"How do we make people want to read?" asks Dave Morris "Bring them up in a household full of books," he answers himself

"How do we make people want to read?" asks FutureBook contributor Dave Morris in this essay on the question so many of us keep asking. "Bring them up in a household full of books," he answers himself, "or (next best) with free access to books." But as many times as we hear that "It all goes back to the home answer," Morris is far too smart to stop there. He's onto something else. And I'll let him put it to you personally, no spoiler here. A hint: "Why aren’t the youth of today painting mammoths on the walls of caves?" — Porter Anderson

---

You know those get-to-know meetings where everybody is invited to say a little bit about who they are. 
Like when the heroes exchange boasts in the Trojan War, only without the spear-throwing as a chaser. When I mention that I’m a game designer as well as a writer, someone will nod and say, "Ah, that’s what we like about your script. The videogame feel."

I expect Michelangelo heard the same sort of thing. ‘What we love about your painting, Mike, is the sculptural look.’ And a compliment is a compliment. You don’t want to look a gift horse in the mouth, even when it’s a camel. But it irks because it’s too facile to be true or even useful. When you’re a writer, everything that interests you feeds into your work. Whatever quality those network execs think they’re seeing, it’s as likely that I got it from reading Elric of Melniboné as from playing The Witcher.
More