Current and Historical Perspectives on Australian Teenagers’ Reading Practices and Preferences

Abstract

A recent piece in the Australian Financial Review (2014) reported that national book industry sales figures were being “propped up” by “young adult fiction – and its teen fans”: “young adult fiction sales are up 26% this financial year, while adult fiction has declined by 11%” (p. 3). Book industry sales point to a flourishing young adult fiction market, depicting various trends in intentional reading preferences. From these statistics, however, it cannot be assumed that purchase patterns in any category of books are directly indicative of young people’s actual reading lives, within and beyond the parameters of formal schoolbased education.