C‘you are twenty years old sang the Måneskin. I’m writing to you now before it’s too late, they added. They write, of course, you write a lot in your twenties. The series Confused of RaiPlay (which will return for the second season) has chats that scroll overlays and a soundtrack of the same name that says: I write, but I don’t send and delete every message. It’s singing Alfa, or Andrea De Filippi, 23 years old, from Genoawho wrote the song before the summer hit Very beautiful and even before those sentences written down on a mobile phone that they have become Yellowhis first book (Rizzoli), a story of Generation Z kids who dream and suffer as expected, but who write everywhere: from Wattpad to stories intended for self-publishing. And then they also do something else: they read, and a lot.
They are responsible for the recovery of publishing: according to Aie datain 2022 90 percent of children between 15 and 17, and 89 of those between 18 and 24, read at least one book a year. They read with an eye on trends #booktok and the other to the bookshelves. They prefer books to e-books so as not to strain their eyes and stay more focused, says McKinsey & Company research on English and American Zers (Gen Z kids). And the Italians? The same.
Z, a generation of readers
«I felt blocked because I always talked about myself in the songs. I wrote a story to get into the head of another character and the novel came out” confesses Alfa. «Reading helps me get away from the phone and work. To find inspiration I read The Art of Loving by Erich Fromm as well as books by Pennac, an author I feel close to. At school he was a dunce, while I was a bit of a loser and bullied. Pennac has become a great writer and I would never have thought of being a singer” concludes Alfa who has Blindness by Saramago and Siddharta by Hesse on his bedside table.
Useless summer homework
Speaking of school. Mila Sivo, 18 years old, fifth classical high school at Parini in Milan, owes the discovery of his favorite books to the readings recommended by the professors. From One, none and one hundred thousand by Pirandello (the one of the heart) a The importance of being Ernest by Oscar Wilde. «I also appreciated Ammaniti’s I’m Not Scared. In general, however, I see that among my peers the attention span has lowered. Scrolling through 15-second videos on TikTok for hours certainly doesn’t help. Luckily I fell in love with the classics » she says.
Valentina Ghetti, 27 years old, in life is a book influencer with an under 24 community, but also a literature teacher in a middle school in Brescia and knows that the “homework” could be done better.
«I hold “end of reading” groups on Telegram to do what school then skips. That is, books are assigned to read in the summer but then they are never talked about again. In groups, however, yes because people need it” specifies Valentina. «The younger ones are fascinated by fantasy which is nothing other than the natural continuation of the fairy tales they grew up with. But then there are those who hate fictional texts and prefer true stories. I had a seventh grader who loved mafia stories. I think teachers should give a varied list of books and let people choose » she concludes.
And so growing up on bread and Harry Potter (who recently celebrated 25 years: he’s a Zers too), we get to Erin Doom or Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson and the Olympians: it happened to Carlotta Gallo, 15 years old, a second-year science high school student in Pinerolo. «I love fantasy and all adventure stories. On the bedside table I have I found you among the stars by Francesca Zappia, taken at the Book Fair. And even if I don’t love the horror genre, I would like to be Stephen King for a day and understand how he described people’s fears in It. I discovered the titles thanks to friends and a WhatsApp group. I read in the evening, mum and I carve out some time to spend together on the bed with our books” says Carlotta, who has friends who love feminist stories and are fans of novels about myth.
Gen ze books: between Greek myths and McGrath
There he is another common thread of the Zers: the myth. «I would reread the song of Achilles by Madeline Miller another time» says Alice Barcelletti, 15 years old, second year old scientific high school in Bagheria. «Jennifer Saint also fascinates me because she takes up the Greek myth and she seems cultured, open, someone who believes in her ideals. Generally, however, I read everything. I’m finishing now Trauma by Patrick McGrath. I browse online reviews or go to the bookshop, that’s how I choose» adds Alice who reads an hour a day (on weekends, two).
Listening to these guys, something really seems to have changed. «We find ourselves in a moment of transition in which very different ways of reading and writing coexist» he confesses Giulia Ichino, head of Italian fiction and non-fiction for Bompiani. «I was born in the late Seventies, the books I read at 20 looked towards a horizon that was still that of my fathers. Our bestsellers were novels written by twenty/thirty year olds capable of impacting young and old. When I started working in a publishing house in the early 2000s, my literary myths were the same as those of my superiors and my parents. Today, however, the gap between mine and Generation Z is infinitely wider. They are digital natives who grew up in a world where we inform ourselves and debate, write and read differently. Everything runs fast and books last less even when they are important for everyone and rewarded. A recent graduate who comes to us today may never have read The Tartar Desert but already being a small booktoking star and an expert reader of a genre that he knows only with the help of automatic translation platforms.
Young people read, or rather read and write every minute through every possible device, even with pen and paper. But it is equally certain that they, like us, read faster and a little more distractedly than we used to. Every text becomes hypertext in daily practice, leading us to type questions and comments. And if reading is a more social fact, one of the most interesting phenomena is precisely that of the bestsellers born from rewritings of Greek and Latin myths. We are dwarfs on the shoulders of giants” adds Ichino.
Words, images and podcasts
In the meantime it has landed in the bookshop Divine rivals (Fazi) by Rebecca RossTikTok star dealing with eighteen-year-old Iris in a romantic saga against the backdrop of a magical world (at the top of the American charts for months): it is the romance.
«What pink did in the 90s with chick lit, romance mixed with fantasy does today. I think about Bridget Jone’s Diarys by Helen Fielding and others I love Shopping by Sophie Kinsella who spoke about the changing times. Today, words often mix with images more naturally and the results range from comics to the dematerialization of the word with audiobooks or podcasts. Isn’t this also a form of reading?” he concludes. Certain. It’s the questions that count, after all.
«I read Amedeo Balbi’s books that I discovered on YouTubebut also those of Gabriella Greison on quantum physics” he says Salvo Farruggio, 17 years old, Industrial Technical Institute of Empoli. «A former Italian teacher of mine introduced me to him I sing to the duration by Peter Handke.
I arrive at these readings by following my questions. The answers? I didn’t find them but I eliminated certain questions to replace them with others” concludes Salvo. You have to know how to choose in time/Don’t get there due to opposition, sang Francesco Guccini. These Zers know choose. Then they write, and start reading again.
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