ENCOURAGING young people, and especially young men, to read can be troubled affair.
However, a recent survey reveals that when young males do read, they do so voraciously.
Recent data released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) shows only one-in-ten Gen Z males read books, e-books, magazines or newspapers.
The figures for Gen Z females were not much better, with only 13.2 per cent participating in reading.
When young men do participate in reading, however, they spend more time with their head stuck in a book than any other age or gender demographic.
The small percentage of Gen Z men who do read spend an average of nearly three (2.8) hours per day, according to the ABS statistics.
This is more than double the amount of time spent by male Baby Boomers Gen X or Millennials, and nearly an hour more than Gen Z females.
In an opinion piece promoting his new book, writer Brandon Jack posited one reason for the meagre number of young male readers may be due to the sweeping wave of “chick-lit”.
“Five of Australia’s 10 best-selling books in 2024 fit into this category (the others were two cookbooks, a children’s book, a self-help book and John Farnham’s memoir),” he wrote.
Jack, the younger brother of AFL legend Kieren Jack, played 28 games for the Sydney Swans over four years between 2013 and 2017.
In the shadow of his brother, who was captain at the time, Jack struggled to break out of the VFL and into a highly successful senior Swans list.
The writer’s new book, Pissants, is a debauched and fictionalised ode to his time on the fringes of an AFL list.
The novel examines the tribulations of AFL players caught in the demoralising purgatory of the professional sports world.
In the vein of Trainspotting, a book Jack says sparked his enjoyment of reading in his mid 20s, his novel shifts from the perspectives of four different fringe players listed at an unnamed AFL club.
Jack’s writes in easy-to-follow conversational prose; the novel is interspersed with WhatsApp messages, Facebook events, footnotes and other unconventional literary features – another aspect Jack says was inspired by Irvine Welsh, Trainspotting’s author.
The novel delves into the chest-beating, testosterone filled machismo of the male football world.
Much of the book reveals the worst of the male character when swept away by the unconscious tide of closed-door locker-room groupthink.
The novel has earned well-targeted praise from Australian literary giants.
Helen Garner said “under its foul-mouthed, laughing bravado lie deep wounds, a humble and endearing loneliness that moved me”.
The Guardian does not endorse this novel for anyone under-18; if you are a parent looking for a birthday or Christmas gift, it is best to flick through a few pages first.
