Seniors rarely read fiction?

[Anonymous]

I am in 3 book clubs. Two are mostly women over 50/60, and we read a ton of fiction - both for the club and on the side. So anecdotally, these doesn’t seem right for women.

Now for men, it would seem right.

[Anonymous]

Both my mom and my MIL read mainly fiction. I'd say 80% fiction, 20% nonfiction.

My grandparents (in their 90s) have always read mysteries.

[Anonymous]

My dad was reading 10 books a week easily in his 70s. In his 90s he doesn’t read many novels. Reads news online, etc. I think four factors:
1) mental slipping makes it harder to follow long involved plots. Stuff like Grisham or short magazine articles much easier to follow.
2) eyes slipping. Even at 50, it’s a pain to read novels that are heavy to hold and I need glasses. Even with kindle it’s just a pain to magnify and have to keep moving the page down. My grandmother basically lost all sight to read later in life and gave up reading even her trashy romance novels.
3) novels depressing. When you’re 80 years old who wants to read a bunch of depressing stuff? Seems like every novel I read has a suicide, rape, tragic death, etc. even at 50, I need some better news.
4) harder to get to bookstore/library as you get older. And not all seniors have a kindle or know how to work it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Haven't seen a lot of data on this, but it seems people rarely read fiction after a certain age. Anecdotally this seems to be true. Heck, even Cormac McCarthy and Philip Roth, two of America's greatest novelists, admitted in their later years that they had stopped reading fiction. Why is this the case?

I don't know, but at least anecdotally this is the case for me, and I got an MFA in fiction writing at 40. I'm now 53 and read and write mostly nonfiction.

Where did you get your MFA?

[Anonymous]

My great aunt read romance novels until she was on life support. She stashed them away all over her house.

[Anonymous]

I think most seniors still read fiction if that’s what they’ve done all their lives. I have read that if there are cognitive or memory problems developing, fiction is abandoned because it’s too hard to remember the plot and characters.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My dad was reading 10 books a week easily in his 70s. In his 90s he doesn’t read many novels. Reads news online, etc. I think four factors:
1) mental slipping makes it harder to follow long involved plots. Stuff like Grisham or short magazine articles much easier to follow.
2) eyes slipping. Even at 50, it’s a pain to read novels that are heavy to hold and I need glasses. Even with kindle it’s just a pain to magnify and have to keep moving the page down. My grandmother basically lost all sight to read later in life and gave up reading even her trashy romance novels.
3) novels depressing. When you’re 80 years old who wants to read a bunch of depressing stuff? Seems like every novel I read has a suicide, rape, tragic death, etc. even at 50, I need some better news.
4) harder to get to bookstore/library as you get older. And not all seniors have a kindle or know how to work it.

As the young people say, that's a skill issue. No one is making anyone read a depressing book.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My dad was reading 10 books a week easily in his 70s. In his 90s he doesn’t read many novels. Reads news online, etc. I think four factors:
1) mental slipping makes it harder to follow long involved plots. Stuff like Grisham or short magazine articles much easier to follow.
2) eyes slipping. Even at 50, it’s a pain to read novels that are heavy to hold and I need glasses. Even with kindle it’s just a pain to magnify and have to keep moving the page down. My grandmother basically lost all sight to read later in life and gave up reading even her trashy romance novels.
3) novels depressing. When you’re 80 years old who wants to read a bunch of depressing stuff? Seems like every novel I read has a suicide, rape, tragic death, etc. even at 50, I need some better news.
4) harder to get to bookstore/library as you get older. And not all seniors have a kindle or know how to work it.

I agree with this list, specifically for older seniors like 80+ versus younger ones at 60+.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am in 3 book clubs. Two are mostly women over 50/60, and we read a ton of fiction - both for the club and on the side. So anecdotally, these doesn’t seem right for women.

Now for men, it would seem right.

I think women read more fiction than men, in general.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My dad was reading 10 books a week easily in his 70s. In his 90s he doesn’t read many novels. Reads news online, etc. I think four factors:
1) mental slipping makes it harder to follow long involved plots. Stuff like Grisham or short magazine articles much easier to follow.
2) eyes slipping. Even at 50, it’s a pain to read novels that are heavy to hold and I need glasses. Even with kindle it’s just a pain to magnify and have to keep moving the page down. My grandmother basically lost all sight to read later in life and gave up reading even her trashy romance novels.
3) novels depressing. When you’re 80 years old who wants to read a bunch of depressing stuff? Seems like every novel I read has a suicide, rape, tragic death, etc. even at 50, I need some better news.
4) harder to get to bookstore/library as you get older. And not all seniors have a kindle or know how to work it.

As the young people say, that's a skill issue. No one is making anyone read a depressing book.

But it’s incredibly hard to find novels that aren’t depressing! I’ve asked on forum before and didn’t get a lot of suggestions. Outside of the Bridget jones type chick lit romances, most fiction is about depressing stuff. Look at that other thread about the NYTimes lost — it’s almost all depressing.

It reminds me of when we took my grandmother to see On Golden Pond thinking she’d like the older actors, and she was like “why am I sitting here watching old people t contemplate their mortality .” She really loved Police Academy. When you’re 30, deep thoughts are great. When you’re 80, you’re past contemplating the human condition and just want some light entertainment to distract you from the looming horizon of your life. That’s a generalization but I think it’s at least part of the reason. My parents, who were big readers, are now also at the stage where they feel like everything they read is basically a rehash of something they’ve read before. The longer you live the more you find that things are repetitive.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My dad was reading 10 books a week easily in his 70s. In his 90s he doesn’t read many novels. Reads news online, etc. I think four factors:
1) mental slipping makes it harder to follow long involved plots. Stuff like Grisham or short magazine articles much easier to follow.
2) eyes slipping. Even at 50, it’s a pain to read novels that are heavy to hold and I need glasses. Even with kindle it’s just a pain to magnify and have to keep moving the page down. My grandmother basically lost all sight to read later in life and gave up reading even her trashy romance novels.
3) novels depressing. When you’re 80 years old who wants to read a bunch of depressing stuff? Seems like every novel I read has a suicide, rape, tragic death, etc. even at 50, I need some better news.
4) harder to get to bookstore/library as you get older. And not all seniors have a kindle or know how to work it.

As the young people say, that's a skill issue. No one is making anyone read a depressing book.

But it’s incredibly hard to find novels that aren’t depressing! I’ve asked on forum before and didn’t get a lot of suggestions. Outside of the Bridget jones type chick lit romances, most fiction is about depressing stuff. Look at that other thread about the NYTimes lost — it’s almost all depressing.

It reminds me of when we took my grandmother to see On Golden Pond thinking she’d like the older actors, and she was like “why am I sitting here watching old people t contemplate their mortality .” She really loved Police Academy. When you’re 30, deep thoughts are great. When you’re 80, you’re past contemplating the human condition and just want some light entertainment to distract you from the looming horizon of your life. That’s a generalization but I think it’s at least part of the reason. My parents, who were big readers, are now also at the stage where they feel like everything they read is basically a rehash of something they’ve read before. The longer you live the more you find that things are repetitive.

I legit can only think of one book I've read in the last few months that had a sad sending and it's the first of a duology, so I'm sure the end of the second book will be happy.

Maybe if all you read is lit fic, but my gosh, there are so many books out there. Broaden the horizons!

And for what it's worth, all romance has a happily ever after. It's a requirement of the genre. Whether you want historical, fantasy, contemporary, etc, the books are going to have nice, settled endings.