Q: How do I get my 15-year-old son interested in reading? He likes football, listening to music and the history of the Greco‑Persian wars.
Gaverne Bennett, London
A: Alex Preston is an award-winning author. His latest book is As Kingfishers Catch Fire: Books & Birds
There’s a particular quality of attention needed to read a book and it takes practice to achieve it. So don’t worry if your son discards many of those that you put in front of him. One of them will, with a little luck, hook him, and he’ll start devouring them with the kind of voraciousness only teenagers can muster.
Turning first to football: I remember reading Nick Hornby’s Fever Pitch in a single sitting when I was about your son’s age. It’s a gateway book – easy enough to read to snare the most recalcitrant of bibliophobes, but full of intelligence and subtle joy (the musician in him might also enjoy High Fidelity). More recently, Ross Raisin’s A Natural is the gripping tale of a footballer coming to terms with his sexuality. It’s a bit “grown-up”, perhaps, but that might be just the thing – a message from the adult world.
I’d also see how he gets on with Scar Tissue, Anthony Kiedis’s memoir of life in the American band Red Hot Chili Peppers.
Finally, two recommendations that pick up on his interest in the classical past: Madeline Miller’s The Song of Achilles, which applies modern sensibilities to the story of the Iliad, and Adam Nicolson’s The Mighty Dead, which is a masterful introduction to Homer and a magnificent book in its own right. Good luck!
Looking for the next Philip Roth? Or maybe you loved Helen Macdonald’s H Is for Hawk and want to discover more nature memoirs. If you’ve got a question for Book Clinic, submit it below or email bookclinic@observer.co.uk
