I just picked up A Game Of Thrones by George R.R. Martin, and have gotten up to around page 117. I have a pretty big vocabulary, but it is still pretty hard for me. It is pretty good so far, but it is really a struggle. Do you think this is more of an adults only book, or should I go on?
Personally I find George R. R. Martin a lot easier to get into than J.R.R. Tolkien, and a lot of people have read the Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit at a younger age than 14. So George R. R. Martin shouldn't be much of a problem.
I don't think there is such a thing as an adults only book, unless it has subject matter that children simply cannot handle. It's good to read books that have words you don't know. How else are you supposed to learn? The Hobbit, when published, I think was meant for kids under 12. If you look at children's books now, the vocabulary is so much easier because they don't want books to be too challenging or whatever. But unless you're totally lost, read it.
Keep reading and keep a dictionary handy. This will help improve your vocabulary. Even if you learn 5 new words from one book, it adds up quickly.
I have read two books by the author Michael Crichton who also uses some theories and words that I do not know. I always right down the words that I don't know when I'm reading and look them up after. Sometimes to improve my vocabulary and for fun I take those words and write a short story trying to base the main thoughts off of them. I don't know about the author you are talking about, but the books that I read by the before mentioned author were books that my mother read when she was in her twenties. I say go for it, because I'm fourteen also, and desperately trying to increase my vocabulary.
I'm 15, and A Song of Ice and Fire is my favorite book series of all time. It's amazing. I don't find it hard to read, yes, there are words I don't know, but then I just use common sense or look in a dictionary. Although there is a lot of violence, language, and sex in these books.
Well, I really don't think that should be an issue. You should know what sex is at the age of 14, and I'm sure you've seen violence in movies and such all the time by then.
I remember reading Paradise Lost and the Divine Comedy when I was 13 and my English teacher telling me off because she hadn't read either book until she was set them at University. I then had to write a 'book report' on some modern teen fiction about some kid whose dad was obsessed with Buddy Holly. I felt really insulted. There's social standards and then there's personal ability. I get worried that too few people know which one they should be striving toward... Oh, and, I'm now 24, and just today I was wondering if I'm too old to be reading Philip Pullman. So it works both ways...
You're never too old or too young for a book as long as you are mentally prepared for the content. I took out two books today that were in the children's novel section becuse I'm interested in history, and they are great historical novels from the point of view of girls.
I'm sorry but I don't buy that you actually understood Paradise Lost. I believe you read it, but the book is near incomprehensible without heaver liner notes or something of the sort. And for the OP: It does no harm to read tough books no matter what your age. I got into reading when I was younger and I tried to tackle all the classics and what not. I would read the hardest stuff to impress people but when it really comes down to it I just like reading a book in my range.
I agree with Jupiter, it definitely goes both ways. I remember just the other month I finished a book aimed at young teens and then found my boyfriend's little brother (who is only 9 - half my age) reading the same book so I decided to find out just how much he understood. Yes, he struggled with quite a bit of the vocabulary, but he'd actually looked at the story in ways i'd not even thought about. I'd say he definitely understood the storyline at least, even if he didn't understand every word in the story itself. I remember reading the Lord of the Rings series at primary school, when most of my friends were still reading books i'd read years earlier. I had to ask what words meant, or look them up and my teachers told me I shouldn't be reading it. If I understood it, learnt from it, and enjoyed it, then what's the problem?
If you want to read it, then read it. When I was about 10 I was halfway through Anne McCaffrey's Dragonriders of Pern series (The White Dragon is still one of my favourite books of all time). My dad read me LotR when I was about six (I think...). It was great, because he did all the characters' voices By the time I went to secondary school (aged 11) I'd read To Kill A Mockingbird, 1984, Lord of the Flies, and the first two books of the Hannibal series, to note but a few. Basically what I'm trying to say, is if you're happy reading them, then carry on.
