Popular reads among teens

Metrolife finds out what genres teens in the city are drawn to

Teen years are a time for exploration and transition. In many aspects what you read shapes your beliefs and values. Most teenagers exchange authors like Enid Blyton, Roald Dahl, Ruskin Bond, and Dr Seuss for the likes of Amish Tripathi, Suzanne Collins, Chetan Bhagat and Angie Thomas.

Realistic relevance and romance are often popular genres gaming young adults. Aradhana, 16, says, “Romance, fantasy, mystery and thriller are some of the genres I prefer most.”

The newfound interest and awareness regarding the socio-political climate around them becomes evident in their choice of books, explaining the popularity of dystopian and fiction novels among young adults. Series like 'Hunger Games', 'Divergent', 'Shiva Trilogy' find their fanbase to largely consist of teenagers because of their strong themes of class gap, feminism, and overall political awareness.

Romance in fantasy is also a very popular genre among young readers. Series like 'Vampire Diaries', 'Twilight', 'The Mortal Instruments' are quite enjoyable for young readers, bringing in a supernatural twist to the old romance novels.

Crime and thriller definitely do not fall behind either. Many young adults either get into the genre slowly in their teenage or, grow up with books like Nancy Drew, Hardy Boys, or Sherlock Holmes and look for more mature or different writing.

Ankur Jyoti Basumutary, 18, says, “Reading has always been fun for me but I can’t really specify my taste. I love Agatha Christie. I have inclinations towards mystery, thriller, history, and philosophy but I’m willing to give other interesting genres a try as well.”

However teenage marks the period of exploration and so readers do often look into contemporary writing that envelopes them in an unfamiliar world with relevant themes, preferring books that stay with one, educate one, motivate or at least make one wonder. Authors like Paulo Coelho, Arundhati Roy, Khaled Hosseini and Chitra Banerjee Divarkuni are very few of the expanse of authors who are successful in this particular aspect and hence are sought out by most teen readers.

“I was so mesmerised by the library we had in our school that it made me go beyond the type of reading I used to do. I was then introduced to philosophical books like 'Ikigai', 'The Subtle Art of not giving a f**k', 'Monk Who Sold His Ferrari' and many more,” says Debakanya, 18.

These are the most common trends seen among a majority of teenage readers. However, without a doubt, there are plenty of readers who perhaps prefer completely different genres or authors.