I've just seen a lovely thing that is not as common anymore

[ilovemynails]

We have been on holiday to Tenerife. At the airport coming home there was a British family.
Mum, Dad and 3 children who looked between 10 and 14 and each one was reading a proper book.
No phones or tablets in sight.

Thanks for pulling me up on that. You're quite right, I don't know the family. I was just making a silly joke on the internet. Sorry to all the people I have hurt and let down.

That’s so sad you think that . My kid loves reading his books .

How do you read so fast? I love reading but can't read faster than an audiobook would read aloud.

2 books isn't enough for a holiday! I read books at home but travelling id always use a Kindle as you can read so much more that way

Loving all the people spending time on an internet forum righteously asserting that internet can be used to access literature so is probably ok.

What are we sleepwalking into here?

at least if you fall zz and drop the book, no one steals it

You don't need to have internet turned on on e-readers

Are you confused? You need to internet to download the book, but after that, you don’t.

Every time we go on holiday we have strangers come and comment about how wonderful it is to see my children reading books, us doing riddles or crosswords together, or them drawing or completing puzzle games.

It has happened over 15 times in at least 6 different countries from my recollection and also happens regularly in restaurants in the UK.

My children also love spending time on tablets and playing Minecraft etc, which is also hugely educational as well as fun. I also enjoy doing that with them.

Stop being so judgemental of people when you see only a snapshot of their lives.

2 paperbacks aren't going to last most readers very long on a decent length with long flights there and back plus waiting at airport. She said they were on the way home. I'd be on book 5 by then

Many people can read much faster than spoken language. That’s one of the main benefits of reading, it’s so much faster!

20 is OTT for me, unless all you do on holiday is read (which I'm not knocking, sounds nice!). I prob read 1.2x speed of an audiobook. Lots of audiobooks are about 10 hours I think so perhaps I could read in 8. So a couple for the flights and waiting about then however many you read while there. I usually take about 4 plus some magazines

“And I can read it in the car if we’re driving at night…”

I hope you don’t read it while driving! Or do you mean while he drives, and you do not?

No idea. I always have. My parents couldn’t read or write well, and were very suspicious of education, and my mother in particular thought reading was ‘lazy’, so I suspect I just learned to gobble books as fast as possible from a very young age before anyone could take them away.

For goodness’ sake.

We are kindred spirits. Pre-Kindle, I was always on holidays thinking ‘But what I brought with me isn’t what I want to read right now’ and trying to find books in a language I spoke in some obscure bookshop somewhere. DH still remembers with nostalgic horror me running around somewhere in India trying to find a book in English, French or German that wasn’t sodding Shantaram.😀

That is lovely! DC carries about 6 books around with them, very avid reader!

Its the first time ive come across competitive reading on MN 😄
But i shouldn't really be surprised!
I spend a lot of time lazing about on holiday (unlike the average MN) and i read about 3 books and maybe 1 magazine (in a week). I buy them in charity shops or do swaps at the station. Buying a magazine at the airport is a holiday treat, I rarely buy them elsewhere

This is what we do. Kids don’t have devices. We tend to have quite busy holidays so two books per kid for a week is right for us. I have a kindle so I’m not against them but honestly I want the kids on screens as little as possible :-)

No, I'm not fucking confused.

😂😂😂😂

Get off your high horse - lots of schools in the UK have broken up for summer already (not all UK countries get short summer holidays like most of England do). Or they may have been in private school, so already finished for summer or home educated.

We go away in term time all the time, one of the many benefits of home education, no ipads on holidays for our children. My niece usually goes on holiday at this time of year and she's in private school, so already broken up for summer.

Tech companies pay millions to people (I know many of them) who work at making screens addictive. Like gambling, like drugs - they record eye ball movement, engagement, clicks, light experimentation, movement, frames a second, anything, and they test children and use data from children to make and keep them addicted from a young age; by making screens more addictive they make tech giants more £. It’s not the people that are being judged, but the tech giants - the people are the victims, we all are, walking blindly thorough life experienced or distracted through a screen (obvs there are many who have a healthy relationship with devices but I’m not one of them), it is reach that these tech giants have into our lives and our pockets £. By seeing someone with a book, it’s a breath of fresh air. They are free in that moment to read, feel a page, their eyeballs aren’t saturated with blue light; it’s a much more mindful, present, and non-addictive way for the brain and nervous system (as this is what the addiction testing looks at, the interaction between these two) to process that moment. I think that’s the spirit of what OP is referring to and I also feel, and this said being someone who is very much addicted to my phone. I had a rare moment to read yesterday and did for 2 mins before I got my phone out through addiction and dopamine hits and the rewiring of my brain, and that’s what these tech companies (=£) want and it’s fucking sad. I should add all those I knew working on addiction in devices in silicone valley didn't let their children near one; they knew exactly what they were doing to brains. It’s a very different thing to a book. Also agree that that’s a lovely sight OP. ❤️

I agree too OP, it is a lovely and rare sight these days. Whenever I’ve been on a flight recently the kids have all been playing games or watching films on their tablets the whole way through (and quite often without headphones too..).

It’s so nice to see isn’t it? A lady came up to me in a cafe and said it was nice to see my children being occupied with a jigsaw rather than a phone