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barrylyga OP t1_iy8vfp5 wrote

Reply to comment by ponyothefrog in Hey there, r/books! I’m Barry Lyga, author of 27 novels in a variety of genres and I’m here to answer your questions honestly…or to make up shit if I don’t know what else to say — AMA! by barrylyga

Wow, what a great question!

I would imagine there's SOME competition, but I don't think today's kids think in terms of "read a book or read a comic?" The past decade or so has really done a good job of instilling "reading is reading" into this generation.

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barrylyga OP t1_iy8vxzo wrote

Oh, and I meant to say, too... Those are both categories that have historically had a lot of shame attached to them. "You're reading kid stuff!" "Read a real book!" Of course, both categories have a plethora of crap, but so does EVERY category. There's also really brilliant stories in both. So if anything, I hope that those who read one will dip into the other and find something genius!

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ponyothefrog t1_iy90akx wrote

That makes sense! Wonder now how many "adult people" read "young adult" literature.

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barrylyga OP t1_iy90jsh wrote

I know that my YA books have a pretty sizable crossover component to them, but I can't speak to the category at large. (There was a study a few years back that showed a big chunk of YA books were read by adults...but that study didn't take into account that a big chunk of THAT chunk was grown-ups reading The Hunger Games!)

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