My younger brother won't read more than 5-10 pages of a book before dropping it for something else

My younger brother won't read more than 5-10 pages of a book before dropping it for something else.

How do I get this fuck to read more?

why bother? are you his keeper?

It'd be cool to talk about book with him.

Give him something extremely easy. A page turner like the HP series, then The Hobbit and LOTR, then The Catcher in the Rye, and on and on.

You might as well sit on a beach and tell the waves to stop. The pervasive, insidious, but instantly gratifying visual technology of nowadats is irresistible to young minds, even more so when you give him the idea that partaking in it should be discouraged, because now you would give give his ruinous activities and illicit appeal.

No, OP, better to wait, and hope that when he passes adolescence he has an epiphany, and realises that the soma he loves has destroyed his concentration, comprehension, and critical thinking, and that he is a boring nonentity like everybody else. In this tender moment you can intercede on his behalf by triumphantly thrusting copies of Infinite Jest, Ulysses, and Gravity's Rainbow onto him.

That's what you have friends for you loser

He hasn't found anything that interests him. My younger brother was similar for most of his life, he didn't finish a book until he was in his 20s. He'd tried lots of different books and what finally got him interested was a biography of Charles Manson. And that was like his gateway into reading, he devoured true crime stuff, biographies and novels about criminology.

Then he eventually made the leap into fiction and now he reads nearly as much as I do.

I'll try, HP should hook him, thanks user.

That's a worst case scenario I think, user, aside from assuming he'll read after destroying his mind on social media. Maybe I just need to find something that sticks.

>That's what you have friends for

In short, this was the answer

I think at first the quality doesn't matter to much, it's more important to acquire a fondness for the medium.

Passively waiting isn't what I'd recommend though. Without active encouragement people won't change. My family never stopped trying to get my brother to read. We did ease up after it became apparent he wasn't a book person like the rest of the family, but we didn't give up on him completely. It was, after all, our mother that recommended the Charles Manson biography to him.

So the real lesson is if you throw enough books at him in a wide enough variety something is bound to stick sooner or later.

Well, he reads more than the average Veeky Forums user. Don't be so hard on him.

But why is reading books a good thing...
Why read fiction? Its entertaining but so is a movie.

Today you can read wikipedia or articles or a ton of different things.
Why is reading fiction important unless you want to be a writer yourself...
Might as well go read academic books about the topic that is your proffesion and if your proffesion does not require reading many books than what is the point..

DELET

Show him the value of reading complete books.

If you don't think you get anything out of reading fiction then it's probably wasted on you anyway.

>why is reading books a good thing?
The simple fact that you have unironically asked this question implies that you are irredeemable.

not an arguments

how old is your brother OP?

don not force him to enjoy reading. if he does not find it interesting then that is all there is to it. the reason people read is for the entertainment merit and for the absorption of knowledge. I am guessing your brother is a child so he does not have a deep need for reading nonfiction. if he finds video games or television more interesting so be it.

most people who enjoy reading had periods of their lives where it just was not for them, he might go back to it later

>but why is reading books a good thing...

I think you're right about the entertainment quality, but I think fiction can be a much more immersive, comprehensive, and precise experience than other forms of entertainment. Also, it is better for your brain, since it trains focus, patience, and comprehension of complex ideas. TV, video games, social media, etc (with a few rare exceptions ofc) are much more stimulating sensually and much less stimulating intellectually. They are fast paced, bright, loud, and addictive, and they have been shown to shorten your attention span. Thus, even if reading is simply another form of entertainment, it's a much more positive form than many others.

Set a child on the right path and he'll never stray from it

You got nothing to say excpet "y-you're wrong user!"

I don't think this is necessarily true. People can stray from the "right" path at any point in their lives.

Don't

People don't have to like what you like

>How do I get this fuck to read more?

leave him be. get your own life.

That's stupid.
If you force it, he'll resent it. Find something he'll bury himself in even if it's stupid.

Tell him cool stuff about what you are reading with absolutely no intent on convincing him. Doing things together and sharing experiences is a muich better motivator for people to be interestd in what you like.
The more time yoo spend with him the more he will feel closer to you and desire to adopt your behaviours.
The best way to change someone is to change his habits and the best way to do that is to get more involved in his life.

Damn. Actually some pretty solid advice. Listen to this guy OP.

Try living your own life faggot.