My nephew's birthday is coming up (he's like 12) and I want to buy him a book. Something that will make him want to read more, if possible. I was thinking Moby Dick, not sure if that's a good choice for someone who has probably never sat down and read something start to finish.
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"the hobbit"
"harry potter"
"Moby-Dick" is going to be WAY too advanced for him. Even "The Hobbit" might be a bit of an ask. Have you considered something like "A Series of Unfortunate Events"?
Moby Dick is too much, dunno that Hobbit is too much though. I was reading Silmarillion at 11 or 12, Hobbit is definitely not that hard. Narnia is a lot easier than even Hobbit. And Tolkien is pure perfection when read as a child, BEFORE you've been ruined by reading stuff like GoT or other books.
I see a lot of people on here that didn't bother reading Tolkien until later on in life (20s and up) and also only after reading other stuff, and they rarely seem to appreciate Tolkien's work like people who read it as children do.
Get the nephew Hobbit, or even Silmarillion.
>Moby Dick is too much, dunno that Hobbit is too much though. I was reading Silmarillion at 11 or 12, Hobbit is definitely not that hard. Narnia is a lot easier than even Hobbit.
OP said the kid has probably never read a book before. "The Hobbit" is too hard.
treat a kid like a moron and they'll become one sure enough.
might as well just get them Goosebumps then, or maybe Dr Seuss books.
Or you can give the kid a real treasure like Hobbit or Silmarillion, and truly inspire them to read more. (Goosebump never inspired me to wanna read more, couldn't even read an entire chapter of it it was not to my liking at all as a kid)
You don't take someone who's never skied before and push them down a tricky slope by themselves; you start with something less challenging and then build up to it. There are books that are easy to read but still worthwhile. If you give a kid who's never read a book before something as abstruse as the Silmarillion, they're not going to read it, and then you've accomplished nothing.
"The Hobbit" is not a tricky ski slope, it was explicitly written for his own young children, it's age appropriate for a 12 year old. It's age appropriate for an 8 year old honestly. Stop treating kids like morons, they'll just meet your expectations.
The Silmarillion is, I guess, a tricky ski slope. Maybe "The Hobbit" is more intermediate, but it's still not something that's going to work as a first book for a non-reader.
what about Hobbit is "intermediate"? If he's 12 he should already know how to read, the issue is getting him something that will hold his interest and inspire him to read more.
Hobbit is perfect. Lemony Snicket? i dunno, never read the book but i've seen the movie and tv series, and it's kinda bizarre to see children reading such stuff.
I guess Hobbit could seem advanced given societies gradual lowering of IQ over the last couple decades. What was once normal is now unheard of.
>omg you read Hobbit at 12 years old? But that's post-graduate university material!
Good suggestion. A series of unfortunate events has 13 books in the chronicle, each with increasing page length. The first book is very short and will not require too much time out of him. After he’s captivated he will spend a few school years reading the set. Enforcing long-standing reading through his enjoyment. Another suggestion is spiderwick which is a short series with nice illustrations that is more on the fantasy side than the edgy side compared to a series of unfortunate events. I would also say spiderwick is more realistic and relatable than the Harry Potter books.
Jules Verne has always been popular with boys.
good choice
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The Hobbit
Treasure Island
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
The Three Musketeers
A Wizard of Earthsea
The Once and Future King
The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe
Bro you cant buy a 12 year old moby dick lmao. Get him the hobbit or the hitchhikers guide to the galaxy. Something like that
When I was in second grade, I read an abridged Mopey Dick. It was very comprehensible and enjoyable.
That's because it was abridged for children. You're talking about the Illustrated Classics. You didn't read Moby Dick lol
I agree, but I read it first grade. Even then I loved the boring parts that filters morons
>I was thinking Moby Dick
lol you're moron
>I was thinking Moby Dick, not sure if that's a good choice for someone who has probably never sat down and read something start to finish.
lol you're such a moron buy a book for yourself before gifting your nephew
The Life of Samuel Johnson by James Boswell.
>Nix-Keys to the Kingdom
>Stroud-Bartimaeus Sequence
>Nimmo-Children of the Red King
>Farmer-Sea of Trolls
These are good books for kids, interesting but not difficult, with themes that you'd want an adolescent to absorb: interest in history, the importance of knowledge, etc. It's solid stuff. If he's more discerning, try The Phantom Tollbooth; if he needs visuals, try Gaiman's Sandman (before all the editions are revised).
Use if the kid is a loser incel.
Don't get him a book. He won't fricking read it. You'd be better off getting him Google Play Gift Cards.
buy just whatever
he's not gonna read it anyway
Don't be a jerk.
I just want to reiterate my recommendation of "A Series of Unfortunate Events." They're very easy to read, have great illustrations and include lots of little callouts to canonical works. Also, they're a bit edgy, which might appeal to him.
This might be a good idea too.
Buy him a bunch of goosebumps books
You guys are fricking morons to recommend real books to a zoomer. Buy him a light novel with an edgy protagonist like oregairu or sao progressive
there is no answer to this if we don't know what your nephew likes. Redwall? Edge Chronicles? who knows?
comical levels of projection
OP, does your nephew like to read? If the answer is no, then DO NOT buy him just a book. Buy him a book AND something he actually wants.
>but how do I know what he actually wants?
Call your sister or brother and ask them.
Now if he does like to read then you can buy him just a book. However do not buy him anything for adults. This child is in elementary school. Buy him a children's book like A Series of Unfortunate Events or Harry Potter. I would also suggest Roald Dahl's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory or really anything by Roald Dahl.
If you are REALLY gung ho on buying Moby Dick, then you need to buy the Great Illustrated Classics version of the book. It's rewritten and abridged for CHILDREN.
>anything by Roald Dahl.
Not "My Uncle Oswald," though.
>Oswald plans to steal the semen of great men and sell it to women
Now that is a very based premise. But how does he, ahem, "extract" the semen? Asking for a friend.
>Now that is a very based premise. But how does he, ahem, "extract" the semen? Asking for a friend.
He has a female companion who seduces the men using a super-powerful aphrodisiac and collects the semen using a condom. She has to go dressed as a man to get Proust's semen. The book has some good moments, but it's one of Dahl's weaker works imo.
Do you love him?
Books are terrible gifts in general, if only for the time commitment you're obliging them (unless they're bibliophiles to begin with). That said, it's a good age for adventure/action, picrel
based, voting this
or other collections of stories, since those are the ones he's most likely to at least give a try.
There's graphic sex in the book. Howard was an incel coomer.
I loved these stories in my teen years, but my family also watched Ray Harryhausen and kurosawa alot and I was obsessed eith ancient mythology
>20489056
nobody asked
Romance of the Three Kingdoms
Call of the Crocodile
How To Find The Anon Who Wrote This And Make His Shriveled Boomer Dick Tingle - Nephew Edition by Some Idiot.
Just give him money. No one likes pushy homosexuals who force their hobbies on others.
you could try "Below the Root". It's young adult fantasy from the 80s, really good story, easy to read.
Make him read The Phenomenology of Spirit
then don't even bother getting the kid a book at all, just let him wallow in low iq bliss.
get him a video game, don't challenge them to be better at all, that might hurt his feelings.
what about Hobbit is intermediate? It's a little children's book.
Are you just focusing on the size of the book? Does it have advanced ideas? Strange words? What exactly is intermediate?
Just buy him vbucks. There's no way a child will read any books at this age.
But instead, win his heart and then when he gets attached to you, encourage him to start reading books. That's the only way you will make him read. Please save him....
Don’t buy someone a book for someone who has no interest in reading. The fact that you are thinking about getting a 12 year old who doesn’t read, Moby Dick, just shows that you are completely clueless
Percy Jackson, and only up to the fifth book. Then you can introduce better IQfy. But it may not spur his interest in reading all that much, considering he probably has ready access to videogames and YouTube.
get him Fight Club or American Psycho or something easy like that.
Harry Potter.
Give him a boxed set, that would make him read.
The Chronicles of Prydain, The Chronicles of Narnia, The Wizard of Oz, Sherlock Holmes (the two volume set edited by Bantam is neat).
You could also give him anthologies, "The Crimes of Love" and "French Decadent Tales" (edited by Oxford) would be cool for someone of his age (if he isn't a little homosexual). Horror, gothic and supernatural fiction is a good choice too, Wordsworth edited some nice and cheap anthologies.
If the kid hasn't read Joyce by now, what's the point?
I have no idea if this is a good suggestion but why not Orlando Furioso? It's mostly knights fighting and there's a naked woman on the cover.
Also I believe someone made a novelization trilogy out of the original DOOM games, but I haven't read it so I'm not sure if it's good.
>naked woman on the cover.
You do realize the kid will most likely be opening his presents in front of his parents?
Their eyes may be open but they do not see.
Unironically picrel
The Thief of Always by Clive Barker
It's good. He'll get spooked a bit too, but it is one of Barker's teenage books, so nothing serious.
>12
>Moby Dick
are you out of your mind?
Percy Jackson or Alex Rider.
I started reading the witcher when i was about his age.
I wager he'll bite and possibly develop a habbit of reading because of the vidya gaems
Anything Discworld or Good Omens.
Just don't expect him to actually read it. I've never read anything that was gifted to me and I used to actually read.
get him percy jackson or some other kiddie shit
i read that when i was 13 and it was the gateway for me getting into actual greek mythology then into philosophy when i got older
Get him a nice edition of Lovecraft
LOTR if he doesn't have it
Gormenghast. It is a light read and perfect for young minds.
My dad bought me Don Quixote for my 14th birthday because I liked knights. At that point, I have read previously other knight stories like "King Arthur and His Knights of the Round Table" and some legends from my country's folklore back when I was 10. Sparked my interest in reading and I remember being able to recognize that Cervantes is mocking my favorite knight tales, so I moved to other literature as well.
What I'm trying to get at, is, buy him a book about medieval knights. They teach both morals and nobility and are also exciting to read for a child's mind.