favorite authors. We talked a while and I was surprised when she said she too knows about the readergirlz… I didn’t realize that many people my age read let alone all belong to the same reading group. It was a neat feeling. Thank you.”
And it’s not just teenage girls: There’s also GuysLitWire for boys to talk about the books that capture their attention. We’ve gotten a lot of ridiculously pessimistic emails over the last few years suggesting that one of the biggest reasons the publishing industry has no future is that kids don’t read; sites like these two give us hope that the naysayers have simply lost touch with an audience (a bunch of audiences, really) that still exists and will continue to exist… and that the future of publishing will be led by those who are able to bring that audience together.